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I've had the time of my life, and I owe it all to you. ~ The time of my life by Bill Medley
It was safe to say that when we woke up this morning, there was a mixture of excitement and sadness. Excitement with the fact that we'd be seeing our friends and family once more, but sadness in that we'd no longer be 'in the country' with each other and the schools we'd grown to love. But on the bright side, we would be visiting a little school, 6km's out of Blackbutt, known as Benarkin. We were extremely eager to see this little two teacher school, so we piled in the bus at 8:00am and set out for the long journey home.
We stopped in Dalby for lunch, which was a large rural town with all the facilities of the Sunshine Coast. It had a major shopping centre, most major chain stores and a few extra jems. We were all extremely excited to have a wide range of choice again for lunch and many ate Subway! On from Dalby, we drove for approximately 2.5 hours to arrive in Benarkin (after a few sketchy directions from Shirley).
Benarkin State School has approximately 38 children and two teachers. One who teaches Prep to Year Two and the other teacher (who is also the Principal) teachers Year Three to Year Seven. This school, however little, had the amazing Stephanie Alexander garden program in place and it was good to compare it to the large Inglewood State School and how they used their garden. Benarkin S.S. was also fairly well equipped with technology and many, many resources. We were enchanted by the politeness and caring that the students showed to each other and us (strangers). This school definately enhanced our longing for rural placement next year.
We then got back in our trusty PCAP bus with Graham at the wheel and set off for Sippy Downs. It was a welcoming sight to see the roundabout to turn into the University and we were all very eager to get back to our own beds for a good night sleep. However, we would thoroughly miss the schools and people that we met along our journey "out west". On behalf of all the Coast to Country students, we would like to express our sincere appreciation for all the hard work that Shirley, Chris and Graham did to make this opportunity available for us. It has definately opened our eyes and fuelled our passion for teaching (that's for you Ben!). As Graham said to us when were left on Friday afternoon, there are many beautiful sunsets out west, but never let the sun set on our dreams. We will always remember this experience.
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Liza White The Stephanie Alexander gardens were amazing! Such a great, exciting innotiative. Graham was beautiful in his kind words. Such a softy! It was great to build relationships with you all. i am sure they will last for a very long time.