Student Journalists
We love featuring the work of our student journalists.
Firstly, we have Zainab and Laura responding to our prompt: In your opinion, what is the best thing you have learn this term?
Zainab (H7)
This term I discovered new things about myself, the things I can do. For example, I learnt that I'm not that bad at Art and I can make a stopmotion/slowmation.
Laura (B11)
In my opinion I feel that the best thing I have learnt this term would be cooking. I have always done cooking here and there, but I never felt like I dedicated a lot of time to it. Now, ever since this lockdown started, I feel as though I have been experimenting a lot more than I used to with cooking. Very recently for example I made Stir Fried Noodles, a recipe that I have not really tried because it seemed too complicated. It somewhat succeeded, which I am proud of and could possibly try again! Another recipe I have also tried cooking is the “Chicken Omelette”, which I may add is a lot harder than it looks, or maybe it was just me because I failed a lot of times to wrap the chicken in the egg. Although it may not seem amazing to some (and maybe even easy for some), it was still something I enjoyed doing. Cooking, I feel, is a great life skill to get under your belt, so I am glad that over this term I got a bit more time to dedicate myself to it. I definitely still have a lot to learn in regards to cooking, and it'll certainly take a while (a very long while I will add) until I believe I will become somewhat decent at it :).
Anyway to conclude, I believe that experimenting with cooking a bit more was certainly something I have done over the term and also one of the best things (in my opinion) I have learnt in my spare time being at home.
Next is Alysha, who wants to share her story with her fellow students. She hopes that, by telling her story, she can help other people who are struggling with staying in school.
Staying in School - Alysha (D11)
Halfway through Year 10, I left school because I was getting suspended a lot because I was getting frustrated with my work and was getting stirred up by other students. I thought TAFE would be a better idea for me. After a month or so I decided TAFE wasn’t for me and I wanted to come back to school for me and I felt like I had a better grip of my anger. I wanted to come back to school to get a better education for myself and make something of myself. As much as I hate school, I’m still here because of the support from Suzanne and a few teachers that let me do sport and understand me. I am also here to get a better education.
I need an education so that I can get a job, and not sit at home on Centrelink, or even face homelessness.
It will also help me to succeed in life, and be happy within myself. If you’re doing nothing with your life, you will have feelings of depression and loneliness all the time. If I can get a good job I will have a purpose in life and be motivated.
If someone else was in my situation and they were having trouble staying at school, I would tell them to stay in school, because being in a school environment is better than being at TAFE. At TAFE, it’s for adults, where you have to navigate things yourself. At school, you get support. You are going to have difficulties everywhere you go but it is how you react.
Make leaving school your last option.
If you stay at school, it will help you to gain social skills, resilience and helps you get prepared for the workforce. If you are struggling while at school you could go and speak to Wellbeing or your House Leadership Team and get strategies to overcome the problems.
We also have Leila, who has written a heartfelt letter about life during COVID-19.
Life During COVID-19 - Leila (B12)
We all made plans for 2020. Travel destinations, professional goals, the decision to hit the gym five times a week, or whatever. Some of my friends even cancelled their weddings due to the pandemic.
And right now, we all need to decide how to deal with this tremendous impact on our lives.
We all have two options: Giving up or giving our best.
At the end of 2020, I want to say, “This was a great year despite COVID-19.” instead of drowning in excuses and saying, “I couldn’t reach my yearly goals because of the pandemic.” Admittedly, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to reach all my goals for the year.
For instance, one of my objectives was getting into the best ATAR. Now, I am doing several more practices on my studies than other years, and I am eating somewhat healthier as I don’t eat outside that much, but I’ll probably not get into my best shape without the gym.
However, as I need to stay at home anyway, I am working much more than usual. Thus, I’ll be very likely exceeding my study goals for 2020, thanks to the pandemic.
Adaptation is the key right now. We either need to adapt our goals or find unusual ways of achieving them despite what’s going on.
Family First
As we are all in social isolation, I am calling my family at least once per day. With my grandmother, I even talk 15–30 minutes per day. She is living by herself, so I want to lighten up her day a little bit by at least having a daily uplifting conversation.
In one of our first quarantine talks, I asked her whether she had already experienced something similar to the Coronavirus ever before. My grandma is 60 years old; she was born in Afghanistan and came to Australia when she was around 50 years old, and she told me she never experienced something close to this in her lifetime.
Yes, there have been many crises challenging the world in the past centuries, yet, I feel as if this one is special. At least, it’s unique to us, those who have never experienced any significant problems in life yet.
The daily phone calls I am having with my grandmother for more than two weeks now taught me one lesson: I want to call her more often when all of this is over.
I believe this is the perfect time to appreciate all our blessings and to find ways of acknowledging them.
Right now, we all have time for our beloved ones. Yet, what’s critical is to take these lessons seriously and keep applying the same rituals even when our daily routines start again.
Oops - we forgot something!
In our last newsletter, we somehow forgot to include the photos taken by our student photojournalists. We've fixed that error and you can catch up on their amazing work by clicking on the link below.