Slade Residency example essay topic

486 words
On the Spring Holidays my family and I went to Noosa. Everyday from 8 o'clock to half past 10 my older brother and I went swimming in the ocean. I love swimming but I am not very good at it. But my brother is very good at swimming. The ocean was always very cold. The beach was beautiful.

The beach is East of my house. Sometimes on Saturday my friend and I went to watch a movie. Often my cousin and I went toe the beach to play rugby. Rugby was fun.

My mum hates rugby. My Spring holiday was good and cool. But they were very fast. On my Summer holidays I want to go to Perish a blue with my family. I want to go skiing. I am sure that, as parents, very few of you are looking forward to the future Slade residencies.

However, while you may not be very keen on the idea, let me assure you that the benefits gained by the boys throughout their stay are limitless. I, myself, found that the experience changed me in many ways and helped me to grow as a person. The long period away from home helped me to become more self-sufficient. Requirements such as washing, drying and ironing my own clothes, managing my own study and workload, organising my living area and getting to certain places by set times have all contributed to my independence.

Before the Slade residency I was thoroughly convinced that it was going to be a nightmare. Now, after spending 5 weeks there I found that it was an amazing experience and if I was given the opportunity, I would definitely do it again as I'm sure all year 9's would say. However, parents do not despair that you will never hear from your son again, the boys at Slade are given full access to a public phone in the afternoons. The learning system at Slade is somewhat different to Brisbane education.

While it still includes Maths, Science, English, SOME and Design Technology the programme allows us to take a more hands on approach towards the subjects. We went out on location to national parks, farms, and various other sites. However the most important focus while is the challenge units. The groups for these units are chosen at the beginning of the residency as is the topic. The challenges allow the boys to research in detail different aspects of the Murray Darling Basin. I chose to study cattle and the use of Hormonal Growth Promotants or Steroids on them.

In doing so I visited the abattoir, sale yards and many mixed farms and learnt a huge amount of information regarding the beef industry one of Australia's most important resources..