Eurovision

Can't believe how popular it is here. It has been on all weekend. They even have a vote line open but is an internet vote to the transmitting TV channel. They chose an Australian winner which is not always the same as the eventual winner. The commentators are very flippant ala Terry Wogan. There is even a CD of Eurovision's Greatest Hits being advertised in the adds.

Pupil Free Day

Yesterday was a Pupil Free day i.e. it was counted as one of our 200 days but we were all on a course and the kids had a day off. We joined another two schools and under the guidance of Fr Barry Ryan (ancestors from Tipperary) spent the day studying and reflecting on Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. It involved some discussion and bible reading to help tie in with the teaching of Jesus in the R.E. programme. The day was organised by Martin Ryan (ancestors from Galway) who is the Religious Education Adviser for the CEO. I thought that it might have been a bit ‘heavy’ but it was enjoyable and relaxing and I came away refreshed.
It was great then to be home early so that I could bring Oisin on a further tour of the locality.

Darwin Road Sign

I don't flippin' think so!

Confirmation

We had Confirmation on Sunday as part of the regular Sunday Mass in Koroit. I collected Oisín at around six in Melbourne Airport and made a mad dash for Warrnamboo to get changed and then out to Koroit for 10.30 a.m. Normally Confirmation is done by the priest but we had a visiting bishop from Sydney: Brian Finnegan D.D. who was born in nearby Port Fairy. It was a very simple ceremony but none the worse for that. It was very much an integral part of weekly worship rather than “The Big Show.” I looked after the choir and because it was a Sunday and there is footy/netball on from an early hour, it was difficult to round them up. I had to extend down to Grade Three and plan a big ‘Party’ for Monday to get the numbers up to twelve! They were lovely and sweet and I took particular joy in doing ‘Seinn Alleluia’ and ‘An Irish Blessing’. Fr. Bill, who is Dutch announced that he was going to come into school and teach the children some Dutch hymns. The teachers from the school did all the readings and were also Ministers of The Eucharist. School and Parish are very closely linked. Teachers who teach in Catholic schools, in my experience here, tend to be actual practising Catholics. (That old chestnut of choice over habit/tradition…)

Before the conferring, all the children (about twenty) were invited behind the altar and were blessed by both the Bishop and Priest, in turn. Then ‘The Bish’ sat out front on the throne. The children came from behind him and their sponsors from the front. It was the same as home after that. At the end all the kids processed out with the lads, then returned for photos. Then, back to the school where the P+F again stepped up to the plate. A number of people came up in the church and hall afterwards to remark on how lovely the choir sounded. They were good but not that good. I have bigger plans for First Communion in September. I remember when I came to Trim twelve years ago and we did a Jig, with the hard shoes for the offertory procession, we woke up a few people in the church. So a bit of “Awake from your slumber…” is planned for later in the year. Watch this space.

BTW they make their Confirmation in Grade Three in this Diocese. First Reconciliation is in Grade Two and First Communion in Grade Four. Remember the order that we learnt the list of sacraments? Such was the way in the Early Church, though that was mainly to cater for adult conversions. Interesting ages and sequence. First Reconciliation was a couple of months ago, but that was so low key that a sub teacher just in for the day did it. I wonder will they do the white dresses for First Communion?

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Got a loan of a bike for Oisin when he comes out. I haven't ridden for about twenty years so decided to try it out. I nearly died twice! Once of a heart attack going up the bleeden hills and twice when I pulled the brakes to find that the back brake is on the right-hand side here. I don't think that I will forget that again in a hurry. I wouldn't mind if a ten year old lad had not remarked that I was not wearing a helmet and that I should. What does he know, if I had taken his advice I would now need to buy a new helmet!

NAPLAN

Last week was NAPLAN week in our school and indeed all schools in Australia. In 2008, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) commenced in Australian schools. Every year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. This was fine and dandy until last year when the Government used the data to compare schools. This has put pressure on schools that is hard to explain. Now instead of having a useful tool to inform student learning into the future, they have created a competitive culture that values a numeric ranking over a rounded moral and spiritual education. There have been horror stories in the media all week telling of schools who have exempted pupils in order to keep their scores up, teaching to the test etc. There was even a story of Year 9s (15/16 year olds) deliberately getting answers wrong in order to get their teachers into trouble. It was even suggested that teachers from one school should administer the tests in another school!
On the ground here, I felt like a secondary principal at Junior Cert time. This box arrived by courier about a week in advance. I had to sign for it and then ensure that it was double locked and only given out immediately prior to the test. There was a four page checklist of things to do and record. A supervisor even arrived on Thursday to check that all procedures had been and were being followed. I had to show him the double locks and where the box was stored. He stayed in the Grade Three classroom for the duration of the test. Teachers were very tense as were pupils and parents.

Portland

Took a Sunday spin today. Portland is about 80 minutes west of Warrnambool and was the first inhabited settlement in Victoria. The whalers got there before the regular settlers who arrived about 1830. So Portland was settled before Melbourne. It now has a population of just less than ten thousand, whereas Melbourne had all of five million. It is a typical fishing village and there seemed to be a fishing competition on. Loads of boat trailers around the harbour and boats coming in at regular intervals. I followed the crowd to the weighing area to see what one bloke caught. It was apparently a pretty big tuna (see slide show) and everyone was repeating '137' which seemed significant. After being weighed it was then filleted. Quite a few monuments to the first settlers and even the first doctor who lived there, not forgetting the Aboriginal people who were displaced. Had a nice cup of coffee and a hedgehog (what we used to call 'chocolate biscuit cake' growing up) and read my book in the autumn sunshine. On the way home I stopped at Codrington Wind Farm which when it was built in 2001 was the largest in Australia. At least here the place is so vast it did not seem to be built in some one's back yard.

'Our Jess'

Jessica Watson has just landed in Sydney becoming the first 16 year old to sail singlehandly around the world. It is on all the TV stations and absolutely huge among all media. The Aussies love their sport and gutsy people. What better harbour to finish in than Sydney Harbour.

Full Profile of School

St Patrick’s is a small Catholic school of 140 pupils in the rural town of Koroit in South-western Victoria. There are 22-24 pupils in each classroom. Pupils wear a summer uniform, with hat, for terms one and four. Terms two and three they wear a winter! uniform. The town is noted for its Irish heritage and agricultural background. The school has a principal, six full-time teachers, 6 part-time teachers, two full-time and two part-time integration aides (SNAs) a part-time caretaker and a full-time business manager/secretary.

School starts at 9.00 and continues until 3.30 for all classes including Infants but these do not have any school on Wednesdays of the first term. Classes go from Prep to Grade six. Therefore, pupils start a year older than in Ireland. Recess is from 11.00 to 11.30 and lunch is from 1.00 to 2.00. This means a lot more yard duty which also includes 30 mins before school starts and 10 mins after school finishes. Teachers are mandated three hours a week for meetings be they staff meetings or curricular (usually literacy and numeracy).There are four terms in the school year of at least ten weeks. Teachers work 200 days a year but not all of these are pupil days. There are four pupil-free days at the beginning of the school year (three for literacy interviews and one for prep) and three at the end of the school year for numeracy interviews. There can be a number of other pupil-free days during the year, for example in May we have an in-service course in Religious Education (R.E.) The school years runs from January to December.

Teachers get 2.5 hours a week free to do their preparation and their classes are covered by a specialist teacher: visual arts, music, performing arts or muggins. Classes are called grades and grades three to six have LOTE (Language other than English) for an hour a week. This is more prep time for those teachers. Despite all this, teachers here work very long hours. I generally get to school at eight in the mornings and have never once been first in! Most teachers are in school until five o’ clock and they drift home between five and six. I have even met teachers in the school on a Sunday. Post holders (POLs) get the equivalent of a day a term paid substitute cover for this responsibility or approx an hour a week to plan for their responsibility. We have three POLs and they also get paid substitute cover to attend professional development (P.D.) P.D. is huge due here and is very well funded. Paid substitute cover is provided for teachers who attend. To date teachers here have gone on a grand total of 23 PD days with full substitute cover. This is almost two days a week average. The principal gets paid sub cover for 20 days a year for PD and meetings. This is separate to my release time which is three and two third days a week.

We are in the Diocese of Ballarat and there are approx. sixty primary schools in the Diocese. These are supported by a plethora of support staff in the Catholic Education Office (C.E.O.) consisting of consultants, advisers, accountants, RE advisers, facilitators, executives etc. numbering about sixty. Eileen Flynn eat your heart out! The level of support is unimaginable to the Irish teacher/principal and merits further description.

Mothers' Day Celebrations

Tomorrow is Mothers' Day in Australia and yesterday there were great celebrations in school. The PFA made gifts and sold them to the kids, in the morning. In the afternoon there was a concert performed by the kids for mums and grand mums, with fathers doing the serving. The PFA are a phenomenal group who really step up to the plate and get involved in so much of school life. They will raise at least €16,ooo for the school this year but they are there cooking and baking at the drop of a hat. It is nearly a full time job for the officers.

The Grand Annual Race Carnival

The photo above of Frank was taken near the end of the day. Think that I might enter it into a competition. Leave a comment if you can explain it! Anyway, Thursday was the final day of the three day May Race Carnival in Warrnambool. It was like going to the Galway Races except that I was close enough to walk. The main race of the week was 'The Grand Annual Steeplechase' which is like the Australian Grand National. 5,500 metres and 33 fences and many animal rights protesters. The race went ahead but it might be the last, due to the number of horses killed in previous steeplechases. There are only two steeplechases races left in Victoria and if either goes that will be the end for the other. Two horses fell and none were killed, T.G. I was putting €2 each way on the races and came out €15 to the good, with two winners and three places out of eight races. Not bad for someone who hasn't a clue. If the horse had any Irish connection I backed it and my biggest winner was one called 'Papercut' as I had just given myself a papercut with the race programme! The odds are not like at home but given in dollars. So a horse who came in at €5 paid five to one. Cents were included also so I had one winner at €1.30 which was just a little over even money. The system was easier to understand than at home. Everything else was similar to home, even the corporate tents were there in number. The local Secondary School had one! There was a huge number of young people at it and all were dressed in their finery. The young men were a sight to behold in their suits and hats, as were the young ladies in their dresses and high heels trying to negotiate the grassy areas. (see slideshow)

A Match Made In Heaven

Went to see Koroit play footy on Sunday as the last event of the Irish Festival. They were Premiership Champions last year but have lost about twelve players and are now rebuilding. They were playing Terang and lost heavily. The set-up is similar to Senior Football at home except that the grounds also incorporate netball grounds and a basketball stadium. It is beside a croquet club and bowls club. The grandstand was on one side and the other three sides were embanked. Cars were parked on the embankments and these spots were much sought after by spectators. When goals were scored they all honked their horns. It wasn’t that it was raining or cold-it was 17 degrees. This is the tradition here at these matches.
The marriage is between Netball (ladies) and Footy (men). The clubs are called Football Netball Clubs. The teams in each division match exactly, not only between the Netball and Footy but also the u-eighteens and reserve sides. That was six matches between Terang and Koroit in total, some on at the same time, except the last match which was Senior Footy. The senior footy manager was even married to the senior netball manager! But that is not always the case! The day started at 10.00 a.m. and finished at 4.30 p.m. Entry was €7 which included a programme. The programme contained all the netball and footy teams from the whole division with the senior footy teams being in the centre. They are obviously all done centrally. About ten years ago the two sports decided to combine and it has made a big difference, especially to the country teams. It has dissipated the culture of drink and made match days great family occasions. Netball’s profile has risen also and it is now getting far more TV coverage. It is noticeable at school, all the lads have gone football mad since the footy season started and many of the girls practice netball at playtime. ‘Win-Win’ for both sports.

Koroit Irish Festival

Maybe I should at this stage refer you to the website. I had a great weekend and it was more a sense of community and togetherness than a music festival. I fell asleep at the Maria Forde Concert on Friday night, the old jet-lag was catching up on me. On Saturday our school kids paraded behind the county flag of their ancestors. Following the parade Grades three and Four performed the dance 'Johnny Will You Marry Me?', the school choir sang two songs, the Grade Fives and Sixes did a dance of their own composition to 'I'll Tell My Ma' and we finished up with all and sundry, and even a few of the spectators, doing the Tommy-K Dance. Pity the photos were not great as I was going to send them to the saw Doctors' Website. I then entered The Danny Boy Competition. The first round was in Izzy's Restaurant at one and I qualified for the finals at Five. A local man who had been trying for twelve years won but I was pleased, especially as the final was in the Theatre with a few hundred people. In between I watched the groups Cill Airne and the Craic Hooers. ( I met them in Mickey Burkes after and they thought that I sang well! They even gave me a copy of their cd which I got them to sign. They did so 'as Gaeilge') The highlight of the weekend was the night-time performance of Creymore. They rock! Met Sinéad Philips, one of the vets if you have been following, in Mickey Bourkes and the sing-song went on late into the night. will have to learn more words of more songs. Bhan Tri performed at mass the next morning and then I went to the Bowls Club for breakfasy, comedy and more music. Finally went to the footy grounds to see Koroit play Terang. I met loads of people both Aussie ( not least many of the parents from school) and Irish and had a great social time.

Melbourne Trains Two

On Monday morning I arrived at Southern cross Station on the citylink train from South Kensington. I had about 40 mins to get my next ticket but was dragging a large suitcase and two pieces of hand luggage. I went to buy a ticket at the ticket counter. They only sold citylink tickets there and directed me downstairs to a window that sold V-Line (provincial tickets). I queued up and bought my ticket. Good value at about €18. I was directed to Platform 5 but could only find 5a and 5b. Eventually established that it was 5a. Was told that I would have to book on my luggage, so I had to go almost to the other end of the station, and it is a large station, to find the 'special' place where one books in ones luggage. Needless to say it was not beside the ticket window or anywhere near it. There was a huge Que. It was just like an airport Que. Got to the top of that and they took my luggage and tagged it. Then they weighed it. It was 23 kg. Too heavy. The workers will not handle more than 20kg. I was told that I would have to go to the carriage with it myself but they would not leave on the tag so that I could prove that I did attempt to book it on. I rushed back to platform 5a and meet the baggage master, just outside his carriage. I explained my situation and he said that it could not go in his carriage because it did not have a tag. He told me to take it on the train with me. Then he followed me and told me that it was not possible to store the bag near where I was sitting (you get numbered seat tickets). It would have to go in the baggage carriage. But he could not carry it because it did not have a tag so he asked me to carry it and place it there myself. I did and just made it back to my seat as the train pulled off! To add insult to injury the train passed through South Kensington Station but did not stop, which brings me back to Melbourne Trains One! (see previous blog)

Three Great Days

It had been a tough decision in the first place to go home for only one week and in the end I got just three days. I would not have decided to go home for that short length of time but after all the uncertainty, it was well worth it. The Grad, some shopping, a meal with John and Ann on Thursday, a visit to St Mary's on Friday and the rest of the time with my dad. It was tough heading for the airport at six o' clock on the Sunday morning for the flight to London, onwards to Melbourne via Hong Kong. I got into Melbourne late on Monday night and stayed with Karin and Rick before getting the morning train to Warrnambool. I got in just after eleven and was back at work in Koroit by twelve. It took me a week to recover from the jet lag and it was hectic each day making up for lost time but it was still worth it. A small price to pay for three great days...