Teacher Karen Winterburn from Tregoze School in Grange Park, Swindon is making a return visit to primary schools in the Newcastle area of New South Wales, Australia, after Jill and Peter Campbell came to Tregoze in early October. Here's her progress report.

Dear swindonlink visitors,

I thought that since I have a spare 15 minutes I'd let you know what I have been up to during my first week in Australia.

I have spent 3 days in Charlestown East public primary school and during this time I have spoken to most of the classes from kindergarten to Year 6. I think I have established potential links with 5 classes, a year 1 class, 2 year classes and Jill Campbell's class, and a Year 5/6 class.

The only problem with the exchange is the differences in timings for the respective academic years. English school begin in September and finish in July, whereas the school year in Australia starts in January and runs until December. Therefore links with current Year 2 children will be Year 3's in Jan. The links may have to be with teachers instead of children.

Protection against the sun's rays is very important for kindergarten children at Charlestown East primary school	Children from Charlestown East School, New South Wales - Chloe, Athos, Adam, Maylin, Pierce, Kayla and Jessica.

I have also been to two other school, one called Jewells Primary School, a school heavily into expressive arts. The school also has a GAT class - Gifted And Talented - where children sit an exam to enter the class and extension level activities are taught. A very interesting idea. From this the children sit another exam to go to a private High school where the children are taught at a higher level.

The other school I have been to is Rathmines Primary School, where the head John Butcher had arranged a 'cultural day'. This was an Aboriginal Day, where the whole school moved around activities such as boomerang painting, textile artwork, story telling, and looking at artefacts. Aboriginal people lead each of the sessions.

I took lots of photos, and thought they would come out well, however, I have just had 3 films developed and realised that there is something wrong with the camera and all the photos are out of focus!

The swindonlink web page is looking terrfic and I am showing it to the children here, they are also looking forward to seeing their own pictures on the internet!

Karen

PS: One thing I have learnt is that the Aboriginal People never say goodbye, only in death. They tend to say seeya later. However, the follow up to this is -

See ya later alligator, dont forget your toilet paper!!!

Chloe and Jessica describes the games they play at school:

Every morning, the classes at our school join in fitness activities. We play many class games such as basketball, cricket soccer and handball. This usually lasts around half and hour.

We have a big basketball court at the bottom of the playground, we divide the class into two teams. If there are too many people on the court then some children sit out until they are tagged, then they can join in the game.

We also have cricket nets and play cricket here.