Leading Out teachers had more than just Christmas holidays to celebrate! We are now off for summer holidays for the next 6 weeks! That’s right, 6 weeks in summer, and 2 weeks after every term throughout the year!

With the footy season complete, Term 4 commencing, and the Spring Carnival beginning, we decided to meet in Melbourne to catch up. It is a fun term for the teachers with great weather, free festivals, and free schools trips to look forward to!

The footy game in July was fantastic with a record attendance at the Etihad Stadium of 49,373 (near capacity!). The Leading Out teachers enjoyed a fantastic game that ended up in a tie – which is a rare game to see! The energy inside the stadium was awesome and I think we are going to have a few hard core fans of footy!

Do you know anyone who would be interested in completing their teacher practicum/internship in Australia? Let them know about Leading Out!

The OC club got together in Melbourne to watch the Canadian Men’s Hockey team beat Slovakia in the semi-finals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics Games. The atmosphere was electric! So many Canadians turned out in Melbourne, it was fantastic!

We also met in February to watch a “Movie Under the Stars” in the Botanical Gardens but unfortunately it rained, so we met at the Crown Casino in Melbourne to watch a movie and out for drinks at the Sports Bar.

The OC club is looking forward to our Surfing day in Torquay on Sunday and then Moomba Festival next weekend.

Interested in seeing what we have done in 2009? Check out the Overseas Club.

With six weeks of summer holidays approaching and Christmas around the corner, Leading Out teachers have been celebrating the 2009 school year’s end. At our December OC event, sharing travels, teaching job lessons and Australian life experiences gave closure to leaving teachers and ‘revved up’ newly arrived teachers!

Want to know who won the costume party? Leading Out teachers celebrated Halloween in style: costumes, a few drinks, and lots of laughter!

The new Canadian teachers who had just arrived in Melbourne, Australia enjoyed a weekend packed with activities. The Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island were the destinations. It was windy but considering it was the middle of winter, they lucked out on the weather!

We had a fantastic turn out to “Hardrock” rockclimbing gym in Melbourne! With 15 teachers learning to rock climb, there was a lot of concentration and definitely some laughs! They worked up an appetite after climbing for 2 hours, so headed for some lunch together in the city. A great day to start of the Spring season!

With so many new teacher arrivals to the Overseas Club, we decided to head to a footy (Aussie Rules Football) game. We filled the seats with 20 of us cheering on the undefeated St.Kilda Saints! (OK, not everyone was ’barracking’ for the Saints!). “Pies’n’sauce” in hand, cold drinks, and our team scarves kept us warm. We’ll get more exercise in our next event: rock climbing!

With only a few Canadian teachers not travelling across Australia and Southeast Asia during the July holidays, we headed to a city skating rink in Melbourne to celebrate Canada Day. It was great to see so many flags and hockey jerseys away from home, and to skate along to Canadian music…A little odd to be skating rather than waterskiing on July 1st!

In the hands of our host, Katie, The Overseas Club, stumbled around Melbourne crashing into all sorts of establishments! Prizes were given for the best dressed, and the not-so-well dressed! Leading Out teachers danced off the end of Term 2 and report writing!

‘Black Saturday’ in Victoria, Australia was a devastating time for so many families and communities. The weather has finally cooled down and the clean-up can commence. The Overseas Club was able to ‘lend a hand’ to one family up in the Yarra Valley. We took down burnt fences, put up new ones, and planted hundreds of new trees. The OC also learned about the council’s relief campaign, and we gathered burnt siding and other wasted materials for collection. Thank you to Quality Car Rentals in Melbourne for donating one of the cars for this cause. The Campbell family also send their gratitude to all of the Leading Out Teachers!     

The Leading Out teachers headed to Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins at dusk. It was a hot day and everyone enjoyed sipping wines at a winery, walked a long the beach, and then saw kangaroos, wallabies, emus, wombats, koalas, and so much more. It was a fantastic trip!

We weren’t so lucky for the Great Ocean Road trip with a lot of rain and wind. This however, made us realize why that particular coast is call the Shipwreck coast!

We went surfing with the Leading Out teachers this past weekend and had a blast. Two hours of fun, excitement, and yes a surfing lesson! We started with a nice picnic lunch, followed by a cricket game on the beach and then a fantastic time surfing. It was exhausting but by the end everyone looked like pros!

There’s nothing like enjoying the festive season with hot weather and the end of the school year! A bit strange for most of us but something definitely neat to experience. With a number of teachers going home for the holidays, we had a get together along the Yarra River for a Christmas drink. It has been a great 2008 year for the Leading Out teachers, and we look forward to more fun in 2009!

We had a fabulous time at Hanging Rock with a BBQ and drinks before hiking up the rock to find Miranda! The OC teachers decided that we should visit a couple of wineries and taste some fudge in the Macedon
region to top off a great afternoon!             

A perfect 30 degree day out at the Yarra Valley wineries! We sipped wines from 5 different wineries and had lunch overlooking the valley. A great day out with all of the Canadian teachers in Australia.