Bridging Cultures

Ivanhoe Grammar School Welcomes Xi’an Gaoxin Tangnan Exchange Program 

Megan Chen, Year 11, Ridgeway Campus

Cultural diversity has long been a cornerstone of the Ivanhoe Grammar School community. Beyond the ELICOS students who join us in Year 10 and remain throughout their Senior Secondary education, we’ve recently expanded our global connections by hosting an exchange program with our sister school, Xi’an Gaoxin Tangnan Secondary School in China. 

On 25th and 26th July, 17 students and three staff members from Xi’an arrived to participate in this study program. Our students had the opportunity to serve as guides, welcoming the visitors into our classes and providing them with an authentic Ivanhoe experience. 

I was assigned two lovely students, whom I accompanied to my classes on the second day of the program. I greatly admired their openness to change, as they keenly observed the differences between Asian and Western education. Seeing that I had a double spare in the morning, I decided to introduce them to some coffee from the school cafeteria, to which they amusingly remarked as being 'quite bitter'. While coffee has become more common in China, it still contrasts with the typically sweeter drinks, like flavoured milk, often found in local convenience stores. Afterwards, we headed to a 3/4 VCE Biology Class for the rest of the morning. 

The lesson focused on evolution and fossils as evidence of divergence, topics which deeply interested the two students. While they intently listened to the class, I worked on my IB biology coursework, to which they were curious about the utilisation of cue cards often used for memorisation. The next few classes followed a similar routine; they particularly enjoyed economics and maths. And to my surprise, they had not yet covered Calculus yet — something in their curriculum for later this year — as I had assumed their curriculum was unbelievably ahead, but now I see is similar to the IB curriculum and pace. 

Our day concluded with a heartfelt thankyou speech and a few tearful goodbyes, with promises to see each other again. Overall, I had a wonderful day. This culturally enriching program allowed not only me but also all the Ivanhoe Grammar School students involved to gain insight into what learning looks like for others around the world, while also building valuable connections.