Languages Week

Our College is a culturally diverse and vibrant community, and our families represent over 46 nationalities. Many of our students are bilingual and this provides several benefits to our school community. When students speak more than one language, it means that:

• everyone in the community gets a better appreciation of different languages and cultures
• students understand and appreciate different cultures
• students have increased empathy for other ways of understanding the world.

(source: raisingchildren.net.au)

The annual DSC Languages Week is an opportunity for students to be loud and proud about their cultural identities, and for our school to foster diversity and inclusion. 

Monday

Our Year 10 Italian students took an 'escursione' to Templestowe Heights Primary School to teach grade 5 and grade 6 students a few Italian words and phrases in a light-hearted and engaging way. Our students reflect on their experience.

Doncaster Secondary College gave us the chance to visit Templestowe Heights Primary school and teach the Year 5 and 6’s Italian through fun activities prepared by our Year 10 Italian class. We played the game ‘Celebrity Heads’ and taught the kids some basic animals in Italian. The children were very engaged and enjoyed this social and educational form of learning. 

We feel more confident after this experience and have improved our Italian and teaching skills. We are very grateful for this fun opportunity, and it was nice to see how happy and interested the kids were! 

- By Nakita M., Ruby B. and Angeliki K., Year 10

It was our privilege to get to work with the year five and sixes from Templestowe Heights Primary school today. We played Pictionary with the students helping them memorise the Italian words for different pieces of clothing. By the end of each rotation, we noticed that the students could pronounce the words for the different pieces of clothing with ease. This made us feel proud and happy that we had taught them something. Once again, we really appreciate being able to participate today. 

Michela M. and Olivia VW., Year 10 

On the 1st of August, we, the Year 10 Italian class, had the amazing opportunity of teaching the children at Templestowe Primary School some Italian. My group taught the students how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, ‘Sasso, Carta, Forbici’, and we enjoyed it very much. The children had fun playing the game while learning new words and bonding with their peers, and we had an insight into the difference of learning Italian in primary school versus secondary, as well as teaching at that level. 

The students picked up the vocabulary very quickly, so we had plenty of time left over to play. They were very engaged in the game, and their competitiveness showed when the chance to beat their friends arose, only making the day more enjoyable. 

Overall, I think it was a very beneficial experience and would recommend it to any future Italian classes too. 

Karly S. and Sara S., Year 10

As part of the Year 10 Italian subject, we went to Templestowe Heights Primary School to hold mini-Italian lessons for the year 5 and 6 students. It was an incredible experience to be able to share the knowledge we have acquired over the course of the past few years to the students in a fun and interactive way. From these lessons, we were able to refine our own Italian vocabulary on body parts, and practice our pronunciation. It was great to see the students enjoying themselves and participating with big smiles on their faces! We are extremely grateful to have been given this opportunity! 

By the Simon-Sayses (Alexya C. and Mia D.) 

On Monday morning, our Year 10 Italian class visited Templestowe Heights Primary School. It was lots of fun to converse with and teach the grade 5 and 6er's. We came in with a bag of 35 lollipops and 400 grams of assorted wrapped lollies only to come out with near nothing! 

Our group of Seb, Sam, Jake, and I (Harrison) split into two's and took on a group of 4 to 8 kids each. Our activity was a memory card game where we would first introduce ourselves with "mi chiamo Harrison","si chiama Sebastian", then we would ask "ti chiami?" and get the names of all the students. Afterwards we would reference the Italian translations of commonly known animals such 'tiger' to 'tigre' or how dogs have canines for teeth and relates to the Italian translation of 'dog' as 'cane'. 

We would hand out a legend of English to Italian translations to share between 2 or 3 kids. Then we would shuffle out cards upside onto the desk with the task being each student taking a turn to flip and pair up the Italian translation with the picture of the animal. If a student got the right card with the right picture, they would receive one lolly and the pair would be removed from the pile. We would keep going until there were no more pairs left. Likewise, we would teach them how to say which animals they liked the most on the list by teaching them "mi piace".

Overall, it was a enjoyable and valuable experience; watching the kids compete and childishly cheer upon winning was fun, and the process of teaching 'new language learners' how to learn in a fun way was also rewarding.

Thanks to the Italian teachers Prof Maria and Prof Brogno as well as the Templestowe Heights staff for making this opportunity possible. 

- Seb, Sam, Jake and Harrison, Year 10

Tuesday - Italian Day

As part of Languages Week 2022, on Tuesday August 2nd, DSC celebrated its 30+ Spaghetti Eating Competition! 

Students were encouraged to eat the biggest plate of spaghetti, in the shortest time possible……. With NO HANDS!

We also had the opportunity to buy delicious gelati. Italians definitely know how to do food!!!!

In class, students in years 7 & 8 participated in a variety of activities in their language classrooms ranging from researching famous people & landmarks to creating a matchstick masterpiece or creating original split pin puppets.

Grazie!

Luisa Allen

Italian and English Teacher 

The Spaghetti Eating Competition always draws a crowd... some are mesmerized, others are more horrified!

Thursday - French Day

Back by popular demand, Crepe Oohliscious, were on site to serve authentic French crepes to our students! Extra sauce was given to those students who placed their order in French. C’est trés Bon!

Friday - Chinese Day & Multicultural Dress Day

It is always nice to have a language week to give all students opportunities to experience different cultures and language activities. This year we have invited a Chinese calligraphy master from the community, who participated in the writing activity on Chinese Day. All students and school staff were very excited to have their names written in Chinese calligraphy. 

Our Principal team-- Mr Morris, Ms Mcgee and Ms Carroll took up the challenge of using the calligraphy brush to draw their own names. 

Besides this traditional cultural activity, DSC students also had the opportunity to taste and enjoy Chinese popular drink – Bubble Tea. Luckily, we organized the bubble tea vendor to bring 200 + cups of freshly made bubble tea to DSC at lunch time. 

Traditional Chinese sports badminton and table tennis were also running on the day for students to participate. Students definitely had an amazing day of drinking bubble tea and drawing names in Chinese calligraphy. 

The language week has once again well demonstrated the DSC values and beliefs about diversity and multicultural in the school community. 

Chen Ni

Mandarin Teacher

Capping off Languages Week was our Multicultural Free Dress Day. Our students and teachers embraced the opportunity to wear something from another culture, and to donate a gold coin to UNICEF.