International 

Student Program 

Chinese Debating

We have been very busy in the International Student Program over the last few weeks. Our Chinese debating team went up against Korowa Anglican Girls’ School in the semi-final and won 2-1. For our first time in the competition this was an amazing achievement, and it sparked a fire in the belly of our international students. And so, they trained, after school and on weekends. Over the six weeks the team of 10 prepared and trained for at least 90 hours. The grand final was against 3-time reigning champions, Methodist Ladies’ College so the competition was tough. And they won! 

Two of our students won the Best Debater’s Award. Congratulations to Traci Cui and Xiyue Chen.

International Student Voice Project

A group of international and local students have been planning, organising and meeting with a representative from the Department of Education to design a project that brings these two groups of students together across the school. They organised two lunchtime activities for all students. The first was an international trivia competition that was held to a packed audience in the library. The three top teams won an array of international and local sweets. The excitement was palpable, but I am not sure if that was from the audience or the ISV team. Their second project was a photobooth in the green room in the library. They had a number of fun props that students could use to dress up and get their photo taken. Students exited the room laughing. It was such a success, and the waiting line was long, but the team got into action and had such a great system to get students through quickly.

The ISV team will prepare a presentation, outlining their planning, process and actions to a group of schools at an event run by the Department of Education but what we can say now is, they definitely achieved the goal of sharing their culture while bringing international and local students together. 

Jielei Cui & Kylee Clifford