I'm joining in with Elephant's Child and others for Sunday Selections.
Number 1 Queens Road behind us is a huge building but the first part of Queens Road is a modest little two laned street. The next Queens Road building is number 4 and looms over multiple lanes of traffic in Queens Road and Kingsway.
Getting up close to Number Four there is this sphere. It has been suggested to me by a former Canberrarian that it is was made by the same sculptor as this one in Canberra.
It was a nice change from walking my usual ISO walking streets. Lots of birds on the lake feeding away.
This is Mac.Robertson Girls' High School I walked past on my way home. Like Melbourne Boys' High School, it is a selective government school for our brightest and best.
Over the years it has changed to being mostly students with sub continental, East Asian and South East Asian parents. It is all very well attending a posh private school, but these lasses are at this school because they are clever and will have a great education and succeed on merit and not which posh private school their parents could afford to send them to.
If I came home and crossed two roads, I could spend about five minutes waiting for walk lights to get across the traffic sewer. On my way to the lake the traffic was so infrequent I could safely cross the roads illegally.
Nice, Andrew! I love that your government funds special schools for gifted boys and girls, where wealth doesn't come in to play. I'd love to see our government jump on that particular bandwagon.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend.
Sandra, while there would be a lot of extra costs, the basic education is free.
DeleteThat sphere does look like ours (but my parochial self prefers the one which hangs outside our National Gallery).
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking us walking. Our 'play' areas are mostly designed for the very young, though there are some similar to that one down by the lake. I rarely see anyone using them though.
EC, I probably prefer yours too. The senior's play area here will not will wear out from overuse.
DeleteI've been up here on the mountain 18 years...19 years next April. How the time has flown by.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week, Andrew...take care. :)
Lee, it seems we both changed homes at the same time in the early 2000s. Thanks.
DeleteI had so wanted my children to go to Melbourne High and McRobertson Girls....sadly they didn’t make the grade so it was local High schools or the Tech for them.
ReplyDeleteNo senior playground for us either out here in the sticks......there is one set out along the foreshore walk in Queens Beach (Bowen) which we use during our winter stays. I wonder how long it’ll be before the playgrounds are open again as I’m sure that would be a saving grace for mother’s/fathers/carers to give the children somewhere different to play instead of the back yard
Cathy, did it really set them back that did not attend such schools? I expect not. I think there was some good news today about children's playgrounds.
DeleteSo good to see the effort put into the gardens around the high school buildings.
ReplyDeleteCheryl, yes the gardens are rather good.
DeleteI like to know more about your education...When I went to school most kids went kindergarten though grade six, and then to jr high 7 through 9 and then to high school 10 to 12.
ReplyDeleteDora, I will write a post for you about our education system.
DeleteI can assure you, Andrew, that to attend a 'posh private school' (in the UK), you need to take a very rigid exam called 'The Common Entrance'. If you have the cash and simply want a privately run school for little Johnny, there are plenty of not-so-posh independent schools who are happy to take your money, but hold no kudos. If you tried to throw money at the better known UK 'Public Schools', you would be shown the door.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the facts Cro. Quite interesting and different to here where money buys you way into a prestigious school, that admittedly do offer very good education along with some knowledge of noblesse oblige.
DeleteA very nice walk, thank you. We have exercise equipment in parks also, but usually by the time I walk there I'm too tired out to even bother trying any of it.
ReplyDeleteRiver, that you are walking is good enough. Keep right on walking.
DeleteWhat A Fantastic Post - Pleasure Spending A Day In A Life With Ya - Way Cool And Be Well
ReplyDeleteCheers
Not much else to say than, thank you Padre.
DeleteLike that sphere, the school does look attractive as not all do.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the road from above, makes it look different.
Margaret, do you remember the pebble school buildings of the 50s and 60s? You probably had them there too. Pretty awful.
DeleteI like the warm colour of the bricks used on the school building. In my day we had to sit the 11+ exam. A pass meant you would go to a grammar school. A few local boroughs still have this system but not many however we do have a couple of free state schools in my area for la crème de la crème.
ReplyDeleteSo Marie, if you passed the 11+ you could attend a grammar school for free?
ReplyDeleteYes. Grammar schools are not private schools. I also sat an entrance exam for a more selective school which was also free. However the cost of the school uniform was a real struggle for my parents. That school was an education in itself into the ever present class system as I lived on a council estate and many of my classmates probably had their own estates!
DeleteThanks. Lol at your last sentence.
DeleteMy friends in the 1960s were very proud to study at Melbourne High and MacRob. As were their parents. Is that still true today?
ReplyDeleteI should thing so Hels. They are smart kids.
DeleteI like that sculpture and the school grounds too. I know in Perth they have about 20 schools who take part in the Gifted and Talented program.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Sami. I will add that to the list of things about Perth I need to investigate.
DeleteNice Walk, time for me to head out for mine.
ReplyDeleteI hope it is interesting Travel.
DeleteHey, you Aussies drive on the wrong side of the street. haha
ReplyDeleteGigi, no, no. It is you who drive on the wrong side and your cars are set up wrongly.
DeleteIt's so interesting to see these pictures. I have literally no mental image of Melbourne, so it's nice to fill in the gaps in my knowledge! That looks like a nice school. And the sphere looks like a football, at least to my un-sportsmanlike eyes.
ReplyDeleteSteve, while I didn't this time, I have researched the sphere in the past and found out nothing.
DeleteThat was nice Andrew, a new walking route will hopefully lift your spirits. The freeways being so quiet must be a little eerie, your roads are normally so much busier than here in Perth.
ReplyDeleteThanks Grace. Yes, good to walk somewhere else.
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