Fair Field celebrate Australia Day!

Fair Field celebrated Australia Day in style this morning with an assembly led by Mr Sewell. Mr Sewell, father of Robert and Grace, prepared a very exciting presentation that made us all think about the similarities and differences between the United Kingdom and Australia.

A timeline of Australian history.

The presentation included a map with a new perspective on the world. It was though-provoking to consider that the world is a sphere in space and that which way up a map is drawn is a matter of perspective. Think about the map  below and Australia's position on it. We also considered a very clear timeline of Australia's recent history and formation as a country and compared it to the Aboriginal history of the last sixty thousand (60,000) years! The whole school was also given a dramatic demonstration of an Australian Stock Whip! We learned that the 'crack' heard is a sonic boom where the tip of the whip breaks through the sound barrier.

Mr Sewell bought two flags (the Flag of Australia and the Union Flag) and dowling for the flag poles and, along with our own Mr Cappellina, constructed and varnished the flags, and built a flag stand for the occasion. Cameron and Phoebe walked the flags to the front of the hall. We looked at iconic images of Britain and Australia and listened to the National Anthems of both countries.

Robert and Grace presented Fair Field with an Australian native tree (the Bottle Brush tree). We will find somewhere suitable to plant it and we will enjoy seeing it grow through the years. We have also received the very generous donation of a subscription to Australian Geographic.

We are very grateful to the Sewell family for making Australia Day so interesting and helping us build our understanding of the world in which we live.