Ignite
Tall Ship Sailing in Melbourne
Following their study of Waves by Donna Rawlins in Literacy this semester, which explores stories of migration to the shores of Australia, our Year 10 Ignite students journeyed to Docklands in Melbourne on Thursday 29th May to board and experience the Enterprize, a replica tall ship that brought Melbourne's first settlers to the banks of the Yarra in 1835.
Students were actively involved in helping to raise sails, coil ropes and explore the sleeping and kitchen quarters below deck, as shown in some of the attached photos.
Did you know that St Mary's College is currently breeding Rainbowfish?
On Friday 30th May our Year 10 Ignite students and our Year 9/10 Indonesian students travelled to the Native Fish Australia hatchery at La Trobe University, Bundoora. This activity was to engage our students in raising environmental awareness about sustainable waterways and animal husbandry needs associated with the school's aquaculture project - breeding the native Murray River Rainbowfish.
We hope you enjoy the student reflections below and the attached photos which show some highlights from the day.
Native Fish Australia Excursion Reflection by Eliza Whibley... On Friday 30th May our Year 10 Ignite class and the Year 9/10 Indonesian students travelled to La Trobe University in Bundoora to visit the Native Fish Australia Hatchery where they breed native Australian fish.
After we arrived we met a very nice gentleman named Tim Curmi, who is the president of Native Fish Australia. We had a very relaxing and enjoyable tour of the place, we saw a massive trout cod, a murray cod and many other varieties of native fish. We then began helping Tim with cleaning the fish tanks and filters.
Once the ‘boring jobs’ were completed we got to feed the starving fish. I caught a vibrant blue yabby, tossed it into the murray cod’s tank and he gobbled it up. Since we did a wonderful job of helping Tim cleaning the tanks and filters he handed out some free hats and fishing lures!
The reason why we visited Tim and the Native Fish Australia hatchery was because he gave our school some Murray River rainbowfish to breed at school ourselves. We wanted to learn more about how the fish are bred and how we take care of them. I totally recommend these excursions because it's very educational and super fun!
Native Fish Australia Excursion Reflection by (Kayla Thompson)... On Friday the 30th of May, the Ignite and Year 9/10 Indonesian students took a bus down to La Trobe University in Bundoora. We came to school as usual and were signed off by our teachers. Then we all made our way to the bus stop, where we boarded the bus and headed to Bundoora.
We arrived about an hour later, we said thank-you to our amazing bus driver, Steve, and made our way to see Tim and his fish hatchery. Once inside, we were given a tour of the fish hatchery and saw many different species of native Australian fish, and then we cleaned all the tanks and filters. After finishing that, we fed the fish some yabbies and shrimp because they were very hungry.
Tim thanked us, and I even got a free hat. We took a photo with Tim and the class, then got back on the bus, where Steve took us to the university food precinct to get some lunch and look around for about 40 minutes. After that, we returned to the bus and made our way back to Seymour, where we fed the Murray River rainbowfish that we are breeding at school before the bell rang so we could go home.
Overall, our day was really enjoyable, and I’d love to go back there.
Shona Maskelyne