Week Seven Term Two

Week Seven May 23-27^th.

This week was quieter. Not much happening at school or in the evenings. I was doing some marking and some work on the reports which are due in two weeks.

In class we were working earnestly on the 'Where do we come from?' social studies theme (not puberty). This unit is the history of Australia and is interesting and something new for me to teach as it covers the sad history of the aborigines, which is not dissimilar to the way the North American natives were treated. It also teaches the students about life in 1700 England, the poverty, the over crowded jails and the solution that created Australia. Britain decided to transport their criminals to the newly discovered continent. This solved two problems, the over crowded jails and how to protect British claims to the island and stop other colonial powers from trying to take it from them.

The First Fleet as it became known was commanded by Captain Phillip sailed from Portsmouth May 13, 1787, to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, to Rio De Janairo, then to Cape Town and finally arrived nine months later on January 20, 1788, at Botany Bay in New South Wales. There were eleven ships carrying more than 1480 men, women and children onboard. Although most were British, there were also African, American and French convicts. There were eleven births on board and numerous deaths as well. This was the start of the first of many penal colonies. As a class we have been talking about, reading about and watching videos of life in the colony and the hardships they faced in a new country so far from home.

Between 1788 and 1850 the English sent over 162,000 convicts to Australia in 806 ships. Also found out that the British dumped convicts in the American Colonies too, until the American Revolution whereupon they refused to accept them and Australia become the next logical place. Live and learn....