Head Master's BulletinPrep NewsJunior School News PDF Version NEWS Canberra Excursion Year 6 Preparatory School Stories from the Year Canberra Excursion Last week Year 6 visited Canberra and on our second day, we stopped at the war memorial. The war memorial is a huge building with a copper dome on the top found at the end of Anzac Parade, which has sculptures and little memorials on each side of it to pay homage to the all the men and women who served Australia in wars or peacekeeping missions. The war memorial is a sombre and sorrowful place as you think about the horrible things that a war does and the amount of destruction it can do. As my group was walking around the memorial there were some places where we couldn t talk as members of the public were mourning the people they knew who had died. On both sides of the reflection pool there is a list of all the people who have died for our freedom and when I was there I thought that some of the people who had died would have been only a few years older than me and that some of the people on that wall would have been Trinitarians who were still at school and went to war for us. Some boys were very quiet as they had family members who had died for our freedom and they were mourning them. There were members of the public who would come to the war memorial as a place where they could remember a loved one or just pay their
respects. Only two bodies were brought back from World War 1 so many do not have a tomb were they can go and see their loved ones. The eternal flame is right in the heart of the Australian War Memorial and sits in the reflecting pool, the eternal flame signifies eternal life and is also a show of gratitude towards the one hundred thousand Australians who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Marcus Smith Preparatory School Vice Captain
On Wednesday, the 4th of April 2018, year six embarked into the unknown world of politics in Canberra, the capital of Australia. We plunged headfirst into the ways our politicians and ministers of parliament do their jobs. Year six would have definitely gone away with enough information to fuel their imagination for a lifetime Year six was split up into two bus groups,6g (Mr Gannon) and Half of 6O (Ms O'Dwyer) on bus one; 6M (Mr Mugridge), and the other half of 6O on bus two. The first activity we energetically engaged in was the Australian Electoral Commission. Year six learnt many interesting facts. One fact we learnt was that there are many different electorates. For example, the electorate for Strathfield is in Reid, how preferential voting works and that we have what is known as a secret ballot. We took part in a vote to learn how this is done including marking your name off and counting the votes. We learnt that if someone can t make it to vote on the day they ll need to request for an early vote that you can do at. There are also mobile voting stations for people who live far away, the elderly, and prisoners as long as their sentence is less than three years. If you don t come to vote you ll be fined $20. If you vote 2 or more times it is electoral fraud and you could face some jail time and a large fine. After we had gone to the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) our group went to the RAM (Royal Australian Mint). When we entered the building, it felt like all we could see was money. Then we had to go upstairs that were filled with 5 cent coins and, blanks which are a coin with nothing on it. We learnt that in 1901 all the states joined the become the nation of Australia which meant Australia needed a currency. At first, they
thought about copying other countries currencies, for example, Spain and Great Britain. The next idea they had was to punch holes into other countries coins. The first Australian coin was released in 1966 this included the 1 cent, 2 cent coins. Then we discussed the different designs of what the coins would look like and how they created the design of the coins. Next, we went over to glass windows and watched creators make collector coins which are coins that are normally more detailed and shiny compared to the other spending coins. After that, we went over to see where all the coins for circulation are made. They had many robots like Titan, who lifted very heavy barrels filled either with coins or blanks. In the great Australian mint there are 13-coin presses that make 650 coins per minute and 2 million a day. After we had gone to the mint we travelled back to the Old Parliament House where we went to the National Museum of Democracy. After we had entered the building we had to sit down on cushioned benches and put on white gloves to protect the ancient architecture. Then we had to walk through old carved wooden doors. Nearly everything there was old and wooden. We then did an interactive activity about Australia's history. This was a fun activity. Old Parliament House is small because of world war 1. Australia spent most of its money funding the war effort during world war 1. The first thing we did on the second day was going to new parliament-house. We were surprised to see that the police officers and security did not allow many objects to pass through the gates. The Marble flooring clattered as we walked in and the staircases seemed to twirl elegantly to the ceiling. We saw the House of Representatives with its green floor representing the gum leaf and the Senate with its red floor representing the earth. We took part in a role play to better understand what it would be like to work in the parliament. At the War Memorial, we spit into groups and spent time examining the interesting artefacts. It was surprising to think that anyone could have taken part and the even animals had a role to play. We all felt grateful for our freedom. At the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) we toured the facilities. The gym was essential to every athletes training and rehabilitation. After the tour we took part in an interactive room where we tried many different sports. This was fun to both watch and play. The next day we went to Questacon which where we learnt and observed so many different things about science in action. The science displays got everybody s creative juices flowing. A highlight for year 6 was the gift shop, the freefall slide and how a tornado was formed. We are sure that the teachers enjoyed this trip as much as the students. by Maitias Hunter, Lucas Dinh and Luke Leckie
Australian Government assistance for National Capital excursion Students from our school have recently undertaken an education tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia s history, culture, heritage and democracy. The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. The Australian Government is contributing funding of $20 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards the costs of this excursion. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion.