One activity that students enjoy at Central Sydney Intensive English High School is the Canberra excursion. Below is a recount of Term 2 2019 Canberra excursion written by three students of the school.
Canberra Excursion – May 2019
On May 30-31, 44 students and 4 teachers from Central Sydney Intensive English High School went to Canberra for 2 days. It was great fun and we learned a lot.
On Thursday, May 30, all the students and teachers arrived at school at 6:15am because we had to leave for Canberra at 6:30am. On the bus we had lots of fun—we listened to music and talked and ate some snacks.
The first place we visited was the Gold Creek Station where we saw how they corral sheep and shear their fur. We had lunch there, and afterwards we walked outside a little bit to look around the farm.
After we left Gold Creek Station we went to the National Museum of Australia. It is really a nice place where you can learn many things. For example, we saw a lot of things from Aboriginal people and things that people in the past used in their daily lives.
Then we went to Questacon (The National Science and Technology Centre). It was one of the most fun places. There you can try a lot of experiments and see how things work. There was also a singing robot—it was really cool. One of the things we liked the most there was the moon. There was a dark room and in the ceiling there was a big moon. It looked real and it was one of our favourite exhibits at Questacon.
From Questacon we went to our hotel. We had dinner and we had some time to talk, play and take photos. After that we went to the Telstra Tower. It was still lots of fun to see all the city from up there. The only problem was that it was so windy and cold that we went up there just to take a photo quickly then come back inside because everyone was freezing. Soon after that we went back to the hotel. It was freezing that night but we still have so much fun, we almost didn’t sleep because we talked a lot and played and gossiped.
The next day we learned about Australian laws and politics. The first place we visited was the Old Parliament House. There we saw where politicians work and make and/or change the laws. We learned about and sat in the House of Representatives (the Green Room) and the Senate (the Red Room). The most fun was role-playing presenting, debating and passing a bill in the House of Representatives.
After that, we visited the Australia War Memorial. There we learned about the many wars Australia has participated and how many people died fighting for Australia. Then we went to the New Parliament House. We saw where the green room and the red room is now, we learned more about laws and we participated in another role-play. Then, it was time to go back to Sydney. On the way, we stopped at McDonald’s. It was really fun.
We would like to thank the Australian government for contributing $20 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program, assisting our parents and carers meet the cost of the excursion and affording us the opportunity to visit Canberra as part of our civics and citizenship education. This excursion was really great we had a wonderful time with our friends and teachers and learned a lot. It was a really worthwhile excursion.
By Maria, Tristan and Umar from 4TT