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ISSUE 3 2011 TERM 3

SUSTAINABLE HOMES.

YEAR 7 SOSE / SCIENCE

STUDENTS BUILD HOMES FOR

THE FUTURE ................. 4

PENNIES FOR THE POOR

YEAR 8 MATHS RAISES MONEY FOR THE STARVING ......... 23

EMPATHY ART.

PORTRAITS OF JUSTICE AND PEACE. ………..22 Just Us

Magazine P add ies B oys s peak ing out f or t hos e w i t hou t a v o ic e

A Sustainable Future

Planting seeds and creating ripples ...

WIN!! $150 worth of sustaina-

ble and eco-friendly

products from

New Internationalist

See pg 11 for details

The core of ongoing justice and peace is the sustaina-bility of our planet. In this edition of Just Us Magazine, the Paddies boys will show us all that the creation and maintenance of a just and peaceful world for future generations is not just possible, but in their hands is more than likely. The pages that follow prove that our next generation already has the knowledge and passion to create a world that is not only envi-ronmentally sustainable, but one that also provides an ongoing abundance and fair distribution of, food, wealth and resources, land, opportunity and freedom, faith, love and peace. Please take time to be in-spired by these young men.

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One of the key directives of Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) it the EREA Educating for Justice and Peace Framework. A core element of this framework calls on all EREA schools to offer a “transformational curriculum that is empowering, re-flective, rigorous, authentic, and promotes justice and peace literacy. St Patrick‟s has welcomed this curriculum focus by continuing to ensure that as much as possible classroom activities are focused on real-life learning experiences in which students have the opportunity to make the world a better place for all. Just Us Magazine is a once-a-term publication that displays the outstanding work of the young men at St Patrick‟s who are standing up and speaking out for the poor and marginalized for a more just and peaceful world through the College curriculum.

CONTENTS:

4…...Yr 7 Sustainable Houses

6…...Yr 8 Climate Change

Feature

11….Crossword competition

12…..Adopt an Orangutan

14…..Boy Overboard

16…..Yr 10 Indigenous Rights

Collages

20…..The Gospel According to

Jayden

21…..Bully No More

22…..Empathetic Art

23…..Pennies for the Poor

28…..Mathew Meets Julia

Word in the Yard: “What is the most interesting thing you learnt about climate change?”

Riley Tomkins 8A

“that climate change

is mostly caused by

humans and that we

should do something

about it”

Travis Browning 8E

“that greenhouse gases trap heat from going back into space and without them the earth would freeze. But this is why the build up of greenhouse gases is making the world hotter”

Nathan Row 8F

“that it is affecting more

than just humans. It’s

causing animals to be-

come extinct, pollution,

sea levels rising,

drought, flood, and

stopping natural cycles.

But all of these things

end up affecting humans

because we are all part

of the cycle”

Jesse Cooper 8C

“I didn’t realise how much CO2 is in the at-mosphere. It’s more than it has been for hundreds of thousands of years, and is going to end up heaps higher than it is even now”

Mitchell Herpich 8F

“how easy it is to make a big difference. Climate change is one thing that everyone can do some-thing about with really simple ideas”

Congratulations James Hall—Yr 5

Winner of the

Just Us edition II

didgeridoo

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Year 6

Just Us Rally During Term 3, students in Year 5 were asked to investigate a social teaching of the church in learning teams. Each team was asked to create a placard for a Justice Rally. Ryan and Murdoch, along with Harry, Connor and Zac chose to create a placard about: „Violence is to be avoided‟ and „People deserve respect regardless of their religious, social or ethnic background.‟ We had to use a 5W‟s and H strategy to structure our investigation. As you are able to see, we came up with six questions.

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Houses of the Future Year 7 Sustainable House Designs

Imagine a home with no cost for water, a home with little or no heating or cooling requirements, a home that provides the majority of your household food supply, a home built without the need for cutting down forests or mining for resources, a home where the energy company sends you a cheque each month rather than a bill. These are the homes our Year 7 students will be building when they leave school—and they already have their designs! This term the Year 7 boys put their learning about sustainability to use to build a model sustainable house and as these pictures show, did an amazing job.

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Student Reflection— Gerard Warland & Michael Doyle At the start of the third term Mr

Loudon informed the class that we

would be building an environmentally

friendly house for the practical side of

our SOSE / Science assignment. The

class was delighted at this news and

ideas for the house were already be-

ing compiled. Although we thought

this was a pretty straightforward pro-

ject we were quickly cut down by Mr

Loudon, this assignment was going to

take a lot of research and hard work.

We were given the task of building an

eco-friendly house, labelling it and

incorporating all five renewable ener-

gy sources into the house design. All the houses made had been

designed in the best interests of the environment and keeping

money in the pocket of the purchaser.

We watched many videos on the various

components of creating a sustainable

house. After a couple weeks the class had

been taught nearly everything possible in

creating a sustainable house from natural

lighting and shading to how to use the

positioning of the house to our advantage. Our class was also

taught about the different kind of energies involved with sustaina-

ble houses.

We also learnt that fossil fuels will eventually run out, and when

they do, the world will be forced to swap to renewable energy

sources. We also learnt about passive design elements, and when

they are used correctly they can reduce your power bill and car-

bon footprint by up to 70%.

Our house was completed just in time. Little did we know that our

houses were going to auction and we were going to have to adver-

tise them to various students and parents.

Each of us organised brochures to help sway

people to vote our house to win the little

competition.

Overall we thought that this was a very en-

joyable project that was very rewarding at

the end of the build. We would only make a few changes to what

we did to our house. This project brings a fun, educational concept

to the sustainable energy unit.

Building the house was challenging and enjoyable, and we believe

that everyone in Grade 7 got the most out of the experience as

possible, and have learnt many valuable life skills about conserving

water and energy in the future. All in all, we believe that all the

students in Grade 7 enjoyed the unit, and learnt more about sav-

ing energy than they thought they would.

“This project brings a fun, educational concept to the

sustainable energy unit.”

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Climate Change - An Inconvenient Truth; An appropriate response

"“All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man,

increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly

putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change

is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighten-

ingly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.”

Barack Obama

Is climate change real?

Is it man-made?

Is it a concern?

Is it something we can help prevent?

This term, Year 8 Science students investigated each of these questions, and came to the conclusion that the answer to each, is that no-one can know for sure, but probably yes. More importantly, students came to the realisation that in the absence of any conclusive answers, we should give the earth and our future generations the benefit of the doubt, and that there is plenty that we can all do to help—with little effort and little expense. Here‟s how:

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Film Review—An Inconvenient Truth Harrison Berryman

"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know.

It's what we know for sure that just ain't so."

- Al Gore quoting Mark Twain

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary in which former U.S.

Vice President Al Gore explains to an audience about what global

warming is and what people can do to help fix it. Gore does this

effectively by using scientific evidence, predictions, life stories

and even a clip from the

Futurama episode ‘Crimes

of the Hot’ to explain to the

audience global warming.

This movie has Al Gore talk-

ing to an audience but it

also has segments of scien-

tists researching. This film

gives out a serious message

because of the severity of

the topic. Gore can go from

telling a joke about how he lost the election to George W. Bush

to a more severe tone almost instantly; this

occurs throughout most of the documentary.

The film starts with Gore coming onto the

stage and saying “I am Al Gore; I used to be

the next president of the United States”, He

then starts a slide show which shows graphs,

data and pictures of the Earth taken form

space. Gore uses these pictures to explain that

all the life that everything in human history

has happened on a tiny blue pixel on the

screen.

Al Gore then goes on and talks about his son’s

near fatal car accident and his time with his

university professor. The documentary then

has Gore telling the audience that people are

finding it hard to believe that global warming

is real and that they are making excuses such

as “There was a medieval warming period in

which the temperatures rose, that’s exactly

what’s happening now!”. Gore proves that theory wrong by using

a graph which shows the temperatures of the medieval warming

period to now, with the temperatures now far greater than the

temperature in the medieval warming period.

Al Gore talks about how he saw an image of a set of scales that

showed the Earth on one end and gold on the other, Gore said

that the image told him that he could choose the earth or wealth,

Gore explains that without the earth where is the wealth going to

come from? He then shows the audience a graph with a blue line

showing temperatures and a red line showing the CO2 in the air

he points out that these lines fit together almost perfectly; this

shows that CO2 emissions do affect the temperatures of Earth.

Al Gore finishes the documentary and the presentation by show-

ing a picture of the earth and

saying "future generations may

well have occasion to ask them-

selves, what were our parents

thinking? Why didn't they wake

up when they had the chance?

We have to hear that question,

from them, now."

This documentary is a great example of how passionate people

such as Al Gore are about trying to save the planet and warning

others of what might happen if we cannot change our ways. While

watching it I completely forgot it was a documentary. Watching

‘An inconvenient truth’ was an eye opener, it told us that that the

human race is destroying this Earth. But it also tells us that we can

change that through something as small as saving power or

writing a letter to our Government.

I would recommend for everyone to watch

this documentary it is entertaining, educa-

tional and it tells us a serious message

“Climate Change is very real and it is very

serious”. However, we can change it we can

fix what we have done and anyone can help

stop the effects of global warming.

References:

http://web.ncf.ca/jim/ref/

inconvenientTruth/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

An_Inconvenient_Truth

/www.climatecrisis.net

An Inconvenient Truth – 2006

The Comical way Al Gore shows the

audience what Global Warming is.

“You see that pale, blue dot? That's us. Every-

thing that has ever happened in all of human

history, has happened on that pixel. All the

triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all

the famines, all the major advances... it's our

only home. And that is what is at stake, our

ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future

as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it

is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to

rise again to secure our future.”

- Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth

The “Hockey Stick” Graph

What’s at stake

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Climate Change - An Overview

Matthew Beard

Global warming is an increase in global temperatures that are created by

the emission of greenhouse gases. This results from human activities such

as deforestation and burning fossil fuels. It occurs when carbon dioxide,

water vapour and methane trap sun rays and light into the earth’s atmos-

phere. When this happens it damages many people, animals and plants.

When the sea rises and water covers low islands you know that this is

caused by global warming. Global warming actually refers to gradual

warming of global-average temperatures.

It is definitely fair to say that we have been the main cause Climate

Change. Which means that we should stop it. Climate change has only a

problem in the last hundred years. There are many things that we can do

to stop Climate change and some of the best ideas and probably cheaper

ideas are using public transport more often than your car, recycling plastic,

paper, cardboard and mobile phones. Another great way to help climate

change is to use energy efficient products like fluorescent light bulbs, ener-

gy saving dishwasher and an energy saving shower head.

What Is Climate Change?

1. Australian temperatures have increased by about 0.9 degrees in the past hundred years.

2. Nine of the ten hottest years took place in the past in the last 30 years.

3. Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earli-er than their pollinating insects become active

4. Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either

5. Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes due to the change of climate.

6. The present atmospheric concentration of CO2 is higher now than at any time in the past 600 000 years

7. IPCC climate model projections indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C during the twenty-first century.

8. By 2020, entertainment, computers and gadgets will add up to almost half of your electricity bill.

9. Over 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to livestock and their by-products

10. Simply composting your food waste instead of sending it to landfill will save you up to 500kg of CO2 emissions each year

Cool Facts

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The Home Energy Project - Aedan Berry

Planet Earth is the only planet that we know that

contains life. It has a very thin coating of atmos-

phere. This is what protects the Earth from over-

heating and destroying life. However, this atmos-

phere is changing quickly and dramatically.

As mentioned before, there is a thin coating of at-

mosphere that protects humans and life from being

destroyed, keeping it at a constant level. For exam-

ple, if you got a ten-pin bowling ball and gel, and you

smothered the gel all over the ball, the gel is like the

atmosphere we live in. CO2 is a very thick gas which

can pollute this thin layer of atmosphere very easily

trapping heat from the sun. CO2 is better known as

one of the Greenhouse Gases. This build-up of

Greenhouse Gases is the cause of global warming.

The increased warming as a result of build-up of CO2

is melting ice glaciers, increasing the sea levels, and

changing biodiversity.

Although greenhouse gases, include CO2 in the at-

mosphere, some of the greenhouse gases are good,

and extremely important, as it keeps a steady tem-

perature in the Earth. Without them, the Earth

would be 33oC colder than present temperature (eg:

present temperature: 20oC. Temperature without

greenhouse gases: -10oC). However, there has been

a huge increase of greenhouse gases in the last two

decades due to the increased use of cars, planes and

industry burning fossil fuels, like coal and petrol. This

is causing the Earth to quickly heat up so much, that

ice glaciers in the Artic and Antarctic, are starting to

melt.

Former President George W Bush denied that man

was contributing to global warming and it was a nat-

ural rise of CO2 (every couple of hundred years there

is a natural rise in CO2). However, the CO2 has contin-

ued to rise, and has not

stopped. Despite this Bush

continued to deny it. It is now

proven that we are the cause

of global warming, and it is

clear manmade global warm-

ing has been happening since

the Industrial Revolution.

Most machines and vehicles

run off fossil fuels, which,

when burned to make energy,

release greenhouse gases which are pumped into

the atmosphere. This obviously causes the Earth to

heat up.

After all this negative report, it’s time

for the positive side of the situation. There are ways

we can stop global warming, or at least reduce it.

The obvious solution is to change the way we use

energy at the house. People apply solar panels for

example to reduce energy, or even simpler, turn off

electrical appliances off when not in use. For an even

better environment, stand up for Coal Seamed Gas,

which uses 50% less greenhouse gas emissions than

normal coal power. Similarly, there are other ways

you can help the planet by not using the car as often.

You can use public transport such as buses and train

to go to places, and you can even ride a bike. There

are so many ways you can help the environment,

you just need to put the effort, and it’s worth it!

Our Response Year 8, as a Science Assignment, had to help the

environment and cut our energy consumption at

our house.

My results were outstanding, because I cut my en-

ergy usage by 65.25% compared to the baseline,

when hypothesis was to cut it by only 10%. There

were very little problems in the results and no set-

backs. The results were interesting to handle and

discovered what electrical appliances took up the

most energy.

Focusing on a few high energy appliances, such as

the pool pump, television and hot water has a

greater effect that say switching off the lights. A

little change makes a big difference. In particular

the reduced usage of the pool pump had a signifi-

cant effect on the energy consumption in the

house. Using the pool pump during the off peak

period would also be a good idea. Although will not

reduce the amount of energy use and greenhouse

gas emissions, but will save money. The rate of sav-

ings reduced with time. It is concluded that the

results showed that whilst there are a few large

energy appliances that could be turned off to give

significant savings, savings after this are more diffi-

cult to find.

However it did take an effort to remember to

switch off standby and remind others in the family

to do so. It will take some time to change the be-

haviour of some of the family.

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Sustainable Shopping Tai Reupena

“Probably the esiest and most effective contribution you can make to tackling climate change is in your everyday shopping choices”

Buy Second Hand By recycling and using second-hand products you avoid being

responsible for releasing greenhouse gases when buying the new

product or item instead. This is because new products use fossil

fuels for getting the resources, manufacturing, and transporting,

whereas second-hand products only require you to transport it

home from the shop. Buying second-hand

also helps save the planet by reducing con-

tamination from batteries and other mech-

anisms used to power electrical appliances that can be harmful to

the environment. Also it saves us precious resources. Recycling

newspaper reduces the amount of trees that get chopped down.

Trees are useful because they breathe in CO2 which also reduces

greenhouse gas emissions, and breathe out oxygen which we

need to survive.

The suitability of second-hand

products is that there are more supplies of second-hand products

and items than the items and products made newly every day.

The problem is the effort of looking for a good second-hand item.

But the costs of the items are increasingly lower than the normal

price. Another problem is that the trust of where you buy it be-

cause the item or product might not work.

Go Organic Have you ever wondered how farmers make fruit and vegetables

grow? Well here’s the truth, most farmers have toxic chemicals

like pesticides that kills insects and bugs, and fertilisers to help

the food grow quicker. These chemicals affect the soil which does

not help the environment but it kills it, and also require lots of

fossil fuels to produce. So how do we solve his problem? Well, we

buy organic. See the thing is organic products are made without

the use of synthetic chemicals. Next, when using organic produce

the soil it comes from stays rich and good for future plants and

lastly organic soil is probably the best soil. This is because it sinks

in carbon dioxide and methane gas which both contribute greatly

towards the greenhouse gas emissions. Now since deforestation

is increasing in many countries what other choice do we have but

buy organic food? It might be 10-40% more expensive but foods

with toxic chemicals can affect children, also you’ll see how it

tastes better than normal produce and is also more nutritious.

Organic foods are rich in minerals, vitamins and

enzymes which help protect your body from infec-

tion. So start buying organic, you’ll be eating

healthier, helping your family and lastly saving the

planet.

Try Vegetarianism If you’re a fan of meat and saving the

planet, then you have a tough decision

because while meat tastes great when

freshly cooked and served with potato

bake, you may not know that meat is also one of the main con-

tributors towards global warming. Your decision is either to eat

less meat or contribute to global warming. But you may be asking

how becoming vegetarian helps the planet. Well it does because

according to science, producing meat uses up to 50 times more

energy and water to produce than fruit and veges, requires more

land clearing for grazing, and uses up millions of tonnes of grain

that could be used to feed starving humans.

Scientists have also found that methane is 20 times as more dam-

aging as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. This is a huge

problem since animals such as pigs, cows, chickens and turkeys

release methane gas, and this is mainly during digestion.

Becoming a vegetarian may be hard to start with but the problem

is to live without meat. The upside is that there is more supplies

of vegetables and fruit so there would be a vast majority of reci-

pes to cook, also it is much cheaper than meat and lastly vegeta-

bles are filled with vitamins and vegetables. Tired? Stressed? You

feel better with some vegetables!

Shop Local So how does buying local help

the environment, it still has an

impact on climate change. The

truth is, it does, but not as

much as the products that trav-

el a long way. If you buy local

you’ll get to know more people and you’ll be helping local busi-

nesses. If you don’t buy local and buy something else, you’re buy-

ing food from other countries that travel on a huge ship for about

a month, also during that whole trip carbon dioxide is coming

from the boat caused from burning fossil fuels. So you might as

well just go and fly over to where that product was made and buy

it from there. Lastly buying local means less packaging and this

mean less waste to put in landfills and incinerators.

The suitability of buying local is that produce tends to be more

fresh than produce that have been on a ship for over a month.

Lastly buying local would be much more trustworthy because you

may never know where that produce has been.

Have you ever wondered where all your products come from? To make most products you need materials, and most materials come from natural resources. So the thing countries do such as the U.S and Australia is that they cut down the trees for wood, blow up mountains for metal, pollute water, and burns thousands of tonnes of fossil fuels, which not only makes the water undrinkable and kills wildlife, but also significantly contributes to climate change. Here are a few ways that you can help with your daily shopping and how it helps our planet.

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Across 3. Warming is expected to be stronger in what season? 4. A commercial energy saving appliances is called the what elimi

nator? 5. A greenhouse gas released by burning fossil fuels is... 8. Instead of throwing away you’re food scraps you can start a ... 12. Instead of throwing away all household items, learn to … 15. The recommended energy saving light bulb is called the com

pact … light bulb 18. Other extreme effects of global warming are extreme... 22. Coastal areas have been effected by increased... 23. Instead of leaving appliances on turn them ... 24. What type of emissions go into the earth’s atmosphere... 26. What type of ocean reefs are being affected

by global warming? 27. Another word for global warming is climate ... 30. Instead of driving our cars we can use what

other mode of transport? 31. In winter don’t turn you thermostat up but... 32. What high energy using device warms you in

the bathroom? 33. What can you do to an appliance to use zero

electricity? 34. An increase in temperature will cause the sea

level to... 35. Polar ice caps are rapidly... 37. What can keep you warm without using electricity? 38. The major greenhouse gasses are... 39. What do you switch off in a room to save en-

ergy when not being used? 40. The country areas will suffer increasing bush

… if the temperature is to keep rising Down 1. Make sure this washing appliance is full when

you use it 2. The human destruction of forests causes… 4. Instead of washing yourself in a bath have a … 6. If the polar ice caps continue to melt polar

bears will become … 7. To help monitor energy around the buy a

home energy … 9. What energy collecting panels do on your roof

to save energy? 10. What sort of plants reduce carbon dioxide? 11. Which hemisphere warms faster?

13. What non electrical appliance can you use to dry your clothes? 14. The movie An Inconvenient Truth is about what kind of

change? 16. What is already showing signs of global warming? 17. Ecosystems will change bringing the earlier events of… 19. What do hybrid cars run on as well as petrol? 20. When cooking, cover your pots so that the things you’re cook

ing ….. quicker 21. You can use this in your house to keep warm and cool 24. Global warming is caused by the increased concentrations of … 25. When buying electrical appliances by the ones that are more… 28. The rate of global warming is…

Win!! A $100 Voucher from New Internationalist Shop

Www.newint.com.au/shop Want a gift for someone special or a treat for yourself that helps to improve the world. The New Internationalist Australia Fair Trade Shop offers a huge range ethical gifts and sustainable living products that support local and developing world producers. Courtesy of the New Internationalist Shop, we have one $100 gift voucher and one $50 gift voucher to be won. For your chance to win, simply complete Flynn Turner‟s Climate Change crossword and email your answers to mellison@stpatricks.qld.edu.au by the 5th of November. All fully correct entries will go into a draw to be drawn on the 6th of November. All students, staff, parents and friends are welcome to enter.

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This is Mely the

orangutan. She is

16 years old and

is loving life at

the forest sanc-

tuary in Keta-

pang, Indonesia.

But things

weren’t always

like this. At the

end of 2010, Me-

ly had been res-

cued by

‘International

Animal Rescue’

for a riverside

shack in Borneo.

Mely’s life started 16 years ago in the wild when her mother gave

birth to her. She lived with her mother for a little less than a year.

This ended when two fishermen shot her as a trophy, and kept

Mely. She was a pet for her younger years. But as she got older

and well into youth, the fisherman lost interest in her. Mely was

kept outside of the shack tied tightly around the neck to a chain.

There, she was going to be a tourist attraction. She was left with

little water, and surviving on scraps given to her by tourists or

by passers. These included biscuits, rice, chocolate, and bread,

all of which is unhealthy for the orangutan’s diet.

Soon, a male orangutan was captured by the same fisherman. The

male and Mely became close, and soon, Mely was pregnant. She

gave birth to a son. After about two weeks with the baby, the fa-

ther was taken away from Mely. Male orangutans stay with the

mother and baby for 8-9 years until going to mate again. Mely

suffered considerate pain of loneliness and the hard ship of rais-

ing a child on her own. Things began to get worse as the baby

grew up.

The fisherman tied Mely and her son to the back of a Ute and

drove them to a Black Market, where Mely was put in a cage with

her son and another female orangutan. After a few hours, the

baby was moved to another cage. Mely and the other female

orangutan became furious and started pulling on the chains and

ropes. People around stared, and people selling went into the

cage and started beating them both, with fists, poles, and stones.

They inflicted so much beating that the other female orangutan

died. Mely was tied tighter with more ropes. Soon, she got her

son back, who immediately cuddled into his mother, beaten and

bruised beyond imagination. Not being able to sell Mely, the

fisherman has no choice but to bring her and her son back to the

shack.

After about 12 weeks at the shack, ‘International Animal Res-

cue’ (IAR) came to the fisherman’s shack and found Mely and her

son in the worst condition they had ever been in. Mely had lost a

lot of her hair due to her state of health. As they went to unlock

her chain, they released they didn’t have the key. Not surprising-

ly, the fisherman had lost it since he chained her 15 years ago.

Eventually, IAR finally found a solution to unlock the chain.

My Orangutan - Aedan Berry

Climate change, deforestation and hunting are pushing the Orangutan to the brink of extinction. Year 8 student Aedan Berry is passionate about saving this beautiful creature and explains a simple way we can all join him in doing something about it.

13

Mely and her son travelled by air, sea, and road to her new

home—the forest sanctuary in Ketapang, Indonesia. At first,

she was extremely nervous and confused, seeing she had only

met two orangutans in her life. Mely found it hard to walk,

climb, and feed herself. But after a couple of weeks, she began

to gain confidence and courage, and was able a walk easier,

and almost swing from one rope to another. Mely loves caring

for her son (Bega), and now has a new friend called Nicky, who

shares the same living quarters as Mely. Mely continues to live

in her forest sanctuary today and is preparing to go back into

the wild again.

The orangutan is a great ape and is the only one that comes

from Asia. They also have 97% of human DNA. There are two

species of orangutan, including the Sumatran and Bornean

orangutan. Mely is a Bornean orangutan because she has dark-

er and shorter hair than the Sumatran. The Sumatran orangu-

tan is critically endangered, and the Bornean is endangered. At

the current rate, all orangutans will be extinct from the wild

within the next 10 YEARS.

Mely the orangutan was lucky. Only 1 out of 6 orangutans will

be rescued, whether from the wild or from locals. This means

only about 1666/7000 Sumatran orangutans can be rescued,

and about 8333/50,000 Bornean orangutans can be rescued.

This is well below half of the orangutan population and we

need to fix this NOW!

People are finally beginning to realise that orangutans are

reaching the end of their existence, and you can help too! Here

are a couple of examples to look at:

World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)'s ‘Adopt an Orangutan Pro-

ject’. Adopt for as little as $15.00 a month

Australian Orangutan Project (AOP')s Adopting or donating to

orangutans has never been so easy, for as little as $5.00 a

month. http://www.orangutan.org.au/

World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)'s Donate

to the orangutans at https://donate.wspa.org.au/campaigns/

orangutan_appeal/ and watch the important clip to fully un-

derstand what orangutans

go through.

I decided to help by

adopting an orangutan

from AOP (pictured here).

The orangutan was called

‘Ugo Blanco’. His mother

(Fifri), who came from a

rescue centre, died giving

birth to him in the wild.

He is a 4 year old ball of

mischief and has a nasty

habit of breaking his milk

bottles. For $5.00 a

month, I provide Ugo

Blanco with all the things

he needs, such as milk,

food, and nappies. He is now one step closer to being freed

into the wild.

There are even easier ways to help orangutans. You can buy

products that you know and are completely positive are envi-

ronmentally friendly, and to vary on vegetable oil products

(some items mark it as vegetable oil but is really palm oil—the

main reason of deforestation). You can also write to your local

member of government to express your feelings on the issue

of orangutans. And to really push the topic, vote for Carbon

Tax, and stand with it.

Just like humans help each other, let humans help our closest

species, the Orangutan!

Mely having a peaceful nap in her living quarters

Ugo Blanco was adopted from

‘Australian Orangutan Project’

14

“For those who’ve come across the seas, we’ve boundless plains to share”

- Australia’s National Anthem—Advance Australia Fair

“Borders are immoral” - Dick Smith

Year 6 Asylum Seeker Novel

Boy Overboard

A Little Bit of Justice - Nathaniel Lake This term we have looked at the book ‘Boy Over-

board’ and we have noticed how asylum seekers are

treated. They have used all their money, hope, trust,

and in some cases they have even used their lives,

just to leave their country. Then, when they arrive (if they arrive)

many are deported. We all know this is not right. This book was

published ten years ago and what has happened to change this?

Nothing! We all know that what they need is a little bit of jus-

tice!!!

So what can we do to change this?

We could:

Run for government (join the youth branch of a political

party).

Start a petition and get your family, friends, and anyone you

can to sign it (because enough pressure on the government

can work).

After considering the ideas I have just given you, I hope you will

use them to start giving asylum seekers the justice they deserve!

The Aussie Way - Brock McLean This term year six explored the life of asylum seekers.

We read the Morris Gleitsman Novel ‘Boy Overboard’.

In this book the author represented Australians in a

kind and helpful way. Some of the quotes were:

‘Australians are really good at calming you down’ and ‘Australians

are like that. Really generous.’ He really represented Australians

in a true Aussie way.

In this book the author shows how hard then life is in

Afghanistan. He showed this by the way he set out the location

with landmines, tank wrecks and metal shrapnel. He also showed

the obstacles refugees have to face when trying to find asylum to

Australia. Some of the obstacles were pirates, troubles with

money and big waves and storms. From this book we have learnt

a lot about refugees and life in Afghanistan.

This book really tied in with the troubles that Australia is having

with asylum seekers. Recently there have been several asylum

boats finding their way to the coastal waters of Australia. Even

though this book was published about ten years ago the message

is still relevant to what is happening in Australia today. This has

been a very big issue in the life of politicians and from this book

we have learnt a lot about this ongoing problem. This book shows

how putting people in detention centres is not the true Aussie

way.

Treat Everyone Fairly—Jesse Keasley Have you ever been treated unfairly?

Well, I have. This term, year six has bee learning about

asylum seekers and how they are not treated like we

are (fairly). We have been reading ‘Boy Overboard’

where a boy has to go overboard to help his family. They were

just a normal family, but they lived in Afghanistan where girls are

treated unfairly and these unfair laws include girls aren’t allowed

to play soccer.

This book is relevant today because not too long ago the

government decided to ban refugees from coming into the

country. Some of the government was against this law. The law

went on for a few weeks but then a few weeks ago they rejected

the Malaysian Solution. Malaysian refugees are now being held in

detention centres. This is unfair because everyone should be

treated the same. This novel has showed me that the Malaysian

Solution for refugees might not be the best answer as I believe

that everyone should be treated fairly. They shouldn’t be treated

by what country/nationality they came from.

Detention Not the Answer —Sam Di Francesco During term three, Year Six was learning about

refugees. My class read the novel “Boy Overboard”.

This book is about a family trying to move to Australia

from the war torn country Afghanistan. This novel

was first released at the time the refugee numbers coming to

Australia sharply increased.

The author of this novel, Morris Gleitzman, wanted to show

readers what life is like in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a country

where there was many restrictions placed on everyday life. Girls

especially had restrictions such as not being allowed to show their

skin in public and not being allowed to play soccer. A number of

months ago, the Australian government made the Malaysia

solution to stop the refugees pouring into the country. A few

weeks ago, the high court of Australia rejected the Malaysia

solution.

Every month, hundreds of refugees are riding a boat to Australia

for a safer and better life. We should not put them in detention

centres where they are treated unfairly, especially the girls. In

detention centres, they are treated like non-human beings. They

are sad there. They are coming from a country where they don`t

like their life. Just let them come to Australia. They want to live a

safer and better life. Detention centres are NOT the answer.

15

Year 12 Religion and Ethics students give us a glimpse of life as an asylum seeker in their Term Three Short Stories:

A Walk in My Shoes

My Journey—Jordan Budgen My name is Hassan Ammar and I am a 19 year old asylum

seeker. I came to Australia four years ago and I thought that

in light of the recent government decision that I should

share my story.

I, like many other asylum seekers, was a boat person. I was forced to flee

Iraq when war broke out and my parents and 2 sisters were killed. I still

have nightmares from these events to this day. The people smuggler prom-

ised me that the boat I was travelling on would be a nice boat that could

easily carry 40 people. When I got there the boat I found myself in was a

very old and barley sea-worthy boat made of wood. I had no idea of where

we were headed and for the entire trip I was worried we were going to sink.

The boat barely made the journey to Malaysia, suffering heavy damage.

During the rougher nights I had to grab the bucket and pale water out of

the boat. It got so bad that I was sure we were going to sink. But we made

it.

Once we got to Malaysia it was not the place I had been promised at all. I

was told that we would be headed to a place of freedom and it would be

paradise. Well, Malaysia was far from it. I was beaten and bashed within an

inch of my life. On many occasions I thought I wasn’t going to survive. I was

very lucky to survive my time in Malaysia. Many people I knew got caught

by police and were sent back to the countries they came from. I can only

imagine what happened to them when they got back. Most likely, I will

never hear from them again.

Then one night, after I had already been in Malaysia for 8 months, I got

the opportunity a life time. I found another people smuggler and was able

to go on another boat to Australia. This was a very difficult decision as the

last journey had been so horrible. But it was better than the conditions I

would be subject to in Malaysia and if it paid off, which it has, I would be

able to live a free life where I could start a family of my own and start a

whole new life for myself. So I decided to leave.

Once I reached Australia I was intercepted and held in detention for 13

months. While the conditions here were still not desirable it was a vast

improvement upon the life that I had in Malaysia. I was lucky in that I was

allowed to enter Australia. However, there were many asylum seekers who

were turned away and forced to return to their home country. For many

this was not an option and they had to commit suicide. This would have

been a very difficult decision and I am glad that I never had to make it.

Surprisingly, for a country that accepts asylum seekers the people in

Australia are very unreceptive to the idea of allowing boat people into their

country. Luckily groups such as GetUp! And the like have been making a

huge effort to educate the Australian public about asylum seekers and this

will hopefully lead to a better policy for boat people.

I have been very lucky being able to flee Iraq and end up in Australia, even if

the process I went through to get here was an arduous one. I can now

forget about my past and try to start a new life where I will be free from the

war of my home country. I still will never forget what has happened to me,

but I will do everything I can to improve my life so that myself or my

family will never have to go through what I did.

Day by Day—Luca Rizzalli I hit the ground with a thud. The sergeant’s punches still hurt, even after all

the training. My rifle is thrown to the ground next to me. “Get up, you pig!”

the sergeant yells, towering over me. “Either you get on your feet in the

next two seconds, or the enemy has captured you! And if you fall to the

enemy, your family will fall straight after!” At that, I jump to my feet, my

rifle poised in my shaking hands. The sergeant continues, “That’s better!

Now, look back at our guests, and this time, don’t make me hit you!” I look

back to the captured soldiers, 50m down the muddy range. Even with their

blindfolds, their panic-stricken faces caused me to pause whenever I fin-

gered the trigger. However, I knew if I waited too long this time, the ser-

geant would start beating my brother, so I take in a deep breath, and aim

down the sight. Just as I pull the trigger, I see the nozzle flash, the blood

splatter, and suddenly I am thrown awake in a sweaty heap, crying and

reeling from the attacks my memory has dealt my dreams.

I calm down, get up, and go to the kitchen. I look out at the sun rising over

the Sydney suburbs, and try to cast my mind from my memories. I am

unsuccessful, however, and I am soon brought back to thoughts of my

family. Day by day, these thoughts haunt me. Day by day, I know that they

are still trapped in Sudan; the United Nations workers could only rescue so

many, and being the first-born child, I was prioritised. I was lucky to even

be chosen to come to Australia, and live in peace. Now, all I need is my

family, and I will be truly happy.

My life in Australia is enjoyable to say the least. My family’s situation is

generally met with some level of concern, but it hard to grasp its

importance, as the news channels seem to talk about something different

every day. In any case, I consider myself lucky to even be here. I go to

school, and I have friends. There are some who still reject, and who shout

out labels which I am told are supposed to be deeply hurtful. However,

none of them sound as bad in my head as Private. As I get

ready for school, I find it hard to worry about such people. I

look at my blazer in the mirror and know that while I have

got my school, my friends, and my life in Australia, I need

not let them affect me. My only concern, this morning like

all the others, is my family’s plight. I cannot stop thinking

about them, still trapped in Sudan. My brother is most probably still in the

Army, along with my father. My mother and my sister are probably still

living in the Army camp, as long as the enemy’s bombs haven’t reduced it

to rubble.

With the worried feeling remaining in my gut, I turn on the TV and am

greeted by a newsreader, telling me that the government will go into talks

today about an increased intake of United Nations-rescued Sudanese fami-

lies. My heart leaps as soon as I hear this. The thought that my family could

be rescued any amount of time sooner is a relief to me. I know that just one

day could make all the difference; I’ve seen entire villages wiped out in just

one day. I change the channel excitedly and stop once I find the ABC. What

greets me makes all happiness flood out of me instantly, only to be

replaced by dread and disappointment.

The remote hits the floor with a thud. I cannot feel any pain, just a hopeless

numbness, as the reporter explains that the government is prioritising a

surprise verdict on video-game ratings. Julia Gillard is standing outside Par-

liament House, explaining, “The voters have shown a clear concern relating

to the rating of violent video-games, a prominent example being the

Modern Warfare game series, and their freedom to play said games. They

should know that the government is now making this issue its top priority.

We will know when we will be able to discuss the UN matter over the

course of the next week, as the legislative process is a day-by-day matter.”

16

Year 10 History

Rights and Freedoms Indigenous Rights Collages

Pat Winkel

17

The 1967 Referendum —Sheldon Killick

The photographs assembled within this collage re-

flect particular events, and prominent figures in-

volved within the establishment of the 1967 refer-

endum. Specifically, it depicts a collection of civil rights activists,

including Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal), Charles Perkins,

Jessie Street, Faith Bandler and Joe McGinness. The central col-

lage is placed in accordance with the insidious influence of the

British monarchy.

The fundamental significance of this collage is to express and em-

phasize the particular individuals involved amongst the formation

of Australia's 1967 referendum. It was not until the 1950s - 1960s

(the years of the referendum) that the Commonwealth began to

discern the discrimination of Indigenous Australians at both state

and local levels. By this time, numerous 'white' Australian activ-

ists were convinced that legal inequality and the absence of po-

litical rights were the primary causes of this Aboriginal discrimina-

tion. There remains no doubt that early European occupation of

Australia had a profound impact on the countries native people.

To the far right of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and ACT)

Kath Walker has been positioned. Her importance within this

collage is a result of the contributions she made as the secretary

of the Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines

and Torres Strait Islanders. Walker composed many books and

poems which entailed stories and interpretations of the

Aboriginal Australians struggle for provisions, such as We Are

Going (1964). She made an inspiring feat in becoming the first

ever Aboriginal woman to have her book successfully published.

The assistance she made to Indigenous people in Queensland and

amendment of Australia's constitutional discrimination towards

Aboriginal people in 1967. Street is often recognised for her con-

tributions to women's rights, social justice and peace on both an

Australian and international level. Street was a 'white' Australian

women, this did not prevent her from supporting the interests of

Indigenous Australians. The insightful expression she displays

within her portrait represents the inspiration she had and contin-

ues to have towards both European and Indigenous Australians.

Situated above the centre of Australia (in the Northern Territory)

is a portrait of Joe McGinness. In 1961, McGinness became the

first Aboriginal president of the Federal Council for Aboriginal

Advancement and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), and a

celebrated member of Queensland's Waterside Workers

Federation. He was well regarded as a chairman who was

conscientious to different points of view and one who led by

example. McGinness emphasised the need to campaign for

Indigenous rights in the period leading up to the 1967 referen-

dum. He spent much of his younger years within the Northern

Territory, and like Charles Perkins, was an influential Aboriginal

figure, contributing to his high placement within the collage.

The remaining photographs within the collage serve as a repre-

sentation of the politics and purpose behind the referendum. For

instance, the centre and far left of the collage both portray

methods of advertisement. Whether it is a campaign poster, illus-

trating a 'YES' vote for an innocent Aboriginal child, or a petition

on the front page of the newspaper, they illustrate the desperate

actions of Australian society in times of desperate political need.

The remaining two photographs depict the very stimulus of the

referendum, the Aboriginal Australian people. Both family and

individual Aboriginal Australians were forced to endure the

harshness of racial discrimination and neglect. These remaining

key members of the New South Wales Freedom Ride - a bus tour

proposed by activists to protest against Aboriginal discrimination

in small Australian communities. Although Perkins didn't neces-

sarily operate exclusively in Queensland, as the collage would sug-

gest, he was indeed a very influential Aboriginal man. This enor-

mous influence is reflected by his high situation within the collage.

Directly below Charles Perkins and left of Kath Walker (crossing

over South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales) is a portrait

of Jessie Street. Street was a female politician, a position she held

for over 50 years. She was a key figure in many political ordeals,

ranging from the women's suffrage struggle in England to the

other Eastern regions consider the positioning of her image

to be appropriate.

Immediately above Kath Walker (within

the presumed border of Queensland)

lays a photograph of Charles Perkins.

Perkins was an Aboriginal ac-

tivist, soccer player, and ad-

ministrator, during the dec-

ades of the referendum. He

was the first Indigenous Aus-

tralian man to graduate from

a University, another inspiring

feat. In regards to his activist

work, Perkins was one of the

two pictures therefore serve as a

symbol of this prejudice, the reason

why they have been incorporated

into this collage.

The rationale of this collage is to

portray certain individual

people and events that

contributed to the founda-

tion of the 1967 referen-

dum. Early Australia was

not without conflict and

separation, particularly

between the early British

settlers and Indigenous

Australians. This collage

illustrates the gap that

has, and continues to exist

within Australian society.

However, it is the assumption that this collage will not only reiter-

ate the long struggle of Aboriginal Australians, but also allow

viewers to reminisce upon the positive figures that have risen

from such hardship. They were living proof that Indigenous

Australians were worth fighting for, and I hope that this realism

that was created from these paragons will continue to remain

prevalent throughout the future of this nation, Australia.

18

The Apology— Adam Denaro My collage is about the Apology made to the Sto-

len Generations by Australian Prime Minister Kev-

in Rudd in February 2008. The stolen generations

was the forced removal of half-caste children

from their families between 1910 and 1970 and

more than 50 000 children were removed. The

message of my collage is that the stolen genera-

tion should not have occurred and that The Apology was needed.

The apology was needed and was long overdue. The gap between

the end of the stolen generations and the apology was 38 years. I

believe that the apology should have been made in the 1970’s at

the end of the policy. I chose the Apology because it was a

significant event in the history of the Stolen Generations. The

Apology contained a story of a person who was removed and it also

contained information on what happened to the children once

removed. They were put into a mission camp and taught the ways

of the Europeans.

I chose two particular photos to put into my collage. These are the

one of Kevin Rudd’s speech being telecast on a television in Federa-

tion Square, Melbourne. I chose this because it shows a crowd of

Australians watching the apology on TV. It shows that people want-

ed the apology and watched it because it was a significant step. This

photograph represents the Australian Public who wanted the Apol-

ogy to take place. Also, it may represent that people wanted to

know the outcomes of the Apology, something that did not happen.

Another photo I chose was the advertisement of a home needed

for ‘half-caste’ children. It shows that they did not have enough

accommodation for the children they had removed and needed to

find somewhere for them to live. I chose this photo because it

shows that once they had been in a camp for a while, they needed

a home. An option for this may have been giving them back to their

families but they were put in white homes to keep their European

knowledge up at the same levels as other Europeans. The

Australian Government wanted the Aboriginal culture rid of and to

do this, they forcibly removed Aboriginal children.

Symbolic aspects I have included in my collage include the

Aboriginal flag and the Indigenous art background. I chose the

Aboriginal flag because it shows the importance of the background

of the Stolen Generations. One of the main people behind the

generations was the Aboriginal people. I also included the

Indigenous art because it shows the traditional ways of the

Aborigines, something that was taken away during the stolen

generations. Dot paintings were circular, showing that the Aborigi-

nal story and heritage is still continuous today and no matter what

they face, they can still move on and continue with their culture.

My collage shows the different things that had happened during

the stolen generations. These should not have happened and the

responsibility of cleaning up the mess started in 2008 with the

Apology, which was long overdue and the start of many more

things that still need to come, including compensation and support

for Aboriginals.

19

In our 3 hour drive to Cherbourg we were accompanied by

Aunty Honour, an Aboriginal Elder, who told us about a lot

of history as we approached Cherbourg. We saw the footy field where Cherbourg beat England in rugby league when

they first came to Australia. Aunty Honour told us what

harsh conditions the Aboriginals had to live in, such as working from early hours in the morning to late at night

under the cruel sun. They also received little food, growing

their own vegetables to feed their family, and also getting a

ration of meat from a single cow that was killed every Monday and Friday to feed over one thousand people.

When we arrived at the ration shed museum, we had morning

tea that was followed by an award winning move that showed

the history of the ration shed. It told of how the Aboriginals

were treated, and separated from their parents.

This was followed by a guided tour by Ada Simpson who showed us through the centre, including the boy’s dormitory.

We saw many photos and artwork and were told of how cold

the dormitory was and what the children used to do to keep warm. I thought it was good to hear what the feelings of the

children that were there at the time. Cherbourg was severely

effected by the floods and we saw houses torn apart, all dirty

and ripped away from its foundations. I found this trip amazing and I learnt a lot more about what happened to the

Aboriginals.

Cherbourg Trip Matthew Barber—Yr 8

After St Brendan‟s College Yeppoon, and Nudgee College, St Patrick‟s College has the largest population of Ab-original and Torres Strait Islander students of any Edmund Rice Education Australia school. To continue helping these students to gain a greater appreciation of their own culture and history, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students travelled to Cherbourg to hear some of the history of the area. Yr 8 student Mat-thew Barber reports:

20

This would also give the message that Jesus and God are forgiving

and will give you a second chance.

Modern Version—Zacchaeus the Bully At St Patricks College there are many nice boys who are all friends

but there is one boy named Zacchaeus and he is awfully bad-

tempered and nasty. He calls the other boys names and even

steals their lunches. Zacchaeus has no friends. One day there was

a new boy to the school and his name was Jesus. He was

extremely popular, he was funny and very kind and all the other

boys wanted to be like him.

One day at lunch time Jesus went and sat next to Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus was amazed that Jesus was sitting next to him.

Zacchaeus was not mean to Jesus because Jesus because he was

so popular. Jesus said to Zacchaeus "hey bro why are you so mean

to everyone." Zacchaeus quietly denied it. Jesus said "come on

bro I know what you've been doin, you can’t lie to me" Zacchaeus

quietly said "I guess I’ve been a bit mean." Jesus calmly said

"more than a bit Zac." Zacchaeus agreed and said to Jesus "I really

like the name Zac."

All of the other kids saw that Jesus was sitting next Zacchaeus;

they wondered why Jesus would sit with a bully. They wondered

why Jesus was chilling with a mean kid.

The next day Jesus brought Zacchaeus to see all the other kids.

Jesus said "hey guys Zacchaeus has something he wants to tell."

The other boys turned around and moaned as if he was going to

say something bad. Zacchaeus stared for a bit then apologised for

all the mean things he said to the other boys. He said "for every

mean thing I said to you guys ill make it up by saying just as many

nice things." At that point all the other boys were very interested

in what he had to say. Then he said "if I ever stole your lunch ill

make it up by sharing my lunch with you and I was hoping I could

be friends with you." One of the boys said "yeah you can, as long

as you do the things you said you would do." Then Jesus put his

arm around Zacchaeus and said "Zacchaeus would like to be called

Zac from now on—he likes that name better"

Zac was ecstatic that he now had many friends. He was more alive

than he had ever been. At the end of the term Jesus left to go to

another school. Jesus made St Patricks a better place and Zac

continued to be kind to others. They were now all mates.

The Gospel According to Jayden

Original Story—Luke 19: 1-10 Zacchaeus the Tax Collector 1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was

there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and

was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he

was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and

climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming

that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,

“Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house

today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to

be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here

and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have

cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the

amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, be-

cause this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man

came to seek and to save the lost.”

Description This story was written by Luke in 80-90CE in Antioch, Turkey.

Luke was writing to the gentiles. Luke wanted them to believe

that Jesus was a teacher.

This story does not appear in any of the other gospels.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Back in those day tax collectors

were rich but disliked by the community because they came and

collected everyone’s tax’s and many of them cheated people out

of there to get some extra tax.

Jesus says “Today salvation has come to this house, because this

man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to

seek and to save the lost.” This means that we are all human

beings and we all have a chance to redeem ourselves from our

mistakes.

Interpretation Luke tells this story to explain that you can be forgiven for the

bad things that you have done.

It is saying that Jesus didn’t just come to help the good people,

he also came to help the bad people get back on the right track.

It also tells the message that you should not mistreat or steal

from people, because if you do that you will have no friends

To see Will Sked‟s outstanding modern-day gospel Vodcast visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgFCPXeB7FE

It is no surprise many young people today don‟t quite „get‟ parts of the Gospel—after all, it was writ-ten nearly 2000 years ago to a largely Jewish or Roman audience. This term, year 8 and 9 Religious Education students have been studying the historical and social context that the New Testament was produced in. Students came to realise that each of the four gospels were written at different times, for different audiences, and with a purpose and intended message that was specific to each audience and each writer‟s context. In light of this realisation, students decided to re-write their own gospel stories, to appeal and make sense to an Australian audience in 2011. Here is Jayden Carson‟s version of the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector:

21

Student „Teacher‟ Reflection

—Dipankar Simkhada I believe the

action plan I

implemented

along with Ryan

Waye gave me a broader per-

spective on the life in Saint

Patrick’s and made me feel

joyful and positive seeing the

students engrossed in the ac-

tivity and providing me their

own interpretation of the dis-

cussed aspects of bullying. I felt

like I had given them a new

hope towards this issue and

for a moment I felt like the

students had triumphed in the

matter. The objective of the unit was to implement a

bullying intervention strategy to effectively advo-

cate the students’ knowledge and health in the matter of bullying.

Two intervention strategies were implemented and both were de-

signed for health promotion and to help students all develop per-

sonal skills with regard to bullying. There were many challenges we

had to face, from sheer embarrassment to ‘keeping our cool’ but

despite some of these fears becoming reality, I can safely say that it

was all worth it in the end as students were all extremely joyful and

that gave us satisfaction of implementing our action plan. In es-

sence, this unit was extremely enjoyable for me, and hopefully the

students got something out of it too.

Year 11 Health Education

Bullying No More Student Action Plan and Lesson

St Patrick‟s newest curriculum offering, Senior Health Education, gives students the opportunity, not only to learn about various health related issues, but to use their knowledge and skills to improve the physical, men-tal, social, emotional, environmental and spiritual health of other members of the College and wider commu-nities. In Term Three, students researched bullying and created their own action plan and lesson to teach younger students at the school about this important issue.

Year 11 Student Russell Brookes teaching Year 9 students how to combat bullying

Student Student Reflection —Alister Kerr—Yr 8 On the 10th June William Thompson came into our classroom and

taught us about bullying. He taught us about the types of bullying

and after that he showed us a short video on indirect bullying. He

then got us to share our own personal bullying experiences to the

class. I thought that this would be a good time to share my own bul-

lying experiences that had quite frequently happened in the past. I

told the class how I felt and what I had done to stop it. This made

me feel happy that the class could learn my story and just learn

what it is like to be me.

While telling on a bully is quite a hard thing to do because you feel

like that they will pick on your more if you tell on them, we learnt

that this is not true. Most bullies apologise for what they have done

and don’t realise that they were being a bully. We also learnt that

the best communication to tell on a bully is your parents, House

dean, tutor group teacher, Mr Torrisi, and the anti-bullying portal.

Bullying is not to be accepted in our modern day society. So don’t be

a bystander be an upstander.

22

Artist Statement—Matthew Trotter

Name: “Child Left for Dead”

Material: Watercolour paper

Medium: Charcoal

Size: 500cm x420cm

“Child left for dead” dis-

plays that when people

turn there back and de-

cide not to help, other

people suffer. This im-

age provokes empathy because the fate

of the child is easily predicted with no

support towards the helpless, limp dying

child it is certain death will occur.

Art can often express a concept the way words cannot. In our Visual Art program at St Patrick‟s College, we en-deavor to teach our students empathy thought Art. In Year 10 students produce an artwork after studying the artist Kathe Kollwitz in a unit called “Empathy”. Students are encouraged to look at social issues like war, con-flict, hunger, famine, homelessness, disease and health. Not only will the students engage in studying other artists that display empathy in their work, but they will also design and produce their own artwork. In Year 12 students put together a portfolio of work and empathy can be explored through their medium of choice. Here are some examples of work:

Empathetic Art

Christian Corias Year 12 Medium Acrylic

Clinton Greenhalgh Year 10

Medium Charcoal James Kenny Yr 10

Medium Acrylic

23

Pennies for the Poor School Raises 50 000 coins for Maths Assignment

Treacy 1 Students Tom Roberts (Yr 11) and Harry Lawrence (Yr 5) with the 50 000 coins

This term Year 8 Maths students led a school wide fundraiser as part of the 40 Hour Famine, to collect 50 000 five cent coins, to represent the number of people who die from extreme poverty every day. The $2 500 raised is enough to feed 25 people for a whole year. Well done and thank you to all involved. Josh Sutton and Pat Greenfield report. Poster below by Michael Smith.

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25

26

Paddies Boys on a Mission: “R U 4 Real”

- Patrick Greenfield

IN THE BEGINNING... 11:53:28 am Wednesday 13/07/2011: The

grade eight students of St. Patrick’s college

went on a mission to explore and reduce

poverty. The students worked as classes to

work together and find out their mission of exploring and reduc-

ing poverty. Little did any of them know that they would change

thousands of people’s lives.

50 5s SAVE LIVES…

First off the students were told to reason with numbers and

equations, then to reason with the minds of the St. Pat’s

community. The Boys did this by using funny

equations and pronumerals to work out how

many 5 cent coins each student needed to

bring in to raise 50 000 5 coins. This fifty

thousand coins will represent how many

people die of poverty related deaths, as well as raising $2 500.

The $2 500 in coins will be donated to East Timor.

To reach this goal the students of St. Pat’s had to bring in 50 5

cent coins, equivalent to $2.50. If 1000 students were to bring 50

5 cent coins, as well as an estimate of how many people die every

day, the total $2500 would either feed 1 person from East Timor

for 26.04 years, or 4 people for 6.5 years.

After reasoning with funny equations and pronumerals the boys

had to reason with the minds of the St. Pat’s community. The

boys did this by making a poster to persuade their tutor group to

bring in 50 5 cent coins. The boys had

to include all of the findings from the

above.

ON THEY GO ONCE AGAIN…

At the start of the following week the

boys were given part B and C of the mission. This was to firstly

investigate how many children die of hunger each hour, and

secondly to look at a World Food Program ration AKA (WFP) and

see how many calories are in each of the nutrients and the whole

ration.

When the boys got task B they found that 400 children die of

hunger each hour. Once this was done they had to make an

equation to be able to work out how many children die for X

number of hours. The process to get this was done by multiplying

the number of hours by 400

(children die = X x 400).

Furthermore this equation was

used to find out that 3,504,000

children die of hunger each year—

not counting other poverty-

related causes.

RATIONALIZING RATIONS…

The second part of the second week’s mission was to look at a

World Food Program ration AKA (WFP).

To start this part they studied the

contents of a WFP ration, and a graph

showing how many calories are in 1 gram

of each nutrient. Once again the boys

were confronted by weird equation and

pronumerals.

This time it was to find out how many calories of Fat, Protein and

carbohydrates are in a WFP ration. This turned out to be 135 calo-

ries of fat, 20 calories of pro-

tein and 500 calories of carbo-

hydrates. Using the 3 answers

from the above method, a pie

graph was created to show

the quantities of the different

nutrients in a WFP ration.

The next question in the part C was to create a rule to find the

calories in any food item. The rule that was made was “Calories in

food item equals, grams of food multiplied by calories in each

single nutrient. This is then done with the

other nutrients. Then this was all added

together” Then this led to using the rule to

calculate the calories in any food item. The

food that was experimented with was 3

Weet-Bix. The calories in 3 Weet-Bix turned

out to be 285.6.

After the testing the equation the time had

come to substitute it into the working out the caloric intake of a

WFP ration. The final number turned out to be 655 which is

equivalent to 65.5% of a person’s recommended daily intake of

calories. The recommended intake is 1000.

FEWER DEATHS…

Week 3 marked the 2 week

milestone in the mission to explore

and reduce poverty. It was then led

by the happy findings that poverty is

on its way down. During Part D there

was the task of examining a statistic

of poverty on its way down.

The statistic chosen was: “An estimated 135 million people were

assisted out of extreme poverty in low-income countries between

1999 and 2004”. To examine this statistic, firstly another equation

had to be created by the information in the statistic. The equation

ended out to be a rule to find out how many people were assisted

out of extreme poverty each year. The equation looked like this:

27

E = 27 000 000y which meant, people

assisted out of extreme poverty equals

27 000 000 each year.

Using this rule, the task of seeing how

many more people will be assisted out of

extreme poverty by 2015 was conducted.

The final result was that 108 000 000

more people will be assisted out of ex-

treme poverty by 2015. After looking at the reduction by 2015 it

was decided to see how many years it will take to completely

eliminate extreme poverty. The answer was 51.9 years until

extreme poverty will be eliminated.

However the result of 27 000 000 people each year being assisted

out of extreme poverty it not reliable. This is because this figure

was worked out using the number of people being assisted out of

extreme poverty between 1999-2004. There is a very likely

chance that this figure would have or has changed. Other varia-

bles to alter this answer are that there are population increases

and there are also more organizations helping more people out

of extreme poverty each year. So, it is

likely that it may take an even shorter

amount of time to eliminate extreme

poverty than 51.9 years.

WEEK FOUR EQUATIONS AND PRONU-

MERALS SOON NO MORE…

Week 4 was the last week for using funny equations and

pronumerals. Week 4 was a lot to do

with advocacy and Facebook. Firstly

the grade eights were given a website.

This website was the

www.thehungersite.com website. This

website contained a big yellow button

and when you pressed this button you

would automatically donate 1.1 cups of food. The website also

contained a graph showing how much food had been donated

over the last week. These numbers had to be turned into an

average for a day and then an average for the year and showed

that there were 138,435 cups per day and 50 528 775 cups do-

nated per year from people visiting this site.

Going on from the yellow button another average had to be

created. It would be the average number of friends 10 of my

friends have. This average was 233.7 friends. Once this had been

done if all of my 10 friends promoted the

www.thehungersite.com another 2337 more people would now

about it going on each of my

friends having 233.7 friends.

Then the tricky task of seeing how

many people will know about

www.thehungersite.com if the

pattern was repeated 5 times. This

turned out to be 697 097 558 958

more people. As you can see this number is way over the

population of the world so the equation was altered. The reason

why the first figure was wrong was because different friends have

the same friends as others. Furthermore not everybody in the

world has Facebook so this increases in inaccuracy.

This time it was multiplied by its half for 5 times. This figure

turned out to be a nicer number of 608 759 334 more people

would know about the www.thehungersit.com. To back up the

number of 608 759 334 being a lot better, is that there are only

729 531 980 Facebook users around the world.

Is it possible to reach all of the 729 531 980 users? It is possible to

reach all of these people, because with more and more people

promoting the www.thehungersite.com more people will learn

about this site. These people might also promote the site on the

Facebook page and when

others visit there page these

people might promote the

www.thehungersite.com and

so on. Other than Facebook

pages, people who promote

the www.thehungersite.com

will also tell others by voice

and these people will tell others and so on.

Continuing on from the point of pressing the yellow button if all of

the 608 759 334.92 friends who know about the

www.thehungersite.com were to click on the yellow button once

for a year 224 416 872 970 cups of rice would be generated.

Other than the www.thehungersite.com there is a website where

a petition to end hunger can be signed. For every person that

signed the petition the businesses and politicians see this as being

100 people wanting to end hunger. As

3 383 839 people have already signed, the

businesses and politicians see this as being

338 383 900 people who want to end

hunger. This will make a huge difference.

IN CONCLUSION, AKA THE END…

In conclusion the Grade eights of the St.

Pats community have gone on a mission to

explore and reduce poverty. The students

have proudly done this by using funny

equations and pronumerals. As you can see poverty is on it’s way

down. This was shown in week 3 as it will only take 51.9 years to

completely eliminate it. To be like the Paddies boys and help

reduce poverty all don’t have to just donate some money. As this

report has shown, you can just take part in organisations or

activities like the 40 hour famine, or sign a petition or write a

letter. Once again www.thehungersite.com is an excellent way to

reduce poverty. It is clear to say that the grade eights of the St.

Pat’s community have explored and reduced poverty.

“R U 4 real?”

28

Last term, Just Us reported Yr 12 student Mathew Makot‟s highly commended award in the national “My First Speech” competition. In August Mathew flew to Canberra to officially receive his award, and while there met the deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swann, the speaker of the house of representatives, and even had a quick encounter with Prime Minister Julia Gillard. In all meetings Mathew spoke very passionately about issues affecting refugees in Australia and how much he thought Australia as a nation is in democracy in its truest form. Mathew sat in Question Time that afternoon and the speaker of the house stopped parliament to introduce Mathew. To quote the speaker: I inform the House that we have present in the gallery this afternoon Mathew Makot.

Mathew's journey from Southern Sudan to be here in the gallery as a year 12 student at St Patricks College, Shorncliffe, is quite an inspiring journey. He gained a

highly recommended in our My First Speech competition. He is a most welcome guest here to observe our robust democracy—even though it might be overly robust.

Welcome, Mathew.

The Honourable members all replied: Hear, hear!

Our Next MP?

Top Left: Mathew Makot receiving his Highly Commended award from the speaker of the House. Top Right:

Mathew with his speech on display in Parliament House. Above: Mathew meets our PM, Julia Gillard

Check out Mathew‟s inspiring story on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYWrYy8NCqY