SENIOR SCHOOL
Sebastian Harrup – calm under pressure
Year 8 student Sebastian Harrup ( 8Fr ) was awarded a merit certificate from St John Ambulance in July this year , in recognition of his bravery and quickthinking when his grandfather Rod fell down a well . Rod explains how Sebastian ’ s actions helped on the day .
On the day of my accident I had decided to do some work on a bore pump , and as Sebastian had the day off school I asked him to accompany me to the job .
I don ’ t usually go down wells , but on this day I decided I would . I climbed down the well , only to discover that I needed more parts . I climbed back up the well , loaded the parts I needed into my bucket and climbed back down the well to complete the job .
Photo by David Bayliss , supplied courtesy of Community Newspaper group .
The job now finished , I loaded my tools back into the bucket and asked Sebastian to pull up the rope attached to the bucket . As I reached the top of the ladder on my way out of the well , my foot slipped and I fell 7m back into the well .
Thinking quickly , Sebastian ran to get help from two men who were working nearby and called the ambulance , then his dad .
The two men sent a rope down into the well and were able to pull me out .
Sebastian sat with me while I waited for the ambulance and then helped me onto the stretcher . I was taken to Royal Perth Hospital , where I was kept in overnight .
The doctors were amazed that I only received minor injuries after such a fall .
I am grateful that I made the decision to take Sebastian with me that day . Thanks to his actions I was found and rescued quickly – he did an excellent job under pressure .
Rod Irvine
Gifted and Talented Conference
On August 25 a group of talented STRIVE students attended the Junior Gifted and Talented Conference hosted by Wesley College , accompanied by Mr Wildman and Mrs Smilovitis .
The day began with a forty-five-minute university style lecture and an introduction to Aristotle and Plato , exploring their two very different approaches to life as well as their continuing influence on our thinking today . For such a young audience the students were remarkably engaged and focused for the duration .
‘ Of the infinite universes in which I do and do not exist , there are very few in which I would say that the expo at Wesley was not exciting …’ Anonymous
Session two was an interactive session where students broke into groups to discuss how we know what is fair . Students were given a hypothetical scenario to consider as a way into interrogating and developing a definition of fairness and equality . The agreed definition of fairness is it is what one deserves or earns , and that equality only exists in the service of fairness .
‘ Today was a great day full of laughs and learning …’ Angus Jones
Lunch was spent in the lovely grounds of Wesley College , and in the dozy sunlight of a glorious late-winter ’ s day .
Following lunch , an introduction to the science of quantum mechanics was presented in a university style lecture . From wave / particle duality through to Schrödinger ’ s cat , students were presented with the basic findings of life at the quantum level .
In another unknown universe I never wrote this account . This is the type of wacky quantum mechanics stuff we learnt today …’ Max Stewart
The conference culminated in a debate in which the house argued ; this house believes animals have rights . The argument centred around the following questions ; do animals have rights ? What are rights and on what basis does anybody have rights ? Are rights given by society or are they innate ? If animals have rights , what kind of rights would they be ? Once both sides of the debate were offered , students were invited to the microphone to offer their view . Most were of the view that animals cannot have the same rights as humans — there were concerns about exactly how we could convey these rights for example to a lion who would no doubt disregard them . It was agreed however that animals should have some form of rights .
‘ The gifted and talented Conference was a good opportunity for students like us to explore some ideas that we had not been exposed to before because of their complexity .’ Terence
At the end of the conference we jumped back on the bus for the trip back to the School , discussing alternative realities in which we did , or did not , attend the conference and were perhaps instead someplace else enjoying the sun and lots of ice-cream . But who could know , unless we heard the buzz of the Geiger counter to signify that the unstable atom had decayed , the hammer released , the vial of poison smashed and the demise of an innocent , albeit hypothetical , cat had occurred .
Cherie Smilovitis English Teacher
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