suenicorn

This week I have been horribly sick, so away from work, but I finally got the news I've been waiting for, about the Western Chances Scholarship. I would have loved to be able to tell the kids concerned today, but with a chronic cough and such, I just couldn't go to work.

Western Chances is a scholarship set up, originally, by the wife of Steve Bracks, a Victorian Premier. To get it, you have to be living in the western suburbs of Melbourne - one of the poorer areas - and you have to be very good at something but have very little money. Your teacher has to nominate you. I've done this several times before but this year I was told that they had enough money for 130 scholarships and 200 applications. I worked hard to give my three students the best chance.

One young man is a quiet hard working lad who is a maths genius(not really surprised he's passionate about Rubik's Cubes. It's a very mathematical thing.)

Another boy in the same class is cheerful and always smiling, despite the fact that he has no mother and his father isn't living with his seven children - and may be dying. He works hard too, but while I teach English, his real ability is music. We've asked for keyboard lessons for him; at school he has to share with five others. I got a scholarship for his older sister, who will be pleased.

The third student is a girl who has so many abilities, it's hard for her to choose what she wants to do in life.

She is very good at all her subjects except maths, but even that is okay, as her maths teacher tells me, just not top of the class. And she has asked for maths tutoring. We're also getting her a keyboard so she can learn piano next year. Her music teacher tells me she can have singing lessons AND keyboard lessons for the price of one subject. I've asked for that. He says that learning piano will allow her to accompany herself. She is a fine singer. She also does figure skating, folk dancing and drama outside school. She lives with her mother, a psychologist who can't get work. They must have a close relationship - and one day I heard her humming the Queen of the Night Aria from The Magic Flute! She even knew what the aria was about. An old soul - she is 14 going on about 35!

So, I'm thrilled to bits for them. It's the last time I will be able to do this, as I'm retiring. They're all great kids!