#Australian education system

[local-apollo-kid]

I've finished NAPLAN forever and I'm so happy so take a Good Omens thought:

Hell definitely accredited NAPLAN to Crowley, and he just sat there like "Thanks, man"

They gave him a commendation and everything cause it just fucking sucks that much, and Crowley isn't gonna say that it was the humans who invented it cause extra brownie points, y'know?

(They also think he invented Australia)

[littleprincessfawn]

Well, looks like I'm home-schooling my child.

This isn't an abrupt decision it's the result of a gradual eroding away of my child's ability to function within the school system. Of me considering all the options and working with the school as best as I can. Of reading about how teachers in the Australian education system are burning out at lighting rates, leaving the profession in droves, and choosing to home-educate their own children.

My child can't do school anymore. He just can't. He tried so hard. He's brilliant and not being challenged in maths. He's struggling and not being given help in spelling. Going to school isn't what's best for him and it hasn't been for a few years now.

This is going to be hard. I literally have leukemia.

But it's going to be worth it. It's going to be good for him. I can finally stretch him as far as he can go with his maths skills. I can finally help him 'get' spelling. Because he's been going to school, there hasn't been enough time for me to teach him at home.

The main downside is the lack of social opportunities. So for that I'll find groups, after school activities, coding clubs, chess clubs, for him to join and socialize with. I'll get better myself so I can organize playdates for him.

When your kid explains school using the metaphor of Loki's torture with the water dripping on his head for eternity (that he picked up on YouTube, and which I believe was actually venom, and I told him everything I remembered about that myth, so hey, we're learning more things already) I feel that's a decent indication that the schooling system is not working for them.

[shutterbulky]

12-year-old girl becomes Instagram star

Yulia Perova and her daughter, Katya, have been residing in Australia for the past two years after relocating from Moscow. The decision to move wasn’t easy, but family circumstances necessitated leaving behind their homes, friends, and homeland, seeking a new beginning in the vibrant continent of Australia. Initially, Yulia grappled with regrets over the move, but the allure of Australia’s…

[rimaakter45]

راهنمای جامع تحصیل در استرالیا

استرالیا به خاطر مناظر خیره کننده، حیات وحش متنوع و شهرهای پر جنب و جوش معروف است که آن را به مقصدی جذاب برای دانشجویان بین المللی تبدیل کرده است. استرالیا با یک سیستم آموزشی در سطح جهانی، یک اقتصاد قوی، و یک ملیله فرهنگی غنی، تجربه منحصر به فردی را برای کسانی که به دنبال ادامه تحصیل هستند، ارائه می دهد. در این مقاله، ما بررسی خواهیم کرد که چرا باید در نظر بگیرید  تحصیل در استرالیا  و یک راهنمای جامع برای کمک به شما در تصمیم گیری آگاهانه ارائه کنید.

1. آموزش در سطح جهانی: استرالیا دارای فهرست قابل توجهی از دانشگاه ها است که به طور مداوم در بین موسسات برتر جهان رتبه بندی شده اند. این دانشگاه ها به دلیل کیفیت آموزش، تحقیقات پیشرفته و روش های نوین تدریس مشهور هستند. مدارک تحصیلی استرالیا در سطح جهانی به رسمیت شناخته می شود و این اطمینان را می دهد که مدارک تحصیلی شما توسط کارفرمایان و مؤسسات در سراسر جهان مورد توجه قرار خواهد گرفت.

2. طیف متنوعی از دوره ها: چه به تجارت، علم، مهندسی، هنر یا هر زمینه دیگری علاقه مند باشید، دانشگاه های استرالیا طیف وسیعی از برنامه ها را برای پاسخگویی به علایق علمی شما ارائه می دهند. انعطاف پذیری در انتخاب رشته به شما این امکان را می دهد که تحصیلات خود را با اهداف و آرزوهای شغلی خاص خود تنظیم کنید.

3. فرصت های تحقیقاتی با کیفیت بالا: استرالیا در زمینه های مختلف تحقیقاتی پیشتاز است و فرصت های زیادی را برای دانشجویان فراهم می کند تا در تحقیقات پیشگامانه شرکت کنند. این کشور تعهدی قوی به نوآوری دارد که در کمک هزینه های تحقیقاتی متعدد، بورسیه های تحصیلی و تسهیلات پیشرفته موجود برای دانشجویان مشهود است.

4. محیط چند فرهنگی: استرالیا یک جامعه چند فرهنگی است که پذیرای دانش آموزان از سراسر جهان است. این تنوع تجربه فرهنگی شما را افزایش می دهد، ارتباطات جهانی را تقویت می کند و افق دید شما را گسترش می دهد. شما این شانس را خواهید داشت که با افراد با پیشینه‌ها و فرهنگ‌های مختلف تعامل داشته باشید و تحصیلات خود را نه تنها از نظر آکادمیک غنی‌تر کنید، بلکه از نظر شخصی نیز رضایت‌بخش باشید.

5. استاندارد بالای زندگی: استرالیا به طور مداوم به عنوان یکی از کشورهای برتر جهان از نظر کیفیت زندگی رتبه بندی می شود. این کشور دارای استاندارد زندگی بالا، سیستم مراقبت های بهداشتی عالی و شبکه ایمنی اجتماعی قوی است. دانشجویان همچنین می توانند از فرصت های کار پاره وقت برای تامین هزینه های خود در طول تحصیل بهره مند شوند.

6. زیبایی طبیعی و ماجراجویی: یکی از جنبه های منحصر به فرد تحصیل در استرالیا، زیبایی طبیعی نفس گیر است. از خانه اپرای نمادین سیدنی گرفته تا دیواره مرجانی بزرگ و دوردست وسیع، فرصت های بی پایانی برای ماجراجویی و اکتشاف در طول سفر تحصیلی شما وجود دارد.

7. ایمنی و امنیت: استرالیا به دلیل ایمنی و نرخ پایین جرم و جنایت شناخته شده است که آن را به مقصدی ایده آل برای دانشجویان بین المللی تبدیل می کند. این کشور تاکید زیادی بر تضمین رفاه ساکنان خود از جمله دانشجویان خارج از کشور دارد.

8. گزینه‌های ویزا: استرالیا گزینه‌های مختلف ویزا را برای دانشجویان بین‌المللی فراهم می‌کند، که هدایت فرآیند مهاجرت را نسبتاً ساده می‌کند. ویزای دانشجویی (زیر کلاس 500) برای پذیرش دانشجویان طراحی شده است و به آنها اجازه می دهد تا به صورت پاره وقت کار کنند و در برخی موارد حتی اعضای خانواده خود را بیاورند.

9. فرصت های کاری: در حین تحصیل در استرالیا، می توانید به صورت پاره وقت (حداکثر 20 ساعت در هفته) در طول سال تحصیلی و تمام وقت در زمان استراحت برنامه ریزی شده کار کنید. این می تواند به شما کمک کند تجربه کاری ارزشمندی کسب کنید، هزینه های زندگی را جبران کنید و شبکه حرفه ای خود را بسازید.

10. فرصت های کاری پس از تحصیل: استرالیا فرصت های کاری پس از تحصیل را به فارغ التحصیلان بین المللی ارائه می دهد. ویزای موقت فارغ التحصیل (زیر کلاس 485) به فارغ التحصیلان واجد شرایط اجازه می دهد تا کار کنند، تجربه کسب کنند و به طور بالقوه به یک گزینه ویزای دائمی تر منتقل شوند.

11. بورسیه ها و کمک های مالی: دانشگاه های استرالیا و دولت طیف وسیعی از بورسیه ها، کمک های مالی و برنامه های کمک مالی را برای دانشجویان بین المللی ارائه می دهند. این فرصت ها می توانند به جبران هزینه های تحصیل و هزینه های زندگی کمک کنند.

12. فرآیند درخواست: برای تحصیل در استرالیا، معمولاً باید چند مرحله کلیدی را دنبال کنید. ابتدا در مورد برنامه ها و دانشگاه هایی که با اهداف شما همسو هستند تحقیق کنید. سپس، درخواست خود را آماده و ارسال کنید، که ممکن است شامل نمرات آزمون استاندارد، ریز نمرات دانشگاهی و بیانیه هدف باشد. پس از پذیرش، می توانید برای ویزای دانشجویی خود اقدام کنید.

13. هزینه زندگی: هزینه زندگی در استرالیا بسته به شهر و سبک زندگی متفاوت است. سیدنی و ملبورن گران تر هستند، در حالی که مناطق منطقه ای مقرون به صرفه تر هستند. بودجه بندی برای اقامت، غذا، حمل و نقل و سایر هزینه ها بسیار مهم است.

14. گزینه های اسکان: استرالیا طیف وسیعی از گزینه های اقامتی را ارائه می دهد، از جمله مسکن در محوطه دانشگاه، آپارتمان های خارج از دانشگاه، اقامت در خانه و مسکن مشترک. انتخاب محل اقامت مناسب به ترجیحات و بودجه شما بستگی دارد.

15. بیمه سلامت: دانشجویان بین المللی ملزم به داشتن پوشش سلامت دانشجویان خارج از کشور (OSHC) در حین تحصیل در استرالیا هستند. OSHC به پوشش هزینه های پزشکی کمک می کند و تضمین می کند که شما به خدمات مراقبت های بهداشتی با کیفیت دسترسی دارید.

16. مقررات کار پاره وقت: دانشجویان بین المللی اجازه دارند در طول تحصیل تا 20 ساعت در هفته کار کنند و در تعطیلات ترم هیچ محدودیتی برای ساعت کاری وجود ندارد. این یک فرصت عالی برای کسب تجربه عملی و حمایت مالی است.

17. سازگاری فرهنگی: انطباق با فرهنگ جدید می تواند چالش برانگیز باشد، اما جامعه دوستانه و فراگیر استرالیا این روند را آسان تر می کند. دانشگاه ها اغلب خدمات پشتیبانی برای کمک به دانشجویان بین المللی برای انتقال و ادغام در زندگی استرالیایی دارند.

18. الزامات زبان: تسلط به زبان انگلیسی برای موفقیت تحصیلی در استرالیا بسیار مهم است. اکثر دانشگاه ها نیاز به اثبات مهارت زبان انگلیسی از طریق آزمون های استاندارد مانند آیلتس یا تافل دارند.

19. مقررات ویزا: درک و رعایت مقررات ویزا حیاتی است. اطمینان حاصل کنید که در مورد شرایط ویزای خود، از جمله محدودیت های کاری و گزینه های پس از تحصیل، مطلع باشید.

20. ارتباط با دانش آموزان دیگر: پیوستن به سازمان ها و باشگاه های دانشجویی می تواند به شما کمک کند با مردم ملاقات کنید، دوستان پیدا کنید و زندگی اجتماعی خود را غنی کنید. این می تواند به ویژه در سازگاری با محیط جدید شما مفید باشد.

در نتیجه، تحصیل در استرالیا ترکیبی منحصر به فرد از برتری علمی، کیفیت بالای زندگی و تجربیات فرهنگی هیجان انگیز را ارائه می دهد. چه به دنبال تحصیل در سطح جهانی باشید، چه خود را در فرهنگ های متنوع غوطه ور کنید یا زیبایی های طبیعی چشمگیر سرزمین داون آندر را کشف کنید، استرالیا مقصدی ایده آل برای دانشجویان بین المللی است. با پیروی از این راهنمای جامع، می توانید سفر خود را آغاز کنید تا فرصت های بی شماری را که تحصیل در استرالیا ارائه می دهد، باز کنید. لطفا به اینجا مراجعه کنید تحصیل در استرالیا  برای اطلاعات بیشتر.

[sixshotsinatumbllr]

After approximately a million hours of op shopping, cutting out feathers, knitting, dyeing and fucking up a glue gun, we are ready for Book Week

Here's our take on Crowley

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

OK ANOTHER THING BECAUSE I READ THE NEXT PART… THE WIBBLES??? ;-; the wiggles I am only now discovering are in fact not a universal childhood staple… next thing your gonna be telling me you don’t know about playschool… lol

Playschool like... the educational institution?

I mean my brother went to playschool. I guess.

TW: uh, corporeal punishment at school, so proceed with caution.

My, uh 'playschool' made me learn four languages in addition to maths and environmental science at the age of four, those languages (thankfully one being english) used different scripts, at the same age of four I had midterms and finals of fifty marks each and a grading system from A to F, and when we didn't do homework we were hit with wooden scales on the palms until a centimetre thick 30 cm long scale broke after hitting a whole class of five year olds...

If you're referring to playschool like a show/band/anything else, then I admit that no, I do not know about playschool.

[urmumsgyatt]

me who’s expected to study all the content i learnt in all of my classes the entire year in the span of 4 weeks before my exams: is it too late to drop out

[multiversaltraveller]

Unpopular opinion but if schools took the time students spend there in the 5 days and spread it across 6 instead we could start at 10am, allowing for a little more sleep without going to bed obscenely early (still need to study and have hobbies in the evening) and slower, more relaxed mornings so less people are arriving stressed and tired, not able to focus as well for the first few lessons.

Definitely wouldn't mind giving up a few hours on Saturday for more free time overall. (But I graduate next year anyway)

[sunstormbudgie]

I AM the circle in the triangle factory

[esoclectic]

me, just vibing in the Lake District:

the australian education system: what if we fucked up your day?

[apas-95]

australian education system is so bad they never teach them how to identify friendly aircraft 😔

[kaitaiga]

Archie “Frost” Campbell Profile

》[Open Profile] Disclaimer: as I’m still working through the lore of Task Force Dagger, Archie’s biography is still quite bare. Everything else is finished :)

General

Name: Archibald (Archie) Charles Campbell

Callsign: Frost

Age: 29

Birthday: 16th November, 1995 -  Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

Face Claim: Callum Turner

Occupation: Fast Jet Pilot (F-35A Lightning II)

Affiliation: Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF - 75th SQN)

Rank: Flight Lieutenant (FLTLT)

Height: 183cm (6ft)

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation

Languages: English, Spanish, German

Appearance

Hair: Dark brown, wavy hair. Short back and sides.

Eye Colour: Grey

Facial Hair: Pencil moustache

Marks: None

Tattoos: None

Family 

Unnamed Mother and Father

Grandfather (Former RAAF 460 SQN)

Pet: Vader (Black cat with white markings on face)

Affiliates

Task Force Dagger

Captain Lachlan Jones (2CDO)

Sergeant Damien Whitlock (2CDO)

Sergeant Daniel Greenhill (2CDO)

Sergeant Joseph “Joey” Hernandez (CCT)

Talullah Jones (ASIS)

Personality

Myers-Briggs Type: ISTJ (Logistician)

Honest and Direct: Archie is a straightforward, no-bullshit kind of person. Will tell his peers how it is without holding back. 

Observer: Not one to talk much unless needed, Archie prefers to observe and analyse his peers or situation.

Archie is a level-headed person. He is calm and is able to keep his cool under difficult situations.

Archie doesn’t let his emotions drive his thought process. He is a logical person who bases his thoughts and opinions based on research and experience, and can become stubborn when he doesn’t particularly agree with something.

Skills

As a fighter pilot, Archie has inherited a range of skills apart from simply flying a fighter jet. There include:

Mental Skills: quick and accurate decisions, situational awareness.

Technical Skills: navigation, avionics, flight system and weapon proficiency.

Social Skills: effective communication, cooperation and working as a team, leadership.

Air Combat Manoeuvring (ACM), Fighter tactics and manoeuvres, etc.

Mission Planning

Maths and Physics, as well as creativity in situations.

Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)

Archie also likes to partake in electrical work, commonly seen tinkering with devices and studying mechanical/electrical engineering concepts in his spare time.

Behind the Callsign

At a glance, “Frost” derives from his frosty attitude towards his peers around him. Being one to keep to himself majority of the time and only speaking when necessary, his attitude was often perceived as cold to others, even when he didn't mean it.

Though if you were to ask his squadron and ground crew, they’d tell you that they call him “Frost” due to his impressive flying skills, often leaving onlookers and other pilots frozen in awe. Almost like an advantage over opponents.

Biography

Archie was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia on the 16th of November, 1995. Growing up, Archie would listen to his grandfather’s stories of being a pilot on an Avro Lancaster throughout the majority of WW2. Though a little incoherent at times, Archie still enjoyed them regardless as they shaped his childhood and future to come.

Throughout high school, Archie would spend a lot of time volunteering at an aviation museum alongside his grandfather as a technician assistant, working on maintaining planes on display whilst rambling bits of information of various planes to visitors. Archie would also frequent RAAF base Williamtown, where he would stand just outside the base and watch Super Hornets scream over his head. He wasn’t the type to stand out among his classmates, much preferring to stick his head in a book and soak up as much information as he could on various aviation and engineering topics. He graduated with a top ATAR score of 97.

Thanks to his constant exposure to the Air Force along with his grandfather’s stories, Archie knew he wanted to become a fighter pilot from an early age. In his later years of high school and after, he worked diligently preparing for multiple officer and screening boards during his application process. He managed to score one of five spots out of hundreds of applicants.

Archie then attended the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), where he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Aviation. He would be a maths tutor to a few of his peers in his spare time, but most commonly Joseph, his newly made friend who he bonded with over their love for Star Wars. 

Upon graduating ADFA, Archie was sent to Perth to begin his initial specialist employment pilot training (ISET), where he spent a year flying the PC-21. He graduated from Number 2 Flying Training School and was recommended by his instructors to pilot the newly introduced and mighty F-35A.

Now part of 75th Squadron, Archie is posted to RAAF base Tindal in the Northern Territory to continue his training, also managing to deploy overseas to various locations such as the US and Japan.

At some point, Archie was approached and recruited into Task Force Dagger on recommendation from Joseph. Working with TFD would show him his first set of real combat outside of simulations and practice exercises. To be continued…

*(Archie would have been 26 years old when the F-35A was first introduced into the 75th SQN, a few years after he graduated ISET (22-23 years old). For story purposes, assume the F-35 arrived earlier.)

Trivia/Preferences 

His favourite music band is Daft Punk. His favourite song from them is ‘Face to Face’. Also likes Coldplay, Kenny Loggins, Phil Collins, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, etc.

In his spare time, he also likes to build lego sets and model jets. He’s also a gamer, preferring to play games like Arma 3, League of Legends, Cyberpunk 2077, Helldivers 2, etc.

He likes to wear Rayban Aviators in the colourway black/black or gold/green.

He is a big fan of Star Wars. His favourite movie is ‘A New Hope’ and he also really enjoys ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’. His favourite characters are Wedge Antilles and Commander Wolffe.

He likes to spoil Vader rotten! Buys him all kinds of toys. Even has a Death Star cat house. He has a really big soft spot for Vader which Joseph likes to tease him about, quote: “he is the only one to knock down that icy wall he’s built around himself.”

When Archie chose his aircraft preference, he originally chose the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

If he didn’t become a pilot, he’d become a mechanical engineer. 

After his grandfather passed, Archie carries his ID tags with him as a source of comfort and support. 

Archie was inspired by the character ‘Viper’ from Titanfall 2 and the song “Dodge This”.

[fatehbaz]

In September 2022, the Australian High Court upheld a law that effectively allows “preventative incarceration,” or the imprisonment of people even after their sentence has been served, based on whether or not a court thinks the prisoner might be at risk of committing a future crime.

Indigenous people make up 4% of the population of Western Australia, but 40% of the state’s prisoners are Indigenous.

At Western Australia’s Banksia youth prison, 75% of incarcerated youth are Indigenous.

Australia allows for the imprisonment of children as young as 10 years old.

---

Excerpt:

Casuarina prison is a sprawling, concrete jungle on the southern outskirts of Perth, Western Australia (WA). It is a maximum-security, adult facility, home to people who may never leave its confines. However, on July 20, the penitentiary “welcomed” a new cohort of prisoners: 17 kids under the age of 18, who had been moved from the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Center to Casuarina [...].

When current WA Premier Mark McGowan was elected in 2017, his Labor party promised to lower the rate of Indigenous incarceration in the state, which is the highest in the nation. First Nations people are 16 times more likely to be incarcerated in WA than non-Indigenous people, a number that has only risen despite the promise of the government.

Dr. Hannah McGlade, a Noongar academic and human rights lawyer, isn’t surprised by the state’s failure to uphold its promise. “Our government cares little for Aboriginal lives,” McGlade told The Diplomat. [...]

In the past month, the Australian High Court upheld a law designed to keep the worst offenders in prison indefinitely, even after their sentences have been complete.

Known as the High Risk Serious Offenders Act (HRSOA), the legislation was challenged in Australia’s apex court when Peter Garlett, a 23-year-old Noongar man, was imprisoned after stealing AU$20 and a necklace while pretending to be armed. Despite this being his first adult offense, when his sentence was up, the Western Australian government asked the High Court to keep Garlett, now 28, in prison.

The court agreed, effectively paving the way for preventative incarceration in Australia.

Though five of the seven High Court judges upheld the constitutional validity of the HRSOA, many academics, lawyers, and activists who deal with the lives of First Nations people inside the legal system on a regular basis, note that this will only further trap Indigenous Australians in the carceral system. Garlett had been in near-continuous detention since he was 12, and this became the rationale for keeping him in prison beyond his criminal sentence.

One of the judges even hypothesized that the law could “potentially lead to the imprisonment of one seventh of the entire prison population of Western Australia for offenses that they have not committed.” [...]

“This is a crystal-clear example of an indirectly discriminatory law: one that is not discriminatory in its express terms but is discriminatory in its practical effect.” [...]

Though Indigenous people make up less than 4 percent of the state population, nearly 40 percent of Western Australia’s prison population is Indigenous. That is particularly troubling given the horrific record of Australian prisons. Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991, over 500 First Nations people have died while imprisoned in Australia. In 2020-2021 alone, 13 prisoners died in custody in WA – five of them Aboriginal.

No custodial or police officer has ever been found criminally responsible for any of these deaths.

The structural forces pushing Indigenous people into Australia’s prisons start early. In the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Center, three-quarters of the inmates are Indigenous. Despite its mandate to rehabilitate people for their eventual release, reports show some of the prisoners receiving as little as five hours of education a month. In April, the state’s prison watchdog outlined a series of “cruel, inhumane, and degrading” treatments in the facility’s Intensive Support Unit. Children have reportedly made suicide pacts due to their treatment, with some being kept in isolation for 23 hours a day. [...]

Penglis and McGlade point to the age of imprisonment in Australia being only 10 years old as devastating. [...]

---

Text by: Dechlan Brennan. “How Western Australia Criminalizes Indigenous Children.” The Diplomat. 7 October 2022. [Italicized first lines/heading in this post added by me.]

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

How The Fuck Do Classes At Aguefort Work

AKA Brennan gave me a number of students for this school and I am going to use my expert knowledge of being a teacher in real life to extrapolate things

(disclaimer: i am australian and thus my knowledge is limited to the australian school system of how things are arranged, number of students in each class, etc. this is basically how I would organise aguefort if it were up to me)

SO

aguefort has approximately 500 students split across four year levels, making for about 125 per year level, which you could easily split into 5 'homeroom' classes of about 25 students each. Or 31-32 if you wanted to squish them into 4.

But the thing is, we have all the DND Classes to think about, with each class having its own dedicated teacher and specialist class. There are 12 standard dnd subclasses, plus we know that artificer is also an option, making 13.

It's unlikely that any particular year level has all of its students evenly split between those classes (it would be an average of 9-10 per class if they did, which is quite small for a single class, but not unheard of for (using a real life example) elective subjects like business or design tech)

ADDITIONALLY, we do know that 'regular' classes exist at aguefort, like history and home ec, so I'm assuming other typical subjects like maths, english, science (perhaps broken down into chem/bio/physics, maybe not), maybe PE as well for students that aren't part of one of the martial classes, among other things.

Most likely, the school day is arranged so that each student (assuming this student has a typical workload, AKA nothing absolutely bonkers like what the bad kids are doing in junior year) has at least one Class-Specific class per day, and then some general education ones as well, and then perhaps some more adventuring-focused classes like survival + archery or arcana.

That way each class-specific teacher should be able to fit one lesson with each year level a day, because those classes are probably considered far more important than like. Modern History.

DND-Class classes are likely much smaller and more individualised, and then general ed classes would be with a far bigger group.

I also think Aguefort has a lot of composite classes! Particularly for the less popular Dnd-Classes. Freshman+Sophomores together and then Juniors+Seniors together is probably the most common.

I think sorcery classes are often composites, partly because its one that students Literally have to be born to be able to do, so its not one that other students can multiclass Into, so its numbers probably fluctuate a bunch depending on the cohort.

More technical classes like artificer are probably also composites! Simply because I bet they're less popular than things like Fighters, Rogues, so on.

Bards are also absolutely composites, because they are already split within themselves with multiple teachers depending on the students particular focus (like we did with a separate Music class and Dance class with different bard teachers). So I wouldn't be surprised if some bard classes contain freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors all within the one class and still only have like, ten students total because they're that specialised.

I think combined classes also probably happen on a fairly regular basis. Esp if like, teachers call in sick. The fighters will go join the barbarians for a day, or the clerics will join the paladins.

And then of course they don't actually give a shit if you show up to your classes or not so theres probably some poor admin staff out there who painstakingly arranges every schedule at the start of each semester and then 80% of students ignore half of it anyway

[rockethorse]

Calcinidae Bay Lot Tour: the Public Schools

Let's take a closer look at a few of Calcinidae Bay's community lots - its public schooling! This screenshot is actually three lots, with two lots overlapped using the Lot Adjuster. On the left is the high school, on the right is the primary school, and between them is a shared gymnasium and a semi-public oval (sports field).

More pics & CC-free decorating ideas below!

As always, these lots are based on shell challenges. The high school and primary school are actually shells that were made for me by @hugelunatic as stocking stuffers back in 2022 (I didn't forget about them!) The shell from the gym/oval lot is actually the smaller canteen building, with the gymnasium being auxiliary (because it had to be such a specific size/shape), and that shell is a 4T2 adaptation of LilSimsie's "Yeehaw" Shell Challenge that I grabbed off the gallery.

Starting with the high school:

If you peeked at the original shell, you'll see there was a two-storey 1x1 "column "room" in the middle of the lot, which made me think of a bell/clock tower and inspired me to use these shells for schools. Normally when I adapt a TS4 shell challenge to TS2 I choose the placement & orientation on the lot, but because these lots were made natively in TS2 I decided to keep the lot size & distribution as they were. This gave me a lot of additional space around the main building that was perfect for adding extra amenities like a library.

The ground floor of the high school has an administration area, lockers, mixed bathroom, sick bay, staff room, and two general-use classrooms that can each fit six students.

The teacher's lounge/staff room, and a small display/awards case. I needed something to do with that little triangular pocket, and now it's one of my favourite features. :)

Upstairs is two specialised classrooms - a moderate science lab and an arts room. I would have liked at least a home ec classroom as well, but I guess that'll be reserved for the eventual private school.

The canteen (cafeteria) is a separate demountable building with outdoor seating, some of it under a shade cloth. The library is also a separate building with a small computer bay and a group study area.

Moving on to the primary school, a much older and smaller building with some minor remodeling so the two schools look cohesive:

The inspiration for my gameplay/lots is a mish-mash of different cultural influences, but I play my schools like the standard Australian system; kids start in reception (about age 5) and attend primary school all the way through to year 6 or 7, then go to high school from year 6/7 through to year 12. Separate middle schools are much less common, and this matches with how the game itself handles kid vs. teen education.

I design my lots kind of "representationally", to get the best balance between realism and playability. While I enjoy including some details that don't provide actual gameplay, I don't want to build enormous, cumbersome lots just to achieve a 1:1 scale when my Sims will never actually need that much space. Plus, most shell challenges tend to be smaller, which I like. Hence why this school has only two classrooms, one for junior primary and a more structured classroom for upper primary.

There is a small admin area downstairs. Upstairs is the sick bay and a modest teacher's lounge/staff room.

The primary school doesn't have its own library, but it does have a small separate building that we in Australia would call OSHC - Out of School Hours Care. It's a service parents can book to drop their children off before school starts, or arrange for them to attend after school finishes until they can pick them up. They provide snacks and some edu-tainment activities. Lots of kids also attend OSHC over school holidays.

The primary school canteen/cafeteria is also a separate building. Both school canteens use the University cafeteria stove, so with the right mod students will be able to grab food there. In addition to an outdoor eating area and a small playground, there is a little produce patch between the two buildings where students are taught about horticulture.

And finally, the lot that joins the two schools, the shared gymnasium and Calcinidae Oval.

The canteen/cafeteria itself would generally not be open during school hours. Instead, the school and/or local council would operate it for profit or hire it out to a third party when the oval was being used for local sports teams and other events on weekends, holidays, and after school hours. Right now it's set up for just such a soccer match.

The inside of the "tuckshop". There is a bathroom on the bottom floor accessible from the outside of the building, while the top floor has two changing rooms for students or local teams.

The gymnasium also serves as an assembly hall for students of both schools. I think the teachers would either have a collapsible stage at the far end of the court, or just stand up in the commentator's booth to give the announcements. Underneath the commentator's booth is the equipment storage shed where many a teen couple has probably sneaked off to make out.

The back view of the tuckshop and the carpark shows how this lot overlaps with the primary school. The existing primary school is blocked from Sims walking through it by a combination of real fences and this hidden CC-free invisible fence.

And that's it for this tour! I'm pretty happy with how these lots look, how I utilised the shells, and how they all fit together in the neighbourhood. I want to have more lots overlapping and slotting together like this to give Calcinidae Bay a more seamless, open feel, like the hood really is connected.

I'll finish this post with some floorplans - if you read all this you're a champ, I hope it gave you some ideas for your own game, and I'd love to know what you think!

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Pt I australia but i've never been there

A lot of my lovely maggots are Australian, it appears, judging by the number of Australian families I was just randomly adopted by. So this one goes out to you all, but very especially to Arthur (@howmanyholesinswisscheese) and to his grandmother's boyfriend Brian, who reminds him occasionally of me. I'm truly honoured.

Disclaimer: I did my research on tumblr, pinterest, and the first result of a couple of Google searches, because I'm thorough like that. I say part I because there is a lot.

I'm not sure what Australia is, because the education system failed me. They said it was a continent. But then a country. I figured it was both.

Unfortunately, then I learned about Oceania. Which I had thought was a made up undersea kingdom in that Barbie a Mermaid's Tale series, where people surf. But the continent is Australia and Oceania. Or not.

They have Prime Ministers. I know this, because one ate a raw onion which became instrumental in his later sacking, and another demanded to know what the odds were of a Prime Minister drowning.

He then drowned. Or maybe vanished into the Barbie kingdom of Oceania and became a merman. We will never know, because his body was never recovered, so my money's on the merman theory. Australians proceeded to name everything to do with water after him, from swimming pools to ships, because Irony.

H2O Just Add Water was set here, I think. I am not sure what that is, aside from a show where contact with liquid dihydrogen monoxide causes bodily transformation into a mermaid. Do the Australian mermaids not drink water? Not knowing any personally, I can't ask.

Aside from the concerning number of merpeople, there are also a concerning number of spiders. I love spiders, but apparently the ones in Australia will eat your flesh. After I watch Good Omens S2, I suspect I will welcome this fate.

For morons like me who see a spider and go AWW, Peppa Pig's episode on teaching kids not to be afraid of spiders was banned in Australia for endangering children and not being appropriate for Australian audiences.

Sydney is a place and it has an opera house. Melbourne is a place and it has a stadium (of what sport, I am unsure). Queensland is a place and it has Arthur's grandmum's boyfriend Brian.

There is a thing called Milo, and it is a brown powder that I assume is edible. Mums say to add a teaspoon (hence why I assumed edibility) and the children add a truckful. I infer it is nice.

There is marmite. I have known this for a while. Tourists spread a lot of it on their bread. This is a mistake. Do not. The original ad involved someone eating marmite happily, and their partner kissing them on the mouth and proceeding to gag violently. It is fermented beer waste. You either hate it or love it.

There is fairy bread. If you have sticks on it you are a monster. If you have balls on it you are smart.

I'm already writing part II. humans bewilder me.