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Canberra’s
adventurers back to school
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The
Canberra Learning Team with (far right) teacher Sarah Quinn
and CPOMT John Scarfe in front of HMAS Canberra’s Seahawk
helicopter during a flying visit to the Warnbro school recently.
Photo by ABPH Phillip Cullinan
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The
diversity and challenges of Navy life were revealed to more than
200 students from Warnbro Community High School (near FBW) when
listening to the recent adventures of 18 officers and sailors from
HMAS Canberra, fresh home from a six-month deployment to The Gulf.
They were also able to view the ship’s Seahawk helicopter after
it landed on the school oval as part of the visit.
Members of the ship’s company answered questions from enthralled
year 8 and 9 students ranging from how much they got paid to what
is life like on board during lengthy deployments.
The school has a unique relationship with the Navy after it named
its learning teams after some of the ships at Fleet Base West at
the start of last year.
Teacher Tracey Dwyer-Jardine said the school’s learning teams
were encouraged to develop relationships with the ships to learn
more about navy life, particularly as the school has a large population
of students from navy families.
The ships and submarines represented are HMA Ships Adelaide, Anzac,
Canberra, Collins and Darwin.
One class corresponded frequently with HMAS Canberra during the
ship’s recent deployment.
The students started writing letters wanting to know about different
aspects of life at sea.
Sarah Quinn, who teaches a Canberra Learning Team, said the students
were always excited to receive replies from the crew, and as well
as improving their knowledge of matters naval, she said the exercise
had practical benefits by helping to improve their letter-writing
skills.
One of the driving forces of the relationship has been CPOMT John
Scarfe.
CPO Scarfe said Canberra’s crew started to anticipate letters
from the students during the deployment.
“We had people from junior seamen right through to senior officers
asking me when the next batch of letters was going to arrive,”
he said.
CPO Scarfe has a strong link to the school with three of his children
attending when the scheme started at the beginning of 2001.
His daughter Melinda is now studying at university while his two
sons, Andrew and Mitchell still attend the school.
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