SENIOR SCHOOL
2015 Wontok
Conference
On the cold morning of Monday 4 May
this year, myself and a small group of Year
10 students hopped on a bus to go to All
Saints’ College. The group of students
included Titan Webster, Jaedon Peters,
Charlie Sampson and Andrew Wirth.
As we arrived at All Saints’, all we knew was
that this conference would be about world
poverty and how we could help prevent it.
The first thing we did was listen to a speech
by the main speaker. As we listened we
became more and more intrigued by what
he was stating.
After the opening, we were put into groups
with people from other schools; the only
other person from Guildford Grammar
School in my group was Titan. In these
groups we took part in workshops that
explained to us how poverty is in the world,
what happens to people living in poverty
and most importantly how we can help
stop poverty. Being in groups from different
schools was good because it meant we got
to meet new people and ask their opinion
on the subject at hand.
After we had completed all of the
workshops in our groups we had lunch.
Having lunch was a great opportunity to
chat to the people we had just met and
get to know them a bit better. After lunch
everyone headed back into the All Saints’
Chapel where we had begun our day. We
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Wontok: the place where schools come
together to talk and debate over the issues
of poverty in the modern world – Jadeon Peters
were then given a final speech and asked
to fill out a survey on what we had learned
and what was good about the conference.
In my survey I stated that the main speaker
of the day was a fantastic public speaker
who had inspired me to do more to help
poverty in the world.
The last activity of the day, before hopping
on the bus home, was to take a group
photo of all of the conference participants.
After saying goodbye to all of the people
we had met, we hopped on the bus with a
different way of thinking about the world; a
better way.
Aiden McLaughlin (10He)
Wontok: the place where schools come
together to talk and debate over the issues
of poverty in the modern world. At 8.30am
with Mrs Forward and a couple of my
friends, we all piled on the bus to All Saints’
College.
To start off the day we had a group briefing
and a Welcome to Country, after which
we spearheaded into discussions on issues
in developing countries, led by our guest
speaker from the Philippines. During the day
we got to meet many of the participating
schools and cycle through the activities.
We had to split up into teams at one point
and there were plenty of laughs and genuine
banter with my team, the red team. Over
the duration of the conference my team
braved; building solar cookers, heated
discussions, third world farmer (simulation
game), Thai islands and more discussion –
about sanitation of course. Out of the whole
array of activities we did, I’ll have to say that
the Thai islands and the third world farmer
would have to tie for my favourites, both
being about survival in developing countries.
Although the fun and laughs were great,
we all brought something away about how
people are living now, in the poverty of
developing countries and many everyday
challenges they have to face. This has b Y[