LANGUAGES 

Languages News

German Exchange Trip 2026

Planning has started for the 2026 exchange trip to Marburg, Germany. This trip will run for 4 weeks during March-April 2026. Parents have received information via Xuno and students have received an expression of interest form from their classroom teacher. Interested parents and students are invited to attend:

Parent / Student Information evening – German exchange

5.00pm Tuesday 6th June

Oberon HS school library

SAGSE Scholarship update – for families with students learning German in Years 10, 11 & 12

We have just received new information from SAGSE re hosting. If your family is prepared to host a German student then your child would most likely receive a scholarship to travel to Germany. Hosting students will get priority during 2025 – great news if you are able to host. More information is available from either Frau Ray or Frau Nash. Students have this additional information posted on their German Teams page. Refer to the SAGSE homepage:

https://www.sagse.org.au/home

You have until Wednesday 7th May to send an application in.

German Week/s in Australia and New Zealand

The Goethe-Institute is running activities during May to celebrate both the teaching and learning of the German language and the diversity of the German speaking cultures. At Oberon our students will participate in several activities including the EP World Languages competition, a tongue twister competition, puzzles, quizzes, a photo competition highlighting our activities, etc.

Stay tuned for further activities – we may even get families involved!

If you are interested, please have a look at the G-I website:

https://www.goethe.de/ins/au/de/spr/unt/ver/glw.html

Education Perfect Languages International Championships

For all students learning German and Indonesian

This competition starts on Tuesday 6 May at 4pm and runs until Tuesday 14 May at 4pm.

Oberon has come close to winning this competition in the past – let’s hope all students put in a massive effort so that we can WIN this year. Good luck to all our languages students!

Post mit Herz (Mail with Heart)

You may have read in our last newsletter that some junior German classes were writing Easter cards to send to residents of an aged care facility in Germany. While we initially aimed for 80 cards, we ended up with 131 and these were all sent to Germany in time for Easter. Their recipients were delighted to receive colourful mail from Australia, as you can see in these photos.

INDONESIAN

Language Assistant Program

The Indonesian team are very excited to welcome Neili Bahjah from Indonesia. Neili will be with us every Monday and Tuesday and at Belmont High School Wednesday and Thursday until the end of the year. She will be working with most of our classes, assisting in the classroom and engaging in conversation practice with our senior students. She is a great cook, so we are all looking forward to sampling her dishes. 

Year 10 Indonesian Trip

We are all systems go for this year’s trip to Indonesia with 21 students and 4 staff heading to Yogyakarta from 7-19th September. There is lots of planning in the works and preparations to undertake before the students leave. It's certainly a wonderful opportunity to delve into Indonesian culture and further consolidate their Indonesian language. 

A sad farewell

After 30 years at Oberon High School, pioneer Indonesian teacher, Annette Sugiyanto, is retiring from teaching. Annette introduced Indonesian to Oberon High School in the mid 1990s, and since then the Indonesian program has flourished. One of Annette’s greatest legacies was establishing a comprehensive program from year 7-12 as well as the annual Indonesian Trip at Year 10. All language teachers and students will miss Bu’s compassion, wit and laugh and of course those Indo Mie noodles. Annette, enjoy your next exciting chapter.

Languages Corner