Senior Writing

Showing, not telling

By Hazel 6RT

It’s a cold day, nobody is outside, but happy and bright the yellow trampoline sits there longing for someone to come for a jump. The bright pink football sits there in the middle of the lawn, pleased she’s not being kicked around today. The table and chairs are remembering sunnier days when people laughed and laughed and ate and drank. Bright blue and fragile, the little blue wrens hop about eating bugs in the garden, happy that it’s rained.  The rain brings out the bugs which makes searching for food much easier. The deck railings are cold and lonely because none of the rosellas have visited for their usual seed today. The canoes are as bright as the sunshine.  

The little tin caravan’s door remains closed as nobody has ventured to it as it’s a bit chilly to go out at this time of the year. The autumn leaves fall away from their loved ones, laying dead on the trampoline, but the figs stay firmly gripped onto the tree wondering to themselves when they will ripen. Sweet and tasty, the flavour rushes through your mouth as you take a spoonful of fig jam from those lucky figs.

The lonely chair covers stay inside as the rain falls down outside, they wish to be out there in the sun and breeze but as this cold autumn continues they probably won’t see the sunshine soon. The grass grows long dreading the moment to be mowed but no one has mowed it because of the rain so it shall continue to grow long. Tall and long the plants and grass continue to shoot up but when the time comes to garden they will be as tall as a giraffe neck. 

Learning from Home

By Indigo 5SM

It came like a sweep from the sweeping brush. It was a very bad surprise. I miss my friends and family. But as long as I get a challenge I’ll be fine. When we went on a 36k long bike ride to IKEA, to get a little treat we realised there were none, so we rode all the way back home. I’ve done a lot of baking and had a lot of fun, I invented a thing called a bacon marshmallow pizza, and it was Yum! I’ve also played my cello and had even more fun! I hope this leaves us as quick as it has come. It's been pretty tricky but not too hard. It’s been a real challenge, but it has also been real fun. I miss school but this is alright too. I guess we’ve got school at home now and that is fun too. It isn’t too hard but I just wish I could see my friends, I want to see them and hug them once again. I know this time will pass but it’s just not done with us yet. Yes, I miss my friends and family, of course I do, but as long as I keep on going they can too.

Artists and Vandals

By Vincent 5SM

In art this term, we are learning about graffiti. One of the main focuses of this topic was distinguishing between art and vandalism. Different people have lots of different opinions as to whether graffiti is creative or destructive. I’ve been walking around our neighbourhood with my dog, looking for examples and trying to categorize the different graffiti into art and vandalism. I have collected some examples in the collage below.

I think graffiti is art when people like it or express a positive feeling about it. I think it is vandalism when the artist does not care about what people think about it and does not express any emotion through the graffiti.

What do you think?

My mum told me that Vandals were a group of people in Roman times. They were looked at by the Romans as barbarians and people who wanted to destroy their culture (hence the term – vandalism). I learned that they were actually victims of attacks ordered by the Romans and had a good purpose. The Romans referred to anyone who didn’t follow their ways as barbarians.