Today we did our last ever NAPLAN test which was kind of difficult but we’re glad it’s over now. After NAPLAN math with and without a calculator we had Food For Thought. This was both a great and horrible experience for everyone. I was placed in the country of Somalia so we had to go and collect firewood and then weed the garden (not that there were any weeds) but after that we got one little bucket of water to divide between me and 4 others. After this we had to go to lunch although we had to sit and watch the upper class eat their fancy three course lunch and then watch the middle class Aussies eat their two course lunch and then an hour later we finally got ours. It was exciting to be called up but when I got there I was a bit disappointed as our lunch was COLD rice (about one cup) with spices to represent leaves and dirt and with this one cup we had to divide this food between 5 people!!! There was a few people complaining as some of the upper class people didn’t eat all of their food and it went to the bin (mind you I was complaining a bit too). But I now see that I have learnt how bad life can be for some people while other people are living in the lap of luxury. The amount of rice we had (which was cleared in less than 3 minutes) is what some families live off for a month. I felt so bad and just felt like crying having the first-hand experience but I am now even more grateful for what I have!! Thanks!!

Chloe McGee- Hopetoun College

Today we started our day with our very last NAPLAN.  You could feel the amount of satisfaction to everybody after completing the 2 final math tests for NAPLAN. In the afternoon we had Food For Thought. This session was about teaching us about daily lives in poverty countries. I was a part of Ivory Country and Hannah was a part of Afghanistan. We had to complete several tasks before we were allowed to come inside and after that we had to watch 4 rich people eat magnificent meals followed by the usual meals we have eaten by 6 people. Then the rest of the people ate on a roll of paper and had to split 1 cup of rice between 4-5 people. After we had the session we had a discussion about how people felt and how we think we could help out to stop this from occurring again in other countries for the following years. We talked about sponsoring children, donating money to buy water treatment, seeds to farm or animals to breed. The day ended with a well-deserved movie ‘The Sapphires’. Our view about the movie was that if you want something you need to stick to it until you have achieved what you have set out to do.

By Ethan - Camperdown SC and Hannah - Phoenix Community College