Bankstown City Council Chambers Excursion

On the 30^th of May, Stage 3 went on an excursion to Bankstown City Council Chambers.

The day started off at 9:30am and the children were already roaring with excitement!

The chambers could only hold a limited amount of children, so only half of stage 3 could go in the first session and the rest went in the afternoon session.

When we arrived, everyone was waiting at the door for the guide to come. Once he came, everyone raced to get a seat at the front.

Our guide for the day was Matthew. He showed us around and told us what to do.

Firstly, Matthew spoke about local government responsibilities and explained how Bankstown was named.  He also told us the meaning behind the Bankstown Council logo.

Soon after, we did a mock debate of a local issue to help us with our understanding of how decisions are made at local government level.  Students were given roles such as The Mayor, councillors, audience, security guards and trouble-makers. From this, we were able to see how the process works.

After the mock debate had finished, we had recess that was supplied by the City Council Chambers. It wasn’t much but it did the trick of satisfying everyone’s hunger.

After recess, we split into groups and we each were given $10 (fake money) to spend on something in the community. Each of the sectors of the budget was explained to us.  They were Invest, Green, Liveable, Lead and Connect. We each got to spend our money but needed to justify why we were spending our money on that particular sector. The most common area of spending for the morning session was ‘Liveable’ coming in with $100.

Once that was finished, it was the end of the excursion. All the students were glad they had the opportunity and privilege to visit Bankstown City Council Chambers and learn so much about their local government.

By Natasha Harvey & Lili Green

 

 

Congratulations Adeline

 

On the 13^th of June 2013 Local Final No 4 of the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition was held at Padstow Park PS.  It started at 9:30am for the Year 3 and 4 competitors and was ably compered by our School Ambassador Stephanie Hunt 5/6B and Angela Mataio 5/6B.  The timekeepers for the Years 3 & 4 section were Perry Alexakis 5/6B and Vuong Pham 5/6K.

After all the prepared speeches were over there was a 15 minute break while morning tea was served.  Once the break was over, the impromptus began. The impromptu topic was “The Best Gift in Life”.   There were some great speeches and the winner of the Junior Section was Anthea ???? from ???

The Year 5 & 6 section began at 12:30pm and was expertly compered by Perry Alexakis 5/6B and Vuong Pham 5/6K with Caleb Robson 5/6B and John Luo 5/6 B timekeepes.  Padstow Park was capably represented in this section by Adeline Kwong 5/6K who spoke on the topic “UnAustralian” and Natasha Harvey 5/6S who spoke on the topic “Racist Jokes aren’t Funny”.  The prepared speeches each went for 3-4 minutes.

After some wonderful prepared speeches the impromptus began.  The topic was “Taking Things for Granted”.  The students were all anxious and nervous about the impromptus, especially Natasha!

All the competitors got sent into the ‘waiting room’ or as they called it the ‘death room’.  They were called out one at a time to go to the computer room and prepare a speech in 5 minutes!! Then they had to go out in front of everyone and say it!

Once the last person had gone up and delivered their speech it was the time for the Certificates for Participation to be handed out by Mrs Mollica. Everyone stood up on the stage feeling like celebrities with the paparazzi snapping away.   Once all the parents and grandparents were finished taking photos, the REAL pressure was on… time to see who had won!

After two Highly Commended certificates were given out the winner of the Senior section of Local Final No 4 was announced.  It was our very own Adeline Kwong!!

At the end of the day everyone was happy and tired, especially Adeline and Natasha.

Congratulations to all the comperes, timekeepers and helpers from Stage 3 who represented Padstow Park in such a professional way.  Good luck to Adeline in the Regional Final to be held in Term 3!      By Natasha Harvey 5/6S               

East Hills Boys Enrichment Afternoon

On Wednesday 29^th of May, twelve high achieving male students from Stage 3 attended the East Hills Boys’ Technology High School Enrichment Afternoon. The aim of the afternoon was to develop a deep understanding of problem solving strategies. There were 25 teams involved in the program coming from 9 different schools in the South West Sydney region.

The teams competed with each other in Maths and Science to see which team was the smartest in the entire district. Padstow Park had three teams of four students.

Team 1 consisted of Anthony Bao, James Lee, Shuvam Adhikari and their team captain William Tran.

Team 2 included Michael Li, Jason Lim, Saratt Hayavuchanurak and their team captain Voung Pham.

Team 3 had Dylan Huang, Raymond Du, Sajja Hayavuchanurak and their team captain Jadon Yip.

First was the Mathematics where each team was given a series of math problem solving questions, one on each sheet of paper. Once a team had answered a question, the team captain had to walk the answer to their marker and the marker checked their answer. All the questions were very difficult, requiring a high level of both comprehension and problem solving ability.

After that there was a break, where the teams could relax. Then there was the Science round. There was no working out applied, it was all general knowledge. The Padstow Park teams raced through the questions.

Once all the questions were finished, the results were tallied. Finally they got the results and the victor for the East Hills Boys Enrichment Afternoon 2013 was……Padstow Park Team 2!

All of Padstow Park was thrilled with Team 2’s victory and were happy to have been part of the enrichment afternoon. The students in Team 2 received medals and a handshake from the principal of East Hills Boys High School.

All students involved had a great time.  Thank you to Mr Bao and Mrs Du for helping with the transportation to and from the event.

 

By Anthony Bao and William Tran

 

 

 

 

Daryl Melham visits Padstow Park

On Monday 6th May, Daryl Melham, Member for Banks, visited Padstow Park Public School.  He talked to Stage 3 students about his experiences as a politician and answered questions posed by students. Mr Melham also awarded the students who attended Parliament House, with a certificate. 

We appreciate him taking the time to visit our school.

 

 

 

 

 

Leadership Conference by Steph and Christina

LEADERS OF TODAY AND TOMORROW

   

On the 13^th of March 2013, the SRC went to Tower Street Public School to attend a leadership conference called “Leaders of Today and Tomorrow”. The purpose of the conference was for us to learn how to become better leaders. When we got to the conference we were seated in our school group and were given a folder, which contained a booklet about what we were going to do during the day.

We had students from Sir Joseph Banks High School come along to be our mentors. Our mentor was Sir Joseph Banks High School’s Vice-Captain, Mimi Le.

There were five guest speakers. The first speaker was Mr Waser who is the Deputy Principal of Sir Joseph Banks High School. He talked about how we always have to work as a team and not as individuals, to always have a plan and find a way to improve. The second speaker was Kylie Gauci, a Paralympian and Wheelchair Basketballer who played for Australia. Kylie has won three medals; a silver medal in Athens 2004, a bronze medal in Beijing 2008 and a silver medal in London 2012. We got to touch all three of her medals. The London medal was the heaviest. She even won a bronze medal at her first World Championships in 2002. Her goal was to get a gold medal but unfortunately she didn’t reach her goal.

After Kylie left we were given an activity. In our folders we each had a small piece of cardboard with a word on it. The words were respect, trust, effort, persistence, honesty, resilience, confidence and cooperation. We had to write what we thought the words meant.

The next two speakers were Vincent Dinh and Mimi Le, the Vice Captains from Sir Joseph Banks High School. They told us to always have confidence, put in a team effort and give advice to others.

In our next activity we had to answer four different questions. The hardest question was “How can I be a better leader?” Some of the answers were to be a good role model and listen to other people’s questions and ideas.

Lunch was next on the agenda and then we did some team activities. One of the activities was where, as a group, we had to build the highest tower only using newspaper and masking tape.

The last guest speaker was Mrs McKay who is the student Welfare Consultant for East Hills. She talked about how leadership never stops and how you should always talk, listen and think. At the end of the day everyone got a certificate which was presented by Mrs McKay and Mrs Hornung.

Everyone enjoyed the day and we learnt a lot of new things.  We will most definitely become better leaders.

 

BY CHRISTINA ARGIROPOULOS AND STEPHANIE HUNT

 

5/6K Easter Eggs

Happy Easter!!!! From 5/6K

 

 

Leadership Conference

On Wednesday the 13^th of March the SRC and School Captains from many schools in the East Hills/Bankstown District went to a leadership conference called ‘Leaders of Today- and Tomorrow’.

This conference offered a chance for primary school leaders to spend a day learning about leadership and teamwork. There were guest speakers, teamwork and initiative activities and discussion groups led by student leaders from a local high school.

When we arrived we went inside the Tower Street PS schools hall. We then got seated and searched anxiously through our folders. 

We met a famous Paralympian, Kylie Gauci who talked about what being a leader was and how much she liked wheelchair basketball. She showed us how versatile her basketball wheelchair is compared to the normal every-day one. She did tricks and told us about the Paralympics and how she met her idol.

When our 25 minute recess break was over we went back inside and some principals and a welfare officer talked to us about a range of important things, particularly with regard to leadership.

Soon after, we had some outside activities. The first one was to work as a team to get across the “river”.  Unfortunately in our team someone’s legs got eaten off by piranhas!!

The second activity was; we had to carry water balloons with chopsticks. That was easy once we got the hang of it.                                                                                                                           

At 2:30pm all the parents and teachers came to pick us up. We got awarded certificates and the day was then over.

I found this a very worthwhile experience and would encourage future SRC groups to attend.

 

BY NATASHA HARVEY 5/6S