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WEAC-Retired member Carol Bertram of Platteville and her husband, Gerry, spent six weeks in Australia visiting with their Australian granddaughter (Helen Stewart, from De Forest, family). Carol, who had read the Cat In The Hat in the Darlington School, brought the outfit with her to Australia.
On March 31, 2008, she read in the school attended by Helen's nieces. The two students standing next to Bertram in the top photo are Helen's nieces. The name of the school is Jerrabomberra Public School and is located in the suburb of Jerrabomberra in the town of Queanbeyan which is a mid-sized rural town in the state of New South Wales. It is very close (just over the border in fact) to Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
The kids were 6 year olds and were very excited to hear that they would be read a Dr. Seuss book and were extremely surprised when Carol turned up in the Cat outfit. They listened quietly and attentively to every word because of her accent, which they knew was straight away from America. Carol left the book, and the children presented it to the school library.
The classrooms are all separate buildings and house kindergarten to grade 6. They just add another building as the population increased. They are heated separately, but really don't need heat as it is very seldom that cold. They then go on to secondary school that goes from grade 7 to 10 or to 12. Sometimes grades 11 and 12 are separate and called senior school.
The school year goes from late January to mid December. The year is broken up to four terms of about 10 weeks each. In between each term are normally two- weeks holidays. Students are given six weeks over Christmas as their main holiday.
A teacher normally instructs a class for the whole school year. They do have special teachers such as music and library.
Nearly all schools in Australia have a school uniform, and it is unusual to see students not wearing their uniforms. Each uniform includes a picture of a kangaroo, which is Australia's symbol. All primary schools have a school hat as part of their uniform and there is a policy on the playground of "no hat, no play." This is due to the strength of the sun and risk of skin cancer in Australia.
Jerrabomberra Public School has approximately 800 students with 100 to 120 students per grade. In each class, there are normally about 25 students.
- Submitted by Carol Bertram
Posted May 19, 2008