Chatswood Intensive English Centre Learning how to use English well in high schools www.chatswood-i.schools.nsw.edu.au Term 2 2013 REFUGEE WEEK Linda Wang 3S2 Refugee Week is always held in Australia to include World Refugee Day, which is on the 20th June. What is a refugee? Someone who has been forced to flee their country because of persecution, war, violence or natural disaster. The reason for Refugee Week is to make us aware of the difficulties faced by refugees and to celebrate the contribution they make when they start a new life in Australia. This year’s theme is ‘Restoring Hope’ which symbolises that, while a refugee’s journey begins with danger, it also begins with hope. Differences to a migrant?  No choice     No preparation No time to think No connections with family No chance to return From which countries ? Most people fleeing their country and seeking asylum in Australia come from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka & Iran. Reasons for persecution? For their race, religion, nationality or being a member of a social or political group. What can we do? We should cherish a sense of equality and help refugee students in whatever way we can. We should appreciate the effort they make to adjust to a new life. Interview Nathan Le 3S1 Many refugee students have passed through the IEC on their journey in life. For Refugee Week this year I interviewed Hadi Hosseini our teacher’s assistant, about his journey from his homeland, Afghanistan, to Australia. Why did your family have to leave your country? They left because of a war between Afghanistan and Russia 35 years ago. You were born in Iran. How was your life there? We were living illegally. We had no right to work or to study. They made fun of our language and nationality. What happened when you were deported back to Afghanistan? I was mistreated again in my own homeland. I first heard the word ‘Hazara’. It was very painful for me. screaming created fear and hopelessness. Can you describe your journey. It was frightening. I lost my past and had no idea about my future. Learn about refugees and inform other people about their pain and problems. You can be a voice for those who have lost hope. Once the community understands the issues they will think more positively about refugees. What dangers did you face? On the boat from Indonesia the sea was unforgiving. Rain, huge waves & people Did you ever lose hope? I was complaining about my situation. I thought my fate was so unfair. Why did I not have the fundamentals of life? But I never lost hope. I believed that something good would come in the future. What are you doing now? After overcoming many obstacles I learnt English, finished high school and now I am doing my degree in Accounting as a full-time student and working part-time. What is your message in Refugee Week ? The CIEC Bushcare group was formed this term. This group of students, teachers and local residents meets once a month with Willoughby Council’s Bushland officers to help preserve the bushland behind the portable classrooms. This area has some magnificent, tall Blue Gum, Blackbutt & Angophora trees but also lots of different weeds. Students in this group included Effy Li 3S1, Zoe Chen 3S1, Ann Shi 3S2, Tony Liu 2S1, Wilson Wu 2S1, Steve Lin, 2S1, Jeffrey Deng 2S1, Jason He 3S1, Rex Wang 3I, Qizhang Zhu 3S2 and Chris Zhang 3S2. This term they met three times and worked on a very weedy site. First they used rakes to roll back a thick carpet of weeds such as Trad, Morning Glory, Thistles and Bidens. Then they did some hand weeding to prepare the area for planting. The group’s task is to clear the weeds to allow the native plants to regenerate and create a habitat for native animals. Some of the native plants include native geranium, warrigal greens and weeping grass. Next they dug holes to plant some new Mat Rush plants and used bamboo sticks to put in place tree guards to protect them. The boys then set up a compost pile for green waste and used some logs to create terracing to prevent soil erosion when it rains. While working, the students were fascinated by the variety of wildlife on the site. They took photos on their phones of curl grubs, skinks, centipedes and very tame kookaburras. Students are welcome to join the group next term which will meet on the third Sunday of every month from 9 o’clock to 12 noon. COMPOSTING at the IEC Damien Gits 3J Why do we compost at school? It is a good idea to compost at school because when we do that we don’t make pollution but we make a clean earth for people and we make the plants grow faster. That is why we have four compost bins at the IEC. What do we need for composting? For composting we need: NITROGEN (food scraps, fruits and veggies, green garden clipping etc). What is Compost? When the food or living things die they become decomposed by bacteria or fungi. This material is called compost. We can use this dead matter to fertilize our garden. Page 2 CARBON (dried leaves, branches, straw, grass clipping). OXYGEN (air is very important and the compost must be turned regularly). WATER (the compost mixture must be moist not soaking wet) What can we compost?          Meat and bones Fish and shellfish Grains and pasta Dairy products Eggs and shells Plate scrapings Fruit and veggies Coffee filters and tea bags Garden trimmings We can’t compost:    Plastic bags Metal Chewing gum COOKING in the TAS class My class CSWE 2 has a TAS lesson (Technology and Applied Studies) once a week. We learn practical skills about food, health and hygiene. Food is very important in our lives. It provides us with energy. If you want to have good health you need to eat healthy food. To make good food you need a clean environment. A chef needs extra procedures for cleaning before cooking. Care for cleaning is very important to the chef. The chef needs to be clean and organised. Before starting in the kitchen the chef needs to wash his hands first. He must use only clean dishes and he must always use detergent to clean the surfaces of the kitchen. Cooking is an important part of our life. In our cooking lessons the teachers teach us how to cook healthy food. We learn about cooking with fresh vegetables from our school garden which is maintained by Ms Rosales and the students of the Gardening group. We get fresh vegetables and herbs like spinach, cabbage, bok choi, cauliflower, lettuce, parsley, coriander, sesame and shallots. We learn how to cook using recipes from different cultures. Each week we try something from a different country. We made Korean pancakes, Vietnamese vegetable rice paper rolls, Chinese stir -fry vegetables with noodles, Italian spaghetti Bolognese and other mouth-watering dishes. One week our Japanese teacher, Mrs Fehlner, taught us how to Hamidullah Hayati CSWE 2 make prawn, avocado & cucumber sushis. It was not an easy task but the sushis were lovely. We learn how to follow health and safety procedures. These lessons really help us to cook responsibly. For example meat and vegetables need to be cut separately on different cutting boards to prevent cross contamination. We also paid a lot of attention to Composting. We learnt what we can put in the compost bins to turn our kitchen waste into compost for our garden. HEALTHY EATING PROGRAM with the RED CROSS This term, the students of CSWE 1 and CSWE 2 were introduced to the “Healthy Eating Program” conducted by the Australian Red Cross. The Red Cross representative, Ms Phillipa Bishop, and a volunteer visited the IEC to tell us the importance of eating healthily. It was so nice for me to gain this experience and I am now very confident to cook delicious and healthy food. I am now known as ‘a very good cook’ but before I used to be very confused about cooking food as I did not want to try out new foods. Now I’m willing to try new things and I enjoy it. We went to Coles Chatswood for shopping for healthy foods and returned with big bags of quality foods which had meat and vegetables. Page 3 ANZAC DAY CEREMONY Anzac Day is one of the most important days in Australia. It is on the 25th of April, a day, set aside in both Australia and New Zealand to honour those who have fought for our freedom. The ceremony ended with the Australian national anthem. We all learnt a lot on that day, not only about Australian history, but also about a kind of spirit, the Anzac spirit. It was really a significant day. uniforms, sat around the ‘Pool of Reflections’ in front of the building. The pool is flanked by rows of poplar trees which symbolize France where Australian soldiers fought during WW1. Chatswood IEC joined in the commemoration ceremony for Anzac Day. We assembled at the Anzac Memorial, a majestic building, in Hyde Park. Then we came to the important part of the ceremony _ the Laying of the Wreaths. I was honoured with performing this task with Gary Csernai 3S2. The ceremony started with a song performed by a girls’ choir. The beautiful melody and the girls’ clear voices took our minds away and won our applause. The focus of the ceremony was on the broad stairway of the Anzac Memorial. Students from many different schools, wearing different Zoe Chen 3S1 With sacred music playing in the background we walked up the steps and laid our wreath under the cenotaph quietly. At that moment, I felt glorious, just like the great soldiers standing in front of me. I will never forget that moment. Then one student representative made a speech about the history of Anzac Day and the purpose of the ceremony. The atmosphere was serious as we listened to this important information. HYDE PARK BARRACKS EXCURSION On the 23rd of May, all level 3 IEC students braved the heavy rain and went on a fascinating excursion to Hyde Park Barracks to deepen our knowledge about Australian History and, in particular, to learn more about how the convicts lived. At the Hyde Park Barracks, we 80 or so students were divided into four groups. With the support of really interesting guides, we were given lots of information about the life and work of convicts. Page 4 Nathan Le 3S1 In the Barracks, we saw many One highlight was when we had a real artifacts & galleries right chance to lie down on reconin front of us. structed hammocks, to imagine how 30 convicts lived and slept there together in a room that is only 36 square metres. It was amazing to see the artifacts (primary physical sources!) like bits of cloth, tobacco smoking pipes, plates and cups that have existed under the floor boards for almost 200 years, right in the heart of Sydney, and which were found during an archeological dig around 25 years ago. Despite the bad weather, everyone was very excited about the excursion, and the smiles on everyone’s faces proved it. It not only showed us how Australia was before, but it also told us how harsh it was for people in those days. In one room, we also saw maps and paintings showing how Sydney grew in the first decades after the First Fleet arrived here in 1788. MILSON ISLAND CAMP On the 15th May all of the students of the IEC went to Milson Island for a school camp for three days. We all had to meet at school at 8 o’clock in the morning. We didn’t have to wear school uniform so we all looked very happy. Teachers checked our names and then we got onto one of the three buses. After 45 minutes travelling north on the Pacific Highway we arrived at a wharf on the Hawkesbury River at Kangaroo Point. We got onto the ferryboat and sailed up the river for about 30 minutes to Milson Island. We had a 10 minute walk up the hill to the assembly area under the umbrellas. We went to our cabins to put down our bag. Then we came back to the assembly area for lunch and after that the teachers told us the program for the next three days. We had activities during the morning and afternoon such as canoeing, archery, fishing, high ropes, giant swing, bushwalking and cooking damper. Lia Marti 3I In the evening we played games in the Rec Hall and had a lot of fun. For supper we had cake and then went back to our cabins to chat with our roommates. We had our meals in the Dining Hall. The food was okay. Some students had to help with the cleaning up after the meals. We learnt a lot about Milson After that it operated as a prison Island’s history. We went on before it changed to an educabushwalks around the island. tion centre for school camps. We discovered that the Aborigines lived there 200 years During this camp we had a lot of ago. They used bark canoes, ate fun and we especially enjoyed our free time. We practised our fish and lived in the caves. speaking skills and learnt to speak English better. We then got off the boat at Milson Island and took a bag, any bag, onto the shore. Then it was a hospital for soldiers returning from the war and after that it was used as a Mental Hospital. On our bushwalk we saw the deserted Nurses Quarters where they say there are ghosts. Page 5 MILSON ISLAND CAMP Dates to Remember First Day of Term 3 16th July Bushcare 21st July, 18th Aug, 15th Sept. The Newsletter Term 2 2013 Contributors: Linda Wang 3S2, Nathan Le 3S1, Damien Gits 3J, Gibberagong Excursions 30th July, 31st July,1st August Zoe Chen 3S1, Lia Marti 3I, Hamidullah Hayati CSWE 2 ‘My Girragundji’ , play 8th August Editor / Layout Ms Londy