Brookvale Public School

In the first and second term, Talia and I, were chosen to go to the Extension Studies Center at Balgowlah Boys High School. The Extension Studies Center is a class for gifted and talented children where we do different things to our normal classroom.

Our teachers name was Mrs. Miles. There are about 26 other children from schools around the area. We did problem solving, games, maths, lego building, and even going on excursions. My two favorite excursion were to Australia's Wonderland and to the Police and Justice Museum.

At Wonderland we learnt how things work and how they start. At the Police and Justice Museum we learnt to work together and solve a crime.

In the 2nd term we were taught Toast Masters. You learn how to speak in front of others and learn how to prepare speeches.  In term 3 and 4 Matangi and Nam were chosen to go.

I think Extension Studies is really, really good and everyone would enjoy it if they had a chance to go.

Ready with their rockets.

Some people from Brookvale Public School were chosen to go to Balgowlah Boys High School to learn and to do lots of different activities. There are two people that go for two terms and two more that go for the other two terms each year from our school.

Mrs. Miles was the teacher and she was very nice. We went on lots of excursions like to CSIRO which was a science excursion and we went to Australia's Wonderland for a day and we also visited the Police and Justice Museum in the city.

In the Extension Studies classroom we made rockets. We got these cylinders which were the body of the rocket and sand papered a block of wood that made the top of the rocket.

We glued lots of other parts on and we decorated the rocket and then at last the rocket was finished. The next week we went across the road to the oval and we launched the rockets. To get them to go straight up in the air we had some sticks to guide them and when the rockets are just about to come down a parachute came out and it traveled down to the ground slowly. We put real engines in them too.

All the activities were fun and we learnt lots about being friends, working in groups together and we learnt a lot about science.

 

Ready for the launch

The Extension Study Center (ESC) is at Balgowlah Boys High School. It‘s for Gifted and Talented students from schools in the Manly-Warringah areas who are in  years 5 and 6. The teacher is Mrs. Miles and she's really good. We had six students go there this year; Amelia, Todd, Freeya, Ana, Philip and myself.

At the ESC, you can do Toastmasters which is my favorite topic. It‘s a course that helps you with debating and public speaking. Some of the things we do include a 'Let's Laugh'  which is our joke time, 'Prepared Speech' section, a 'Round Robin' where we told stories and we had to continue the story every 30 seconds, a 'Salute' and a 'Toast'.

Other things you do at the ESC include going to the gym, making rockets, dissect a sheep's brain which was gross but a lot of fun and make models out of Lego.

You can go on Tuesday or Wednesday. ESC goes for two terms. On the last day of ESC there is a graduation night for the children that do Toastmasters. On the night we do everything we do during a normal Toastmasters day.

The Extension Studies Center lets you learn in a fun and exciting way.