This term all students have been involved in the Student Council speech and election process. Students have been developing speech writing and presentation skills when constructing and presenting speeches to classmates. A class nominee was elected through a voting process then presented their speeches to their cohort for voting on Friday 6^th May. All students used ballot papers to record their vote to conclude the process with the final count seeing participants elected for each phase of learning. Student Councillors will attend weekly student council meetings to further develop their leadership capabilities each Friday. Congratulations to Skye, Alby, Matthew D, Skylah, Gabe, Sibylla, Austin, Manaia, Alex and Milla, our Student Council representatives for 2022. An official recognition of their achievement will be acknowledged at the full school assembly in week 9.

Telly the Beast

Telly the Beast on YouTube

RUN!

 My sisters always made me run down the side path first (naturally, so I’d be the first one eaten, being the youngest and therefore, the most tender), and then they’d follow, fearfully avoiding “Telly the Beast!”. 

Telly, was the angry, mouth frothing, teeth snarling, fire-breathing Alsatian, from the bowels of hell, who lived next door where we grew up. 

Thank heaven for the wooden paling fence, that stood between Telly and the side pathway that led to our backyard (it was our only passage to our back door, because we weren’t allowed to come in through the front door after school, because we’d get the carpet dirty!). So, us kids had to cheat death by running down the side pathway, to get to our back door. It was a daily, not-so-friendly, kid suicide run! It was scary to have to go to and from school, knowing that Telly would be there at the beginning and end of each day, waiting to eat us alive. Every day, he’d go insane-level-bonkers as we ran past, jumping and barking at us, chomping at the bit to chomp us to bits! 

Life is a little like that. Sometimes, it can appear to be ferocious: it can sometimes appear threatening, and it can sometimes appear, altogether scary. Sometimes, life appears to bark at us, and snarl at us, and sometimes make us feel helpless and vulnerable, and even make us feel like the evening’s delicious ‘sitting duck’ on a platter. 

I remember that my dad wasn’t afraid. I know, because one day, Telly found his way through a loose paling in our fence and was running free in our backyard. Free in our backyard! While us kids were inside the safety of the kitchen crying and screaming for a hero, my dad marched straight out, and calmly led Telly back into his yard, then boarded up the loose paling. Dad didn’t threaten him, yell at him, or even try to grab him and drag him back. He just wasn’t afraid, and dad, calmly and gently, did what he needed to do in the situation. 

Wait a minute, how come my dad wasn’t afraid of the beast? Why didn’t he take any weapons for the rescue? How come he didn’t call: the police, a lion catcher, the FBI, Mulder and Scully? (Mulder and Scully?). I couldn’t help wondering about what I would’ve done had I found myself face to face with Telly, minus a wooden fence. And then, if by fate, one day it happened. 

I liked getting to school early, so running up the side passage, and getting past Telly quickly, fit the brief. One morning, I thought I’d be clever and sneak around to the side fence, and bolt up the side passage before, Telly knew I was there. 

Vroom, I was lightening! I had escaped all the way down the side pathway, and out across the front yard, and onto the footpath. Da da da, dut da da, I had defeated the beast and gotten past him. But, before I could take my next step, there on the road ahead, stood a snarling, mouth drooling, Telly! 

Telly was loose. Argh! 

I froze on the spot. Telly, ran straight at me barking. I was dead! 

Then, to my utter surprise, Telly stopped at my statue stiff legs, sniffed my deathly-sweating hands, licked them, jumped around me in circles for a bit, and then seeing as though I wasn’t about to thaw out in a hurry, turned and trotted home, as if to say, “nothing to see; nothing unusual to report, move along folks!” 

I wasn’t eaten. I wasn’t mauled to death, and I didn’t end up on the evening news, with the headline, “Little frozen scardey cat kid, eaten by dog!” 

My dad wasn’t eaten either, because, Telly, wasn’t an evil beast! My dad had known all along that Telly wasn’t a bad dog, but a friendly dog. Telly’s years of barking had been friendly barking, not killer barking. That’s how dad was able to put Telly back into his yard without being eaten, because there was never a threat in the first place. Us kids were the ones who had wrongly assumed that Telly was a beast. It was us kids who had completely misread the situation. It was us kids who were petrified by a powder puff, who we’d assumed was a natural born killer! It was us kids who had wrongly interpreted appearances. And it was us kids who had wasted so many years being scared of a pet who, all along, had just wanted to play. Telly wasn’t evil, he was innocent; created from our silly assumptions. 

There are indeed scary dogs out there, and we’d be wise to keep our distance or avoid them altogether. But, Telly wasn’t one of them. Similarly, there are scary situations out there, and we’d be wise to perhaps, rethink some things from a fresh perspective. But, Telly wasn’t one of them either. I came to realize that day, that I had made a life mistake: I came to realize, that I had worried all those years for nothing; I realized that I had wasted my time being scared for all of those years for no reason. That day, I discovered, that I lived nextdoor to 2 very different dogs: Telly, the friendly, and Telly the Beast. Only thing was, one was real, and one wasn’t. I know because, Telly, the Beast, was only in my imagination inside my head, and Telly, the friendly, licked my hand!

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