Aussie kids get postcards from England.

Further to my previous post, I took my friend Lorna's box of fabric postcards to Strathewen Primary School this morning, and received a very warm welcome from the teachers and parents who were there helping out. It's all hands on deck at a time like this, when their world has been turned upside down. Jane, the principal, is a lovely lady, and had the kids all sitting on the floor ready to meet me. She had told them about our postcard project, and showed them where England is, on the classroom globe. Then she introduced me, and I told them about our internet craft group and how Lorna had asked her students to make the cards for Aussie kids. The little faces looking up at me (aged preps to year 6) were all interested and happy that these other kids across the world were concerned for them.

Then I put the box on the floor and let the kids choose a card each. The teachers said "Now just take the one on top, don't riffle through them!" but I said no, let them have a look through and choose what appeals to them. I gave Jane a printout of the school website and a photo of Lorna, and she is going to make a wall display of that with the cards, before the children take them home. She said after lunch when I left, she would get each child to hold up their card and read the message on the back.

The kids were simply happy with their cards, but the adults were very touched by the messages on the English students' postcards.
Some brought a smile (this boy seems to have misinterpreted the term "Down Under"!

And others caused eyes to mist over..



They all had a look through the box at most of them, and said what a wonderful thing we've done. The local paper journo was there with the photographer, and he took heaps of photos while she talked to me and some of the teachers. I asked if I could take some photos myself and Jane said of course. She got someone to take a photo with her and me with some of the kids, so Lorna can show it to her students. Even though parents had given their permission for their children to be photographed by the press, I don't think it would be a good idea to reproduce my photo of them on this blog, but I took photos of the sign outside the Wattle Glen School, stating that is where the Strathewen P.S. is temporarily located. Then there is a photo of the portable classroom where the 35 kids are having their classes at the moment.




Two more photos are of the school 'pets'. Our rural schools always have pets of some kind, usual native animals or insects. Strathewen School's pets were all burned along with the school, and you can imagine how upset the kids were about that, so one of the first things the teachers did was organise new pets - two stick insects (showing one here on a girl's hand) and two hens in a pen outside.




When I left the school I drove up to Kinglake and took a few photos to show how the trees are regenerating. Here is one taken mid-April about two months after the fires, where everything is still burnt. The other is what I took today, so you can see the difference - still blackened, but life is returning.