Year 5/6T have been learning about the challenges that refugee and asylum seekers face in their bid to come to Australia.  We have been reading from Anh Do’s book The Happiest Refugee. When we read that the boat Anh left Vietnam in was just 9 by 2.5 metres we drew a boat shape the same size on the path outside our room and tried to fit our class of 26 students inside the outline. It wasn’t really a fair comparison because we would have had to ask another class to join us to get the same number of people as was on Ahn’s refugee boat.

Today two Customs Officers come to speak to us about their work with refugee and asylum seekers. We learnt why people risk their lives to reach another country, where they come from and we viewed images of some very small boats that some people had set to sea in.

As our studies progress we will share what we learn in our comments.