St Leonard’s Day 1 - Chocolates!

by Hui Xia

We checked out of our hotel, Citigate Melbourne, which we had stayed for two nights. All of us were dressed in our full school uniform, complete with blazer and a tie.

After that, we got on our coach and started a journey to St. Leonard College which took us an hour to reach. It was located at Cornish Campus we were welcomed by one of the teachers there Mrs. B (that what all her students call her). We were brought to a room which was about the same of Evergreen AVA room. The tables were arranged in a way that facilitated group work. We were split up into 8 groups, each group consisting of both students from St. Leonard’s and Evergreen. That gave us an opportunity to interact and get to know the students there. The students were in Year 10, and their ages range from 15- 17. They were all rather friendly, and made us feel welcome almost immediately. Even the shy ones amongst us felt very comfortable in that environment.

The theme of the lesson was ‘Where I lived represent who I am’. This lesson was introduced to us by Ms Newman, a teacher in their school. For the first task, from 9am to 11am, we were asked to do a Mud Map of our country. The students from St. Leonard’s had to draw Mud Maps of Melbourne. After drawing the maps, we then had to present it to our group members from St. Leonard’s, explaining various the places of interests that Singapore has. After that we were given a 20 minute break, the student introduced us to their common room outside their classroom. There was a microwave oven, toaster, a music player, cards, table tennis table and lots more inside the room. Some of the students even sat down to play a game of cards during those 20 minutes.

The next activity - ‘I see, I think, I wonder’. Pictures of areas in Singapore and Melbourne were given to us, we had to write down what we saw in each picture and what we thought of it. Finally, we had to write down what we wondered about that picture.

Our group then had to write a ballad/poem after that. The students at St.Leonard’s were very good at this. Rhyming was especially something that they are very good at. We watched in amazement as they quickly wrote really cool rhymes.

We had another break at 1.20pm for lunch. During lunch, a lot of students were playing in the open area in fron of the school. It was clear to see that the students of the school were closely-knit. The senior pupils seemed to be very comfortable playing with the really young ones.
(Mr Ratish, Mrs Raj and Ms Maz with students during lunch break)

After lunch, we were joined by more students for the Music & Drama class. We were spilt into the music groups and the drama groups. Each group then had to discuss and present a performance based on the Shakespearean play Macbeth. We’d even be given a chance to wear costumes for the performance, which would be done on Wednesday. By 3.20, lessons were over, and yet we still felt full of energy. The friends we made, the lessons that engaged us, it was such an eventful day. I can’t wait for tomorrow! :)