Tag: Schools

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Students grapple the big issues

Now in its fourth year, the One World WonTok Youth Conference uses a series of hands-on activities to engage students from Uniting Church and Anglican schools in complex issues of poverty  and development.

This year, students created solar cookers from South Sudan, played an interactive computer game on farming in developing countries, lived a precarious existence in the fictitious Tie Islands, brainstormed a sanitation project in rural Papua New Guinea and grappled with the complexities of universal education. The students also met with Gideon Bustamante, a project officer from  the Anglican Board of Mission’s church partner in the Philippines; and young volunteer, Alex Baker, who shared his recent UnitingWorld volunteering experiences in the Solomon Islands and North India.

The One World Wontok Conference is a unique collaboration between the Anglican Board of Mission and UnitingWorld. The conference ran from 28 April–8 May, visiting Anglican and Uniting Church schools in the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.

For more information visit http://www.unitingworld.org.au/one-world-wontok/.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Dreaming of adventure and growth

St Stephen’s School has celebrated the purchase of a new campsite with a community open day inviting students and families to tour the grounds and dream of its future possibilities.

Located in Dwellingup, close to Scotch College’s – another Uniting Church School – Moray campsite, Trinity College’s Camp Kelly and the Nanga Bush Camp, the site is 46 hectares of land with exciting developmental opportunities.

Tony George, Principal of St Stephen’s School, said they chose to purchase the property because of its natural features which will enhance the school’s already existing outdoor education program, including 800m of Murray River frontage, extensive native forest and its access to both the Munda Biddi Trail and Bibbulmun Track.

The camp’s location close to the historic town of Dwellingup will provide students with an opportunity to learn more about the land. Dr Phil Ridden, who has recently written a history of the school, is now writing a history of the site so that visitors might have a better understanding of the connection Australia’s Aboriginal people have with the land.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Supermarket ministry

While the congregation at Dowerin Uniting Church may be low in numbers, Shirley Hagboom, member of the congregation, is a life-giving member of the community – a ‘go-to-girl’ for  spiritual needs.

Shirley is the chaplain for two days a week at the local school, Dowerin District High School, but said that her role reaches well beyond those walls. Often, while she is out running errands  around town, people approach her in the street to talk about things which are troubling them.

“I thoroughly enjoy being chaplain,” she said. “It’s not always at the school site; it could be down the road. You just never know when God is going to use you. God uses us as a conduit to  help people.”

These meetings in the street occur so often that Shirley has started packing a ‘chaplaincy grab bag’ which is full of pamphlets and bits of information that might be helpful to people she  meets while out and about.

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Stories & Feature Articles

The good soil

Carramar Uniting Church held a Kids’ Fun Day during the school holidays at St Stephen’s School, Carramar, where the congregation meet for worship. The event was a huge success with  many children turning up on the day for craft, music, games and worship. Centred on the theme of the Parable of the Sower, kids got to make their own potted plant for the garden while  also taking part in Godly Play and drama activities.

Cooper attended the day and said that he enjoyed planting the seeds and he learnt a lot from the parable. “It mean’s Jesus is good,” he said. “He’s the good soil, and we’re trying to be the  good soil,” he said.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Learning, leading and passing it on

The chamber is full of representatives from countries located all over the globe. They mingle about the room, negotiating amendments to Resolution 2155  of the United Nations (UN) Security Council: The question of the rules of war. A young man with a suit and pony tail announces it is time to sit back down for the debate, and a representative from China stands and puts forth her case.

I’m sitting in the Legislative Assembly at Parliament House of Western Australia where 15 teams from schools across WA, including three teams from Presbyterian Ladies’ College  (PLC) a Uniting Church in WA school, battle it out in the finals for UN Youth’s Evatt competition – a model UN debate. Sam Herriman, a 19-year-old media and communications  student from the University of Western Australia, strolls around the room making sure everything is running smoothly and occasionally collects notes from members of the Council.

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Celebrating diversity while learning for life

North Balga‘s Devanya Strickland and Makayla White with Scotch College’s Will Lewis and Cooper Van Rooyen. Photo courtesy of The Community Newspaper Group.
North Balga‘s Devanya Strickland and Makayla White with Scotch College’s Will Lewis and Cooper Van Rooyen. Photo courtesy of The Community Newspaper Group.

As neighbours from across the city, year five students from Scotch College enjoyed a day out last year celebrating  with students of North Balga Primary School (NBPS) in their Multicultural Day. North Balga Primary School is a vibrant, multicultural school, with many students speaking English as their second language, from many different cultures.

Students from the school performed a range of dances and displays to celebrate their different cultures with the students from Scotch College, a Uniting Church school in Perth’s  Western Suburbs.

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