Osnovna škola Ivana Gorana Kovačića Vrbovsko

On May 18th, 2015 the third week of the Month of the English Culture was opened. It was the week of Australia.

At the school entrance there was a desk decorated with the Welcome sign and Patrick White's picture next to it. There was also a golden wattle bouquet since this flower is the official flower of Australia as well as a kangaroo as the official animal of the country.

Two 6th class pupils, Ella Musulin and Lana Uzelac opened the week. After listening to Advance Australia Fair our pupils went to their classrooms.

During the past five days each class had a guided tour through the school corridors. It was like travelling through Australia with your own personal guide. Their guide was a 5th class pupil Vanja Vučinić, dressed as one of the most famous Australian cartoon characters – our own Felix the Cat.

At the very beginning of the tour she took them on a journey through geography of Australia and they got to know how many parts make Australia and which are their capitals. They found out that even though two largest citiest are Sydney and Melbourne, none of those cities is the capital. The capital is Canberra and it is considered to be the bush capital. They also found out that Australia is the 6th largest country in the world but besides being the country, it's also an island and a continent. It is referred to as the country „Down Under“ since it's on the south hemisphere.

Regarding the history of Australia they found out about the Aborigines as the native people of Australia. They saw a boomerang and learnt that it was used for hunting and that there are boomerangs of different sizes and shapes. They also heard of an Aboriginal instrument new to them – the didgeridoo and remembered it from some TV commercial. What impressed them the most was the fact that the Aborigines are the oldest living population on our planet.

They learnt something about the Australian governement and how it functions – who makes the laws, who enforces them and what is the highest court in the country. They found out that it's a republic monarchy with its government whose head is the Prime Minister as well as that it has got the queen. The current Prime Minister is Tony Abbott while the Queen is actually Queen Elizabeth II which came as a shock to them. But then they remembered the colonisation and they understood why the Queen of England is also the Queen of Australia.

There was also a poster containing all 28 Prime Ministers of Australia including the current one who is also the 28th one. They could see which political party they belonged to as well as the list of the political parties in Australia.

There was a poster about the top 5 Australian universities including the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Australian National University. They learnt that each of those universities has got its own coat of arms and motto.

They leant about many Australian landmarks such as Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, Adelaide Gaol, the Wheel of Brisbane, the National War Memorial, the Old Mill in Perth, Port Arthur in Tasmania, the State Library in Queensland, Uluru, Kangaroo Island and some more. Till this week they have only encountered two Australian landmarks – Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. So this was a great opportunity for them to see many more landmarks.

The latter two were also presented by the paper models.

They enjoyed learning about the film industry and TV shows including names such as Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth as well as TV shows like Neighbours, Mother and Son and Dame Edna Everage.

Music introduced them to some of the greatest Australian artists such Bee Gees, AC DC, Savage Garden, Olivia Newton-John and „the pocket Venus“, Kylie Minogue.

Literature was represented by three great writers – Patrick White, Ethel Turner and „Banjo“ Paterson.

The last poster in line was the red one as is the colour of poppies because the battle fields of Normandy were covered with poppies when the Australian soldiers lost their lives in the First World War. They heard of two tunes – The Rouse and The Last Post as well as that the instrument playing them is the trumpet. Poppies became the emblem of the Remembrance Day celebrated on November 11th.

Since we all love to eat, we had to mention some traditional dishes such as Pavlova, a cake made to honour a Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, then the Australian traditional bread called damper and finally the Anzac biscuits.

Pupils had a chance to read an Aboriginal legend called The Creation of Life thanks to which they found out about the „Dreamtime“.

Last in line was a Powerpoint presentation on Australia done by the 8th class pupils Natalija Dokmanović, Refik Husić, Simeon Rajnović and Bojan Vučković. It contained everything - geography, history, landmarks, universities, film, TV shows, music, literature but also sports with a special stress on cricket.

During each break there was a pupil in charge for playing  a CD with the Australian music. The list included Bee Gees, AC DC, Savage Garden, Olivia Newton - John and Kylie Minogue.

The 1st and the 2nd class pupils had a cartoon workshop – Felix the Cat (more precisely, Felix in Egypt); they watched the cartoon without the Croatian subtitles after which they had to colour the Felix pattern; each pupil got his/her own colouring assignment.

The 5th class pupils had a film workshop Rabbit-Proof Fence thanks to which they found out about the assimilation programme carried out by the Australian government till 1973 when it was finally abandoned. They learnt about the Stolen Generations to which Australian Prime Minister apologized in 2008. After the film, they made a poster based on the film and we discussed the programme of assimilation as well as the role of A. O. Neville as the Chief Protector of the Aborigines.

The pupils who participated in this project working with me for the past several months, staying overtime 2-3 times a week, staying 90 minutes longer than all the others during our workshops got a certificate  that I made.

Our neighbours from the Railway Technical School also came together with some of their pupils and they were thrilled after seeing and being a part of our Australia week and after being guided by our own little Felix the Cat.

I just want to say that nothing of this would be possible if there hadn't been for my pupils. They showed a great willingness to participate in this project and they were persistent to carry it through. Therefore, this project is equally theirs as it is mine.

A special thanks goes to Miss Vanja Vučinić, a 5th class pupil and the best Felix the Cat from „Up Above“.

Next week Atomic Betty will be your guide through Canada! See you then!