The AFP presentation earlier this term, provided you with important information about being safe online and raised awareness about cyberbullying.  It is important to be educated and empowered in order to participate responsibly and safely in our digital world.  With this in mind, you are asked to play all the games on the Cybersmart Access page. Post a brief comment about what you have learnt from the games or from the AFP presentation on our blog.Please click here. 

Pat Farmer is a former federal politician and one of the world’s best marathon runners. He is a multiple world record holder who has raised enormous amounts of money for charity and medical research. In 2011, Pat embarked on a run from the North Pole to the South Pole in an attempt to raise millions of dollars for global water programs in the world's neediest regions.
After running the equivalent of 2 marathons a day, Pat ran an agonising 21 000 km to reach the South Pole 10 months and 13 days after he started. He travelled through 14 countries without any days off. 

In January this year, Pat completed a run through Vietnam becoming the first man to run 2600 km from the North to the South, he then jet skied 400 km up the Mekong Delta into Ho Chi Minh City.

Pat has also completed a run across the Simpson Desert and from Cape York Peninsula to southern Tasmania.  To celebrate the centenary of Federation, Pat completed another extraordinary run - around the entire country of Australia.  .

Pat Farmer is an Australia Day Ambassador and was named Achiever of the Year at the Australian of the Year Awards in 2000.

Today Pat Farmer inspired us all to believe in ourselves and to realise the importance of setting goals and doing our utmost to achieve them. He reminded us that he is just an ordinary human being who can put one foot in front of another and by so doing, could make it from the top of the world to the bottom of the world.  With planning, goal setting, perseverance and determination, it is possible to achieve anything you set out to achieve.

Pat draws inspiration and motivation from his need to help others.  Through long distance running, he has been able to raise awareness about inequalities in the world and to raise money to help make a difference.  

What personal message did you take away from Pat Farmer's presentation?

Paul Sollis, is a Canberra-based composer, came to speak with the Year 6 students about expressing Australia's identity through music.  He shared some music by famous Australian composers such as Ross Edwards and Alfred Hill.  The pieces reflected the composers' expression of the identity of a place, expression of a personal experience or a political idea.  In small groups, the students were tasked with composing a short musical piece (using voice) that reflected a personal experience in the holidays. This was a challenge but it was amazing to hear the

The walls of the Gallery are adorned with artworks that express Australia's identity. We looked at the artwork portraying the viewpoint of the first British settlers through to more contemporary works.  We realised that the bush, the landscape, iconic buildings, indigenous heritage and the notorious Ned Kelly were common themes that carried over from the excursion the day before.
What were your favourite pieces of artwork?

Georgia and Kaity wrote this amazing poem in one hour!
Australia’s Identity
Forty thousand years ago my people roamed the land,
The exploration teams arrived and camped upon the sand.
They grew to love our country with its droughts and drenching rains,
But did not journey further and saw but endless plains.

We thought that they had given up but yet they came again,
Our land became a prison; the land of iron chain.
Along came British settlers, who pushed us further out,
And as resources dwindled, there came a time of drought.
As our land was populated, the colony had grown,
They declared it ‘Terra nullius’ and we became unknown.
As Australia developed; more land was then discovered,
And then as more people arrived, Australia was uncovered.
We became a globalized nation; a democracy at last,
The original inhabitants the votes for whom were cast.
So that they could enjoy freedom too and become equal among all,
Immigration started as the gum trees grew so tall.
The Great Depression came and went; the war had all but gone,
And this is all our history, the story is so long.
The history of Australia, from the first man to the last,
Contributes to our identity and will forever last.



By Georgia Warren and
Kaity Davidson

As a class, we discussed the various forms of the Arts that are used to represent identity. Such artisitic forms include music, poetry, dance, sculpture, writing, film, song, architecture and drama.
After this fruitful discussion, a challenge was then set.  We were placed into small groups and then tasked with expressing Australia's Idenitity through a particular form of the Arts. Some common themes appearing in the artistic expressions included cricket, the outdoors, our history and our indigenous people and their cultural heritage.

The Central Idea for our new Unit of Inquiry is ‘Through The Arts identity can be expressed’.

Our Tuning-In activities involved exploring the word ‘identity’ and sorting/grouping  lollies and people by using similar characteristics. We also identified with a particular lolly and explained how or why it represented us.

We then defined the term ‘identity’:

·    An identity is who or what a person or thing is.

·    Your identity defines who you are. 

·    Identity is multi-faceted, meaning that a combination of many traits forms one identity.

·  Our sense of identity and belonging is determined by various factors, including our experiences, relationships and our environment.

·  Some examples of ‘identities’ are:
career identity (eg nurse),
family identity (eg sister),
skills identity (eg athletic),
cultural identity (eg religion) and
social identity (eg peer group).

The following day, the Year 6 teachers had an ‘identity crisis’ by arriving at school in clothes that were certainly not the conventional dress for teachers. This promoted a lengthy discussion on what identity is, can true identity be changed and what is the accepted dress for a teacher at CGGS.

How did you react to the identity crisis?

On the evening of 26 March the Junior School courtyard was a blaze of colour and excitement as admirable people from across the centuries told us their life stories. From Socrates to Menzies, Steve Jobs to Steve Irwin, Nancy Wake to JK Rowling - many questions were asked and answered. This ‘Evening of Admiration’ was the culmination of the current Year 6 Unit of Inquiry for Where we are in place and time.

Over the course of the unit, we have inquired into the contributions of individuals to society. The research findings were presented as biographical articles for Time Magazine which involved creating the cover and formatting the text to the requirements of a magazine article. Spectacular portraits were also created in Art and displayed on this special evening.