Dear parents, guardians and students,

Nagano High School and Sunbury College have shared one of the longest sister school relationships in Australia and it was significant to be able to host Nagano High School in our school community for ten days over the last month and mark the 26th anniversary of the commencement of this relationship in 1997.

The relationship between our two great school, speaks to the value each school places on deepening and celebrating cultural awareness, by acknowledging, understanding, and appreciating the diverse cultural backgrounds of our two countries. Embracing and celebrating cultural diversity is a multi-faceted, ongoing process that each school must continually invest in.

The sister school relationship between Sunbury College and Nagano High School has three key parts and each part plays an important role in the relationship.

The first part involves Nagano High School visiting Sunbury College every 1 to 2 years, with Nagano students staying with families in our school community and undertaking classes and other activities each day. I would like to thank the Peake, Eckel, Lewis, Zambetta, Pauley, Little and Wilson families for hosting Nagano students during their visit. This was a great experience for our school community.
The second part of the relationship is Sunbury College students and staff visit Nagano High School in Japan every second year. This is a great opportunity for our students to develop a greater awareness of Japanese culture and to build upon and develop Japanese language skills. Our school is planning on taking a tour to Japan and visiting Nagano High School in November and December next year and will again take this tour to Japan in 2026.
The third way we strengthen our sister school relationship is by having regular digital contact between our two schools. An example of how this has occurred over the last three years when we haven’t been able to travel oversees to Japan due to international border closures and COVID, is through digital pen pals between our two schools. I want to thank our Japanese KLA Instructional Leader, Mamiko Shimizu who organized our year 8 Japanese classes over the previous three years to have a digital pen pal relationship with Nagano students. Students would send and receive digital messages to Nagano students to improve Japanese language skills and find out more about their country.

I would like to finish by thanking Nagano High School on behalf of the students, staff, and families of Sunbury College, for having a sister school relationship for 26 years and for deepening our cultural awareness of their school and country.

Best wishes

Craig O’Bree

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