Year 9 English

In English this term we are studying Of Mice and Men. It is a book about two migrant workers during the time of the Great Depression in California. We have written creative responses to the text. Have a look at a few examples from our Year Nine students:

Manar Hussein- 9A

5th of July 1939

Dear Marcus,

It's been a while hadn’t. Lennie and I 'ave settled up in a ranch right up in Soledad. He’s doin' purtty well I'd say, 'asn't caused any trouble or nothin'.I'm just tellin' 'im to watch 'is back 'cause the bosses son,Curley looks like he gon' give Lennie hell. 'Say 'es always pickin' on the big guys just 'cause he ain't much of big guy 'im self , ridiculous innit?Not to mention 'is wife, she's rat trap if I never seen one. 'Say she aw'ays givin' fellas the eye, best believe i warned Lennie bout 'er if 'e touches 'er we dead

Forgot ta ask hows it goin' back in Weed, tell Jack I said howdy will ya'. Any who I think Lennie an' I got ourselves a deal. An' old swamper say he 'ot money, he wants ta pitch in with us cause he aint got no arm and 'es almost useless so 'e figured 'e wants ta put 'is stake on summat, not to mention they shot is dog ta put im outta misery an that ol dog I tell ya was his pride an joy. 'e also gon leave us 'is whole stinkin' will and we gon buy the farm land jus' like we said and we gon live off the fatta the land and we gon work when we want and when we don't we gon say heck with it and stay home. An' o'course Lennie gon tend 'is rabbits and we aint ever gon work wit' no one ever again infact they gon work for us.

Write back to me and tell my sister Lennie an’ I said hi an’ that we aight.

Love George.

Rimon Ismail- 9B

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28TH, 1934

BRUTAL MURDER OCCURS AT LOCAL RANCH

Ranch worker kills innocent wife of worker

Rimon Ismail, Crime

IN SOLEDAD, California, in the late hours of the 25th of March, wife of local ranch worker James Curley, Lydia Curley, was found deceased in the ranch barn. According to witness statements from ranch workers who prefer to remain anonymous, the brutal murder was carried out by an assailant known by the name ‘Lennie Smalls’. According to analysis of the deceased by the local authorities and coroner, the cause of death was a simple, yet vicious breaking of the neck.

Likened to a vicious and murderous bear by fellow ranch workers who explained their story, Smalls cowardly fled the scene almost immediately, the body being discovered by his co-workers near immediately after recreation in their resting rooms. The workers of the ranch immediately gave chase, cooperating to bring the individual who had committed such a heinous crime to justice. According to ranch workers participating in the manhunt, one by the name of ‘George Milton’ who claimed to hold ties with the assailant lead the way to where Smalls would have attempted to hide. However, upon having caught up to Smalls, he was found deceased. According to those apart of the righteous manhunt, he had been shot dead with one round from a citizen-standard Luger by his close friend, George Milton. Upon the arrival of the authorities, Milton was a prime suspect of being a cohort of Smalls in the murder, as he was one of the first seen with the deceased. However, Milton had since disappeared, presumably fleeing from the scene once authorities had come. Authorities plan to lead a manhunt to capture the assailant.

Elhan Memic- 9B

It was a dark and early in the morning. It was raining the night before and you could see water slowly seeping through cracks in the roof drop by drop. The light in the middle of the room would flicker every now and then. George sat quietly at the table in the side of the room. He was playing cards, waiting for the bus to arrive. He finished packing his bindle earlier. There was nothing to be heard all over the ranch, so he kept it that way. He shuffled the deck and placed a card in the pile. He was thinking, thinking why would Lennie do such a thing. He knew it was going to happen sooner or later but nothing as serious as killing someone. It happened so suddenly, when he killed Lennie. That night he couldn’t sleep with the fact he killed one of his closest friends. “Poor Bastard,” George whispered. Surprisingly he didn’t wake anyone up that was in the bunk, even good old Candy.

We have also learnt some new slang words that John Steinbeck uses. These are words from the time that we no longer use.

Booby hatch = an institution for the mentally ill.
Stake = money
Bust a gut = work really hard
To jungle up = to camp
Bucking grain bags = to carry grain bags
Sore as hell = to be angry
Swamper = someone who works on a ranch
Bum steer = false directions
Skinner = mule driver
To get canned = to lose your job
Handy = strong

Year 10 English

To Kill a Mockingbird is the first text we are studying in Year 10 this year. Most of the students are enjoying the tale of Scout and her childhood in Maycomb. Many are utilizing DEAR time everyday to read their text which is fantastic to see. Students are also encouraged to bring their own books from home to read during those 15mins.

To Kill a Mockingbird is about a young girl who grows up and the lessons she learns along the way. She doesn’t learn much from school but instead learns from her father, her neighbours, her friends and even a terrible miscarriage of justice. Throughout the novel Scout learns to put herself in other people’s shoes and to always stay true to herself and her convictions. We will also be studying this book in Term Two so we are happy that we get to spend a bit longer exploring the characters and themes of this modern-day classic novel.

Students this term had to do an oral presentation. All students did a fantastic job either telling a ghost story about Boo Radley or a malevolent phantom, a neighbourhood story, an important lesson they learnt from childhood or even a story about their own family!

Have a read of the scripts from our talented students.

Tasnim- 10A

This story has been passed down through generations, stories whispered in our neighbourhood for years, and will be told for years yet to come. Every time a new neighbour moved into this neighbourhood this story was shared and is now about to be shared to you too.

It all started at an unusual suburb, Piassa, in an isolated street named Merkato. A family named the Emanuel’s nicknamed the ‘Ebd’ family lived there. Any person who could speak Amharic knew that ‘Ebd’ meant crazy. That is exactly what the Emanuel’s were. They were known throughout the neighbourhood for their strict rules that prevented their young, mischievous and disobedient daughter from doing anything. Her name was Helen.

This story starts with a bored Helen sitting at home by herself, while her parents were out in the countryside. Out of all the precautions put in place for her safety, she only remembered one. “No matter what, don’t leave the house and even if you do, don’t go alone.” As Helen played around with her thick, dark, curly hair she remembered her dad’s cold, sharp, icy blue eyes staring into her soul like a dementour in Harry Potter sucking out all the fun out of her holiday. She shook her head in attempt to forget what her father had said and looked out the window. She saw the typical empty street leading to the main street. Suddenly, she felt like she needed to get out, she felt the urge to show her father that she was old enough to go out by herself; she felt the need to prove him wrong....

Bashir- 10A

I heard blood curdling raucous laughter that sent chills up my spine. Suddenly a streak of lightning appeared behind a glowing set of crimson eyes that seemed to be lusting for blood, a wicked smile and fangs as long as fingers. The dark outline of a face shaded by the eerie dark night sky. To my horror it was reaching out towards me. I felt its cold clammy fingers with dirty long nails grasp my wrist.

“Phew!” I said rubbing the back of my hand against my sweaty brow. I’m glad it was just a nightmare.

Elective: Debating

27/02/2017

Dear Parents/Guardians.

As part of the Debating program at Sirius College Ibrahim Dellal Campus, we are going to take part in interschool debating at D Grade Level (Year 9). This will apply to all students who have adopted to choose Debating as their elective and attendance is compulsory, however, we will endeavour to take rotating teams. Please note that Sirius College has paid money in order to be involved in this competition.

Debating allows your child the opportunity to improve upon their organisational, team building and deportment skills; notwithstanding the improvement of self confidence. As a school we want to develop a long term strategy of interschool competition, which is designed to enhance the culture of our school. We hope that you will be supportive in this endeavour.

Students will need to wear their Full School Uniform and will be required to be dropped off and picked up from the venue; (although, parents are encouraged to stay during the debates).

Yours Sincerely,