04 Dec 2015
What an exhausting few weeks it has been for many of our choir and band students. On Sunday night 22nd November we set off to Canberra. The week saw us visiting some amazing sights in our Nation's Capital including the National Capital Exhibition, the National Museum, The Electoral Commission, The Museum of Democracy (at Old Parliament House), Questacon Science Museum, The National Archives and the Mint. The highlight of our Canberra trip was a day's visit to Parliament House where parliament was in session. We saw the end of Question Time as well as acting out how the House Of Representatives works as part of the Parliamentary Education program. We took a tour of both the House Of Reps and the Senate as well as meeting our local member (Kevin Hogan). The choir sang beautifully from the mezzanine level over the foyer of Parliament House, with many visitors commenting and enjoying their lovely performance.
On Thursday we packed up in Canberra and headed to Sydney where we were met by our High School bandits and after a sweltering walk around Mrs Macquarie's chair and the Botanic Gardens (41 degrees!) we went to Aarons - our accommodation in Darling Harbour. We took a walk through China Town and settled in for a night watching some of the ARIA's (in air conditioned comfort!) and getting some much-needed catch up sleep!
Friday saw us take a cruise around the Harbour learning about the significant sights including where our Prime Minister lives (not a bad pad!) We had an early lunch and set off for the Entertainment Centre. On the way we were greeted by the Millennium Marching Band who performed some wonderful music (without sheet music - and with choreography!) and then we were ushered in to watch 2015's School Spectacular. (If your children are interested it will be televised this Saturday night at 7pm on the nine network). As usual I cried through a lot of the show - there is just something about kids performing that gets to me!
This was a wonderful trip! The kids were wonderfully well behaved with very few hiccups or cross words from any of the adults. Thanks for lending us your wonderful children for the week. And kids, thanks for backing up such a big week with a wonderful job during the Whole School Production. It has been a busy few weeks, but so much fun.
Huge thanks to Mary Cameron for leaving her family for the week to help to coordinate this excursion and thanks also to Shondel O'Connor for coming as our parent helper.
Warm Regards
Amanda Drinkwater
