Year 5 Colonial Day

Rylan, Kenneth, Zac and Nicholas dressed up as convicts for our Colonial Day.

What a start to the term! On our third day back and we hosted Colonial Day.

The purpose of Colonial Day is to come to school dressed up as a convict or colonial person so we could have the experience 'being in their shoes'. You won’t believe what day we had! It was great and everyone had fun.

In the words of of the students:

It was time to discover who we were for the day, so we had to write about when our convict person identifying where they were born, about their job, death and other things as well. After we had written that, we published it onto a piece of paper then we completed our ticket of leave and an envelope. With the ticket, we were sent to a class where the teacher would sign our ticket of leave if they believed we were sorry for our crimes.

I think that we all had a blast and everyone enjoyed it. I think that was one of many memorable moments to come in Year five.

Felicity and Gemma playing quoits.

To end the day, we went outside and did sport. In sports, we played simple school games from those days to see how they entertained themselves. We could play marbles where you had to flick marble see if you could get it to the nearest marble in the middle. There were quoits, hula hoops, sack races, skipping and hopscotch.

Students were blindfolded and cramped into a small room to experience the conditions on the ship.

We started off when we all had to be squashed together and had to experience how hot it would have been at that time. We had to then move into a cramped-up space and shut our eyes and think what it would have been like on the ship. We all listened to these different sounds, in one voice it sounded like a baby crying maybe from starvation, there was another sound that like a person softly screaming the last voice sounded like some person laughing.

We also got sprayed by water that felt like we were getting splashed by the waves. We had a good experience on that activity. As we left the room, we were given different names for the day received a bottle of water for the day and four biscuits each. The bottle of water and the four biscuits were supposed to last the whole day.

Written By

Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese
www.parra.catholic.edu.au

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16 Aug 2026
From Facebook
Our Year 2 students enjoyed a wonderful incursion last week with Koori Konnections, deepening their understanding of Aboriginal cultures, history and connection to Country. Through fun, hands‑on and interactive activities, students learned about: - Aboriginal ways of caring for the natural environment - Traditional knowledge and sustainability - Stories, culture and history shared by First Nations people It was a rich and engaging experience that helped bring their HSIE learning to life and strengthened their appreciation for Australia’s First Peoples!

16 Aug 2026
From Facebook
Our Year 4 students had a fantastic day at the Australian National Maritime Museum on Friday as part of their HSIE learning. They explored real vessels, interactive exhibits and hands‑on displays that helped them understand how people have travelled, traded and connected across oceans throughout history. Students loved stepping aboard historic ships, discovering stories of explorers and migrants, and learning how maritime technology has changed over time. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring their HSIE unit to life and deepen their understanding of Australia’s past. A big thank you to our teachers for organising this, and to our parent helpers for supporting such a memorable learning experience!