Life at Merrimac SHS

Hi there!

I thought now would be the appropriate time to tell you about my school life here, as the third term (my first term) is coming to an end soon. It's quite different to what I'm used to so I thought it'd be nice to let you know how I'm doing.

So as I said, the third term is almost over and that means I've been here for about eight weeks now (including the orientation week with no actual classes). It's honestly so crazy for me to think that I've already been here for two months because I feel like it has gone so so quickly.

So, I go to Merrimac State High School, I’m a year 11, and really like it here so far. The subjects I do are English, Maths B (C being the most difficult), Physics, Biology, Australian studies, Aquatic practices and as a sport I do international sport. I probably mentioned those on a previous post as well.

The school is only a 15-minute walk away, but my host-parents drive us (me and my host-sister) to school every morning.

The school year here starts in January. There are 4 terms and each term is 10 weeks long. After every term there’s a two-week holiday, except after the 4th term the Christmas break is about 30 days long before a new semester starts. I came here in the beginning of term 3 but missed the first week because of the orientation. So due to that I’ve had to catch up a bit but now I’m kind of on top of it all... (except for maybe physics). But otherwise everything is generally easier. And I can’t really tell if it’s because I’m an international student and they're just giving us an easy start, or if it’s simply because of the content in the syllabus. Not that I came here to study really hard, as none of the courses -or any other school work for that matter- I do here count when I get back to Finland, so tbqh it doesn't matter that much haha.

At the end of each term we have exam block. It's a very similar concept to what we do in Finnish high schools, expect here the exams are usually a bit shorter, and you can have more than one exam per day. For some reason, year 12 'exam shutdown week' is a week earlier than the year 11 one. So as I mentioned in my previous post, due to this, I had my physics exam last week and my Maths B and English exam this week. So altogether I only had three actual exams and the rest were just assignments I had to return. And when you don't have exams you're allowed to stay home because you don't have any classes during the exam block.

The school here according to the locals is like a regular size... I consider it huge. About 1300 students feels like a lot when you’re coming from a school with 500 students that feels busy enough. The school grounds are also different as it’s not just one building but many individual one-storey blocks. There are 23 Blocks from a to v, plus a swimming pool, tennis courts and the oval, which is basically a very large field of grass. But I guess with all the blocks the amount of students doesn’t feel so overwhelming. There are 6 years, from 7 to 12. Years 7,8 and 9 are juniors and 10, 11 and 12 seniors. So after Christmas I'll move onto year 12 and be amongst the oldest in the school.

There are also four houses in the school. The colours are white, blue, gold/yellow and red. You get sorted into the houses based on your last name. My house is Barrow, which is the yellow house.

And as I attend a perfectly normal school here, I’m required to wear a uniform. I still haven’t quite decided if I like wearing a uniform or not... The school uniform is pretty casual (compared to other schools at least). Most people wear the sports uniform (sports t-shirt and shorts) everyday instead of the polo shirt and a skirt/trousers. You also have to have a jumper or a jacket for the cooler winter mornings.

The regulations for everything seemed very strict at first when we received all the information (from a Finnish point of view at least)... either black or white leather shoes, no jewellery, no extravagant hairstyles, no nail polish, minimum makeup, socks have to be a certain length etc. But now that I’m here, everyone just wears pretty much whatever pair of black or white shoes and the length of your socks doesn’t seem to matter in the slightest. Don’t get me wrong I’m definitely not complaining haha.

At first I genuinely thought that I’d hate my school uniform (the thought of having to wear a skirt everyday... ew), but now I’ve sort of gotten used to it and it’s actually quite nice to know what you’ll wear everyday too. However the lack of individuality is probably the biggest downside of the case. But all this rambling aside, I'm actually surprisingly ok with my dark green jumper, white sports t-shirt and black shorts.

Here are some very awkward pictures of me in my uniform you are welcome.

Oh and by the way I don’t have school on Mondays. Jealous? I know I would be too... I guess it’s supposed to be like a study day... don’t know if that’s convenient or not but oh well I do like a three day weekend haha. My school days are an hour longer than in Finland though, but for the four days of school I have, I thought it would be nice to give you a brief rundown of a normal one.

So, school starts every day at 7.50 and the morning class is 70 minutes long (only year 11s and 12s have it). At 9.00 everyone has something called phoenix class in their homeroom class, mine is B1. It’s basically just a ten-minute time period taken from the day for the homeroom teacher to mark the roll (call everyone’s names to make sure they're present) and for example inform the students of any exceptions during the day/week. After the bell rings the first period starts. Each period always takes 35 minutes and there are two periods of the same subject. After the second period it’s time for morning tea (weird expression I know)... it’s basically just a thirty minute break (from 10.20 to 10.50). We usually eat our snacks and hang around the B block waiting for the bell to ring.

After periods 3,4,5 and 6 there’s a 40-minute lunch break. And again, most days I have lunch at the tables by the B Block. There's also a canteen where you can buy lunch but I always have my own with me. The last periods (7 and 8) start at 1.50 and at 3.00 you get to sprint out of the classroom to freedom.

Every Wednesday during period 3 everyone has assembly (sometimes just your year-level, sometimes all the seniors, sometimes the whole school), where someone discusses a topic, we watch videos or teacher/student shout-outs are read etc. Sometimes we also have random whole school assemblies. Every Tuesday morning instead of phoenix class, we have a year 11 assembly, where we are informed about the things specifically for year 11s.

The difference in the length of the lessons here and in Finland is five minutes, which hasn't been that hard to adjust to. So I guess the breaks are the biggest difference in the school day as we only have two, plus the time it takes to move from one classroom to another. In Finland I have a shorter break after every class plus lunch break.

Some of the classes I take are quite similar, and others completely different to what I'm used to. Australian studies, Aquatic practices, Biology and international sport are included in the latter. Obviously Australian studies is something I never thought I would do but it's actually quite interesting as we get to know some of Australia's history and culture. Aquatic practices is also a 'one of a kind' subject. I mean, it's not everyday we go boating during a school day in Finland. We are now learning about marine ecosystems and every Thursday we go boating in the canal. In international sport we do different Australian sports. So far we've played oztag which has been fun. Our teacher also said that next term we'll be going to the beach (when it gets warmer) to try out all sorts of sports which sounds exciting! Biology is on the list because at the moment we are working on an experiment that investigates the behaviour of crickets... yes, crickets. In short, we had to design an experiment and collect data. Basically some of the study methods are more hands-on than in my school back home. Among these, English is also different because instead of grammar, we study and analyse things like Shakespeare's plays.

What comes to books and materials, pretty much everything is digital. I have a couple of booklets/workbooks and task sheets for some subjects, but mainly all of the materials are on eLearn (kind of like fronter of wilma). You can choose if you want to take notes on your computer or just trust a good-old notebook and a pen. The amount of homework is also not too bad. Some days are obviously heavier than others but generally it's very manageable. The teachers are also really nice, relaxed and helpful.

One of the things I at first found a bit odd was the fact that there.are.birds.everywhere. As the blocks aren't connected, it leaves a lot of space for greenery (which is actually quite nice), and apparently that results in a bunch of birds flying around the area.

So far there has already been a couple of 'special events' in the school. The athletics carnival is an annual event arranged by the school. This year it was on Friday the 3rd. During the day you can participate in track & field events but most importantly you have to dress up in your house colour. Music, dancing, a fashion show, barbecue and lots more were included in the day as well. It was a really fun day that the whole school participated in and I've never seen anything quite like it (unfortunately I don't have any photos from the day). On Thursday the 16th of August the school arranged a 'Winter Arts Festival'. It started at 6.30pm in the hall (gym) where the school band, dance groups and drama class had performances. There was also an art exhibition and a barbecue.

So that was a little insight into my school life. I’m still kind of getting used to some things and catching up on others, but the everyday life is going pretty smoothly already.

Let me know if I missed a topic or if you have any questions. If so, feel free to leave them in the comments :)

Hope you enjoyed the post!

xx