May 30 – Cranbrook and Plunkett Street School Visits

G’day mates, Katie Kendall and Safiya Mulla here reporting from the land down under!

We began our morning bright and early to catch the bus to our first school visit of the day at Cranbrook Junior School. We met the school’s principal and several other administrative executives in the beautiful library where three year-6 boys greeted us and told us what they loved about being a student at Cranbrook. The principal led us through a powerpoint that informed us about many aspects of their school. Cranbrook is an all boys, K-12 independent school, with two coed preschools, none of which are academically selective — meaning that no one is turned away based on academic ranking, creating a balanced cohort among students. The principal emphasized the school’s commitment to their vision and values, which are to honor individuality, model respect, inspire excellence, embrace global mindedness, and contribute through service. Next, we broke off into smaller groups for a tour of the grounds and classrooms across campus. In addition to core classes, the school emphasized art, music, sports, and wellbeing. After the tour, we all reconvened and enjoyed morning tea, which we have now become quite accustomed to (and plan to bring back to “The States!”), in the library before heading out to catch our next bus.

The bus dropped us off at King’s Cross, known to many as Sydney’s “Red Light District” but that now shuts down by midnight as they have begun trying to rehabilitate the area. We all split up and enjoyed delicious lunches of Greek, Mexican, American, and some traditional Australian food before joining back up to continue with our busy day.

After lunch we all walked a couple of blocks to Plunkett Street Public School, our final school visit of the trip. While walking there, it was obvious that this school was located in a lower socio-economic neighborhood. As we arrived we were greeted generously with cookies, tea, and coffee. We had an introduction to the school along with a brief welcome to country conducted by an Aboriginal student. A ‘Welcome to Country’ is important for the Aboriginal people to acknowledge the traditional origin of their land and pay respect to their past and present elders of the land. It is a way to share, recognize, and respect their culture as they are acknowledging the traditional origin of their land. After our introduction we joined the kids outside at recess to play basketball. When it was time for them to go back to class, we all split into groups to spend an hour inside a classroom. Katie and I joined a combined class of year 2, 3, and 4 students who were studying a famous Aboriginal rights movement leader, Eddie Mabo. The class introduced themselves, stating their names and their heritages. One aspect that stood out to us during our visit here was how diverse the student population is and how passionate each student was about their culture. They were very proud to tell us where they came from. The student body represents over 22 countries!

For the second half of this class, we went outside to play a friendly soccer match against the students. It was truly a tough game, but team America came out victorious 2-1!

After returning to the hotel via subway, some of us went to visit the art gallery in downtown Sydney, while others returned to hotel rooms for some R&R, and spent time working on upcoming assignments. Tonight, we will all find some tasty places to eat dinner in Sydney and get to bed before our early start for hiking in the Blue Mountains tomorrow!

Cheers,

Katie and Saf

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