English & Drama

Term Two has been a very productive term in the English Learning Area with students engaging in the study of poetry, film and novels and composing literary pieces of their own. The Year 9 Journalism Elective students produced their own newsletter. The Year 10 Drama students had their maiden performance of their own play, before an audience comprising representatives from the WA Police, Belmont Council, significant members of the community, teachers and their own peers. The play ‘Take on Culture’ which, under the guidance of Constable Care’s Youth Choices group and their teacher Nurul Huda, based on the principles of Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre, explored issues that are relevant to today’s youth. Some samples of student work can be found below for your enjoyment and appreciation:

Students in my Year 7 English class worked effortlessly in creating short story narrative writing. Here is an example of one of my student’s achievements creating her version of short story narrative:
My name is Isra Mohammed, and I am a year seven student in Australian Islamic College Kewdale. Just like other 12-year-old, I have hobbies, reading stories has always been something amazing for me and it is a magical experience to sit down and just read. When I was asked to write a short story in class, I swept up the opportunity and, in the time I was given, I brought many characters to life and threw problems at them, putting the readers on edge and then just in time when all hope was lost, they overcame that situation. I wrote ‘The Message’ because I enjoy reading stories about children who believe in hope, and I love the different personalities that all the characters have in my short story.

“Oh, for god’s sake Clementine; SHUSH!” yelled Zeus, flinging the poor child’s worn-out rag doll onto the bare tile floor. Clemmie hastens towards my familiar open arms, bubbling with tears that she tries to hold back furiously, I let her tears wet my green cardigan and glare over at Zeus with accusation. “Zeus, do you want to die?” I fume angrily. “No” mumbles Zeus quietly staring at the ground and fidgeting with a loose string on his wrinkly shirt. “Well then you do realize what Head Ellie would do if you had raised your voice any louder, do you remember what she did to the other children upstairs when they yelled while she had some guests over?” I whisper-shout while stroking my hand through Clemmie’s midnight black hair. I am the oldest here and despite being 12 I must keep the orphans here in line because Headmistress Ellievanty finds joy in using innocent people’s donations to keep track with the most outrageous trends of the month.

Steve, Zoe and Mathew tinker away in the corner of the little room constructing a lantern. Why? Because every Friday night something big happens; a single letter is swept out into the silent night waiting for one Londoner to find it, this letter fills every one of the seven children here with the warm, snug feeling that, just maybe they are not so useless after all. It makes us remember how life was before this horrid place entered our lives. All of us gather around the freshly made candle and we slide a thin folded piece of paper in a stitched pocket on the side. “Can I release it?” pleads 6-year-old Anna. I give her a warm smile and hand her the treasured object, her eyes go as wide as saucers and she stands on her tippy toes to reach the window, she releases it into the hands of the calm breeze. We all giggle as the lantern slowly descends somewhere in London, enjoying the magical moment. CRRRR! CRRRRRRRRR! Panic swipes through the room and in an instant were all on our feet running left and right.

“STEVE, YOUR BED, NOW.” I yell “clementine, run faster!” CRRRRRRRRRR! Everyone is in bed now, I start counting heads; 1,2,3,4,5,6…My head spins around and my heart beats like a drum as I dash over to Clementine and pick her up on her bed that she was struggling to climb on to. The door begins to open and my heart stops, sweat drips down my forehead and I am frozen on the spot. Cook walks into the room pushing a large rackety trolley in front of her, the squeaking of the wheels brings me back to my senses and I sigh with relief. “UP, UP, UP YOU LAZY BRATS, MYSTERY SOUP FOR YOU LOT AND JULIE, SIT DOWN” Cook yells and she soon busies herself pouring out unfair proportions of today’s soup.
Earlier the post man (who was on our side) had told us that a little girl named Emma had replied and excitement was charging up our bodies, though food could not do the same; despite having little food already due to Head Ellie’s outrage for shopping and fashion she had announced that she fancied a Gucci limited edition purse made with real gold. And if that was not enough, she desired a diamond engraved top to go with it, so now we were not being fed.

“Escape! Now!” whispered clementine desperately “please!” I look at her sadly and shake my head. “We can’t.” But the other children had already heard what she had said and now everyone was discussing it. Suddenly a young girl climbed onto our window, and she smiled oblivious to the blisters on her hands because of the painful climb.

“Escape!” she grins.

In line with Term’s 2 Poetry creation, groups of students in my Year 7 English class worked effortlessly in creating their version of poetry. These and other group members did a marvellous job creating their poetry version drawing on various poetry elements, themes and imagery highlighting their untapped potential. Given below are TWO select groups with their Poetry Creation:

Group Members: Sarah Weisi, Arykah Parker and Anika Faghiri

Group Members: Zaima Ehsan, Salmah Jacobs, Renad Dahir and Fawziya Abubakar

Please find below analysis of the autobiographical novel Chinese Cinderella by Sr. Sekeena’s and Sr. Rubby’s students. The students have showcased their understanding of the novel and their ICT skills to produce presentations using PowerPoint, Canva and Moviemaker.

A downtrodden environment in desperate need
Is what I see while I browse through my feed.
people throwing litter all over is what I see.
Which leads me to believe…
That humanity has misplaced the meaning of free.

People die of air pollution every year
Imagine living in that fear.
having to hold your loved ones dear
for something that the world has made clear.

The time has come to reduce our pollution
But the only way to do this right is by your contribution.
And I think I might have the perfect solution
It’s all in the matter of our execution.

First, let’s turn it off
It might be tough, but at least that’s a one-off
Start planting trees
And don’t encourage deforestation… please

Raise awareness, share and protest, get involved
it might be expensive, but get solar panels installed.
Reduce the use of plastic
A world without plastic…
Wouldn’t that be fantastic!

And lastly waste not, want not
Oh and I almost forgot
Recycle and reuse
to reduce the amount, we produce

Because we owe the next generation
An explanation and motivation
Unless we now do something
Our children will be left with nothing.
Let us make the change for humanity.

Society, It’s time we changed our mentality.

A take on culture
By Sr. Huda Ridwan

On the 24th of May, the Year 10 Drama Elective group performed in front of their peers to shed a light on the issues of growing up in a multi-cultural household and the cultural expectations youths are facing. The event gave way for a conversation to be had on how unjust some of the imposed expectations are on youth, especially young women. It gave the audience a platform to address these social issues, allowing them to take back control and change the ending of the story.

I would like to take the time to congratulate the group for your courageous effort in performing and your willingness to improvise based on the audience’s comments and feedback. I would also like to extend a big ‘Thank You’ to Kate and Gala from Constable Care for their efforts towards facilitating this program. Once again, I cannot thank everyone enough, especially fellow students, both performing and, in the audience, for their involvement and their willingness to take on this project, going beyond their comfort zones and delivering a memorable performance!

Yasmeen Kareem
Head of English Learning Area,
AIC, Kewdale.