Ellerston Public School, NSW, Australia

Katelyn's beautiful cake

While we were in Australia, we got to celebrate Katelyn's 6th birthday. She had a magnificent cake,
made by Katherine McLoughlin of Frosted. We took the cake to Katelyn's school, where the whole school celebrated Katelyn's birthday. I must add that there are only 22 pupils in total, so there was more than enough cake to go round!

"Hurry up, everybody!"

Katelyn's brother, Brandyn,was anxious to get to school.

Katelyn was delighted when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

Katelyn with her best friend, Emily.

Ellerston Public School may not be large in size, but it is huge in achievement!

David and I were really impressed with Ellerston Public School. It is a tiny school, but the children
are motivated, and happy. We attended two other events while we there. One was the school's paper
plane competition, and the other was the public speaking competition against other country primary
schools.

Did you know that there is a world paper plane making championship? I had no idea, but strangely, the movie, "Paper Planes" was showing on our flight back to Istanbul! In Katelyn's school, all the children had to decorate their piece of paper, fold the plane, and then throw it, to determine whose flew the furthest.

Before the competition began, the children told us about their heroes. 

Katelyn's hero was her Daddy!

Katelyn decorated her piece of paper, before folding it into a plane...

...she then launched it into the air, while the Headmaster waited to mark its landing place.

The children had such fun!

We also marvelled at the Public Speaking Competition. Every child in every year group is expected to take part in this, and then deliver their prepared speech to a panel of adjudicators. We were delighted when Ellerston Public School won most of the awards, and thrilled when Katelyn got "Highly Commended". We were such proud grandparents!

Katelyn, delivering her speech about horses

Elizabeth Coughlan