Kariya Kita High School Visit McClelland College

This week has been a very important week in the McClelland College 2023 Calendar. Because this is the first time in five years that our sister school has come to Australia to visit us.

McClelland College has had a long Sister School relationship with Kariya Kita High School, which is a high performing government public school, situated in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Kariya City is located almost exactly in the centre of Japan and is famous for the Toyota Motor Car Company. Many of our sister school students’ families work for Toyota or a company which are in some way aligned to it.

This week has been an action-packed week beginning with our school Welcome Ceremony on Monday afternoon, where our senior school principal, Shaun Doherty, made an impressive speech to the Japanese staff, students, and our local homestay families. Azusa Suzuki provided a translation for our Japanese-speaking section of the audience.

The College would like to wholeheartedly thank all our local families who volunteered to host a Japanese student, or students, for the week. It is a lot of work for people to open their homes to a student for a week, and your effort is recognised and appreciated. Thank you, on behalf of the school, Kariya Kita High School, and the McClelland College Japanese Team!

This week the students from Kariya Kita not only got to make new friends in their local homestays, but were also assigned a school buddy, whose role is to act as a mentor and guide for the week, to allow the Japanese students to acclimatise and find their feet in an Australian school. They fulfilled their role impressively. Again, thanks, your efforts are fully recognised by the school community, and especially by the Japanese Team. Without you, the sister school visit wouldn’t be able to run anywhere near as smoothly as it has.

The Kariya Kita students and staff, Principal, Ms. Yamamoto, and senior English teacher, Nagahara sensei, have had an extremely busy cultural experience, with an Australian Rules football clinic at lunchtime run by the Saints (thanks to Mr Hemsley), and a very special Aussie-themed Art Class, where students learned how to paint wattles, Bottle Brushes and Billy buttons (thanks Ms G!), the unique McClelland College Academy Program cross various academies, and a sausage sizzle.

Students also had the opportunity to experience our unique Australian marsupials and native animals at the Moonlit Sanctuary in Pearcedale, followed up with fish n’ chips, which was a big hit.

Importantly, host families have also been including the students in family outings and social gatherings after school, giving the visiting students a true taste of Australian life, which they cannot experience elsewhere!

The Japanese Team would like to formally thank all local host families, and all the student buddies for their endless enthusiasm and support this week.

We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to Robyn Andrews and Melinda Dunston, both of whom have been fantastic and have made the visit a resounding success. You have both been amazing making sure that the excursions went ahead as planned, and that everybody had meals, as well as ensuring that the entire experience for the guests was as smooth as possible. You have both done an absolute power of work and have been so supportive of the Japanese Team and Kariya Kita High School.

Thanks also must go to the McClelland College Principal team for their support, Andrew Hemsley, Shanika Ghersetti-Sikos, Gary Hofert, Candy Bacon, and Keiko Nonaka.

Although the entire visit lasted but six days and five nights, the memories created during this time will certainly last a lifetime for students and staff from both schools from two hemispheres.