Recently, Year 5 went on their first educational overnight experience, to the Bathurst Gold Fields.
During our visit, our tour guides told us about the finding of gold in the 1850s. We had an opportunity to experience what life on the goldfields would have been like. We did lots of different activities such as making damper, making mud bricks, seeing a blacksmith at work, touring the goldfields and gold panning.
At the end of the exhausting day, we all sat around the campfire and did the last activity of the day which was colonial dancing and singing and learning that made Australia famous such as Waltzing Matilda.
On the second day, we visited the Bathurst Cemetery, to learn about our people's history. But before that, we had a chance to go on the Bathurst 1000 track on our coach. While at the cemetery, we had a chance to go on a treasure hunt and learnt about the significant people buried there. We also got to teach our tour guides, Sarah and Gary, The Floss dance and how to Dab.
We had a quick pit stop before heading to Katoomba to go on the Skyrail. We had an amazing time learning and experience the 1850s. We would like to thank our tour guides for all the hard work they put into this experience. We would also like to give a big thank you to our teachers because if it weren’t for them we would never have gone to Bathurst and had so much fun.
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19 Aug 2026
From Facebook
We’re looking forward to welcoming Sue Whiting, an Australian children’s author, to OLA this Friday for a special Book Week experience with our K-2 students. Sue will share her stories, writing process, and the inspiration behind her books, giving students a wonderful chance to learn from a real author and spark their own love of reading and storytelling. This will be a perfect way to build Book Week excitement across our Infants classes!19 Aug 2026
From Facebook
Our primary students had an amazing session yesterday with illustrator Marcelo Baez. They loved learning how characters are created, how illustrators bring stories to life, and how creativity starts with simple ideas and lots of imagination. Many students walked away feeling inspired to become illustrators themselves, proudly sharing their sketches and new techniques. It was a fantastic way to spark excitement and get everyone ready for Book Week next week! A huge thank you to Marcelo for such an engaging and motivating visit!