Class+Survey

INTRODUCING THE CLASS

Name of teachers: Al Strangeways and Serge Komadina Grade level: Year 10 (last year of compulsory schooling) Class favourites: 1. Music: My Chemical Romance, Story of the Year, Linkin Park, The Fray, Ricki Lee, Eskimo Joe 2. Authors: Stephen King, Melina Marchitta, JK Rowling, Nicholas Sparks, Darren Shan 3. TV Programs: Gray's Anatomy, House, Boston Legal, Supernatural, The OC 4. Foods: Pizza, chocolate, spaghetti, chicken parmigiana, fruit 5. School Subjects: Art, PE, English, Photography, Music 6. Sports: Basketball, Volleyball, Netball, Squash, Horse riding 7. Video Games: Grand Theft Auto, Spongebob, Prince of Persia, Myspace 8. Other Calss Favs: writing poetry, reading, hanging out with friends, satire

INTRODUCING THE SCHOOL

1. Year 10 Creative Writing, Centralian Senior Secondary College, Grevillea Drive, PO Box 4856, Alice Springs, NT 0871 [|College web site] http://www.schools.nt.edu.au/cssc/ 2. 13 students in the class (quite small for a Year 10 class here) 3 600 students in the school 4. School emblem:

an abstract design in blue, respresenting the students: it's based on the sun rising over Mt Gillen (local high point in the Western MacDonnell Ranges in which we are situated) to represent students 'horizons' or future outlooks. The area inside the sun represents the desert rose (a local flower emblem). The design is open to represent the flexibility of the college. The design is repeated 3 times to represent the 3 sectors of education, NTCE, VET and Higher Ed. 5. Computers: each staff member has a laptop. For students there are approx 60 laptops and 120 desktop PCs. 6. School History: we began in the 1970s as Sadadeen High School (Years 7-12), became Centralian College in the 1980/90s (Years 11-12), joined Charles Darwin University in the 2000s, and finally became Centralian Senior Secondary College, catering for Year 10-12 this year. We are the only non-private school that caters to this age group in Alice Springs.

School Program //Some Unique Features:// 1.Students can do school based apprenticeships from Year 10 onwards, spending some days in school doing core subjects, some days at work. 2. There is a huge range of subjects that students can choose from in all years. Year 10 students can do English and choose to do Creative Writing as an elective; they can choose to joint Year 11 classes in some subjects such as Economics, Philosophy, History. 3.There is an alternative program set up for disengaged students in Years 10-12 that is more flexible and supports students who might otherwise leave school. //School Dates// Year 10 courses finish on 23rd November, before exams and Career Education Fortnight.

INTRODUCING THE COMMUNITY

1. We are called Alice Springs, but the 'spring' we are named after is actually a waterhole. 2. Our nearest city is Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia 3. We are located 750km from the nearest town (Coober Pedy, south of here) and 1500km from Darwin in the North and Adelaide in the South. 4. We are located in the desert, between a series of ranges. 5. There are approximately 25,000 people here. 6. Three reasons people visit the area are: 1. because we're close to Uluru (Ayres Rock), a big tourist destination 2. because we're in the centre of Australia, and you cannot avoid driving through if you are going north or south (there's only one road) 3. because people are interested in the Outback Australia, Indigenous Art and Culture or because they've read A Town Like Alice. 7. The most unusual land formation near here (apart from Uluru) is the Todd River, which runs through town and is normally dry. We have a 'boat race' in this river in winter, the Henley-on-Todd, in bottomless boats that people run in.

The major industries in the community are tourism, pastoralism and mining.

We're interested in a creative writing mindworks learning circle because that's class we are in and want to improve our own writing and see what other classes write.