PJ Day

A great day was had by all at our annual PJ Day and we raised plenty of funds with our gold coin donations for Melbourne City Mission. But a crucial part of the day was raising our consciousness about issues that may not affect us but, are part of many people's lives. We will continue to reflect about these things in the week ahead, especially making connections to the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Preferential Option for the Poor.

Preferential Option for the Poor                            If the World Were 100 People

Homelessness

SOCKTOBER - Crazy Socks Day!

SOCKTOBER

Today, our school held a fundraiser for Sock-tober to help children in Madagascar, through Catholic Mission. We wore crazy socks to school and brought a gold coin donation to help support this great cause.


 The day was a success and everyone was happy!
-Stephanie and Jamie        
 (Social Justice leaders)

A True Person: student reflections

A True Person- Gabiann Marin

www.newfrontier.com

Stephanie: "A True Person" is a powerful, meaningful and hopeful book with illustrations that use vibrant colours to enhance and bring text to life. The writing style was focused on Zallah’s thoughts and emotions throughout the book and used short and sharp sentences to really capture the essence of being held captive, unable to be free and being rejected. I believe that this book is much more than just a story. This book tells an important message to all who read it and leaves them in amazement and awe. The moral of this story is to never lose hope. The author was also protesting against the cruelty of Australian laws and how they are unjust and unfair.

Jamie: This story was a reflection on how Australia can be so cruel to immigrants and refugees who come here for a better and safer life.

I thought this book really connected to real life problems that happen to people in our world. The illustrations in the book were really powerful, such as the way the girl’s face appeared up close, because you could see her emotions when she was on her way to Australia hoping for a new life.

The story of A True Person had hidden messages.... never stop believing in yourself and that the governments may be cruel and unfair to immigrants and refugees that come to Australia.

Grace: In this story of "A True Person" I think that the illustrations go beyond the text because of the emotion that they show. In close ups of Zallah’s face especially, you can see the tears in her eye.

Reading this book made me feel disappointed because of the way that the governments treat asylum seekers. This also made me feel sad.

Ciaran:

This story gave us an insight of the harsh reality In our sometimes cruel world. It is horrible to think that behind the scenes, people treat others in a grotesque manner. The book ‘’A True Person’’ really nailed how inhumane this system is. Sending people to crowded camps isn’t  impressive and doesn't make Australia look good.  We can’t ignore this issue, it is a growing problem that must be stopped.  As a nation, Australia needs to understand and realise the fortune these people have. This story explains how life is for a large quantity of people. It shows that they need help and wisdom.

  

 

WHY JUSTICE?

Today we started a new topic of Inquiry. "Why Justice ?" is our new question for our topic inquiring into Social Justice. We used a graphic organiser called a Frayer-Concept Model  so our teacher could see what we already know about Justice. The graphic organiser had questions like, "What does acting justly mean?" and, " What are some non-examples of Justice?" When we finished our graphic organiser  we took sticky notes and wrote some of our answers for display. I think this will be a good topic because it will teach us about how lucky we are compared to some people in other countries and communities.

Please join us in exploring by adding ideas to our question,
What does justice mean to you?"
By Eden and Ben

St Patrick's Day Mass and School Fundraiser

On Tuesday, the SRC went to the annual St Patrick's Day Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral. All the catholic schools in Melbourne came to this Mass.The grade 6 SRC were chosen to hold the banner and process through the cathedral representing our school. After we processed into the church, the Grade 6’s sat under the massive organ. There were TVs all around the church so we could see the Archbishop blessing everyone and then he started the Mass.There were hundreds of children and adults. After the Mass, we toured the cathedral with our teachers. Then we had a celebration in the Exhibition Gardens. Overall we had a fun filled day! 

 Ben and Tully

 Meanwhile, on Wednesday, everyone donned their green outfits and the Justice Team helped with our annual Green Day Fundraiser for Caritas.

Visit from St Vincent de Paul

At assembly we had a very special visit from Paul and Margaret, both of whom work for the St Vincent de Paul Society or Vinnies as they are popularly known. They came to talk to us about the children whose education we sponsored, when we raised money on St Patrick's Day. For this they gave us a certificate and some feedback about their work. We felt happy because we were able to make the lives of other kids much better. 

Altogether we sponsored nine students BUT the seniors also had a positive education project and we had to do an action to help the others and Gemma raised money for St Vinnies. In total Gemma, Tessa and Jamie raised $66.75, to give to St Vinnies. If we raised $70 we could sponsor a child to go to school so Tessa, Jamie and Gemma are giving money for a young person to go to school.

Posted by Corinne, Kathryn and Gemma.

BAHAY TULUYAN

Today, we again experienced a visit from Catherine, and the group who work with her, at Bahay Tuluyan in the Philippines.Can you imagine having to live on the street, not knowing where your next meal would come from?  We were amazed at how movingly Diana and Robert acted the story of their lives. It was sad to hear how many people walked past Robert as he lay on the street. It was really moving how someone finally took him to hospital and that his life then changed so dramatically.

At Bahay Tuluyan, the students are taught about their rights as children, taught English and experience games, fun and belonging. The stories we heard were heart wrenching. The presenters' lives have been so hard, yet they' re filled with hope.

CARITAS "JUST LEADERSHIP' DAY

Social Justice is an issue that is important to us and everyone around the world. Today we had a conference provided by Caritas Australia. Megan taught us about equality, generosity, raising consciousness and many other things. We were fortunate to play many games that were tied in with justice. Finally, we had time to plan justice initiatives for our own school.

Akon and Gemma


CARITAS "JUST LEADERSHIP" on PhotoPeach

Guest Speakers-Bahay Tuluyan

A few days ago, we had some visitors from the Philippines. There were two past students, Gary and Aisa. There was also Catherine who runs the organisation.

We learnt:

• if you are reading this, then you are in the top 8% richest people in the world.
• if you have a bed, a closet, a fridge and a roof over you head, then you are in the top 20% of the world's richest people.
• that we have everything we need, but others don't (we have more than enough)
• that we can change the world within our generation, and even in our life time!

Everyone was amazed with everything we learnt, and now we are hoping to help change the world to become a better place. We now know that if we donate a few un-needed things, we can change someone's life for good. The school is now trying to raise money for many other organisations.

The most enjoyable, but emotional part of the day, was when Gary and Aisa put on a play. It was about both of their lives in the Philippines and how it changed their lives when they were given shelter and an education. We were shocked on how they lived their lives and how grateful they are for "Bahay Tuluyan" - which means house of welcome.

Here is a rough picture of what it may look like in the Philippines. Many people are begging for the chocolate, as we pretended it was real food. We learnt how hard it was for them to get food, and how sad it was too. This activity made us feel really lucky and selfish too...since what we have is unimaginably much more of what they have.

By Simon and Mairead

RED CROSS FUNDRAISER

RED CROSS ACTION

Today some of our senior girls put into place an action that was inspired by our religious education research into aid organisations. We raised money for Red Cross Australia. To raise the money we drew a chalk cross on the pavement and asked the students to put their coins in the cross. Today we raised a good amount of money and we are still going to continue through out the week. We will let you know how we go!
P.S.  We raised $99.80 and our teacher rounded the amount to $100....thanks and well done everyone.

FUND RAISING FOR SUDAN-SCHOOL AND ORPHANAGE

This week, our Social Justice Team organised "Crazy Hair Day," to provide funds for a school and orphanage in Sudan which is assisted by Ngong and Ateil's father. He came as a guest speaker and presented a moving talk and slide show about his work in war torn Sudan.