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Central West Photo News August 23–29, 2012
class of the week
SCHOOL’S IN WITH PAUL TIERNEY
Age & Experience Versus Youth & Enthusiasm The good ‘ol Staff V Student battles will no doubt be high on the agenda over the next month, as the seniors finish up their schooling and look to get a couple of final victories over their teachers. I can still remember the Staff v Students touch football match I played in as a Year 12 student in 1983. You would have thought it was the World Cup of competitions from both sides, and there were several hundred students there, cheering us on, and hoping to see a teacher take a spill or two. The students got away with the spoils that day, but I distinctly remembering being surprised and suitably impressed by the silky hands and deft skills (not to mention the turn of speed) of some of the staff members. Over the last three years the staff have, (narrowly), lost the Twenty20 cricket battle against the kids. It went down to the wire each time, but I do remember the scorebook reflecting 6 of the 10 staff dismissals being LBWs. What am I saying? Who am I to insinuate a fix in such a competition? On Tuesday, the staff and Year 12s played a basketball match during lunchtime. A score wasn’t ‘officially’ kept, and it appeared the students easily had the better of play, but every time the score was yelled out, it appeared the staff had miraculously drawn even. With two late baskets, and an unwritten rule of “he who yells out the score loudest wins”, the staff took the gold. Last week, the competition to end all competitions took place. Our annual athletics carnival finished with the inter-house relays to whet the appetite, and then the final event of the day was the Staff v House Captains relay. The trophy, (sitting proudly on the window sill of my office), shows the score before the recent carnival at Staff –8, House Captains-8, so everything was on the line this year. The challenge was set up to be reasonably fair, as the 12 (6 boys and 6 girls) House Captains run instead of the 12 fastest student runners. We run 12 legs of 50m each, so those staff on the wrong side of forty can still show what they have. Cutting a long story short, the 1000+ strong crowd mostly consisting of school students, a smattering of parents and associated members of the school family, were stunned as Age and Experience easily outpointed Youth and Enthusiasm. Whilst no correspondence is ever entered into after a staff victory, there were claims from the students that the starter and the first staff female runner were in cahoots so far as ‘anticipating’ the start went. One student even went so far as to accuse the staff of extending a few of the male runners 50m legs, and shortening some of the female legs – it’s a shame the event wasn’t videoed so this claim could be refuted. These kind of events signal the beginning of ‘the end’ for Year 12, and the fact that they want to spend their time in challenges with those they have been closest to education-wise for the past six years signals a great change from the now out-of-fashion muck-up period. The youth might be leaving school, but it’ll be a while before they have age… and ‘experience’.
Spring Street Children’s Centre—Dolphin Room With Mrs Fiona Fitzgerald and Miss Natalie Mihalic Photos by KiKi hoPcraft These get-up-and-go boys and girls have been learning all about families; what it is like to have a new baby or pet introduced into the family dynamics. Additionally, they have been fortunate enough to have a special Philippine visitor come and share their wonderful language of Cebuano—teaching the children ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and other number songs in the local dialect.
Paul Tierney is Director of Development and a Maths teacher at a school in Orange. He also hosts a weekly radio program on Tuesday’s at 5pm on 107.5 Orange Community Radio
KIDS speak q
Question: Why is mummy or daddy special?
School:
Spring St Children’s Centre
PAIGE • 3
JACK • 3
LACHLAN • 3
CLASS: DOLPHIN CLASS
CLASS: DOLPHIN CLASS
CLASS: DOLPHIN CLASS
Mummy is at work, and Granny is special too. Granny gives us presents, and gets us drinks and snacks.
Mummy is special because she puts dinosaur stickers on my wall.
Dad is special because he can play the computer. He plays little games with me too.
SoPHIA • 2 CLASS: DOLPHIN CLASS
Mummy is really special. Daddy wears pajama pants and they are funny.