2024 Matsudo Japanese Students visit

Matsudo City Visit 2024

JAPANESE STUDENT VISIT

This March, we welcomed ten students from Matsudo City, Japan. Students from Matsudo have regularly visited the College as part of the Whitehorse and Matsudo sister-city relationship, that was established more than 50 years ago!! Ten local Matsudo students are awarded a visit to Whitehorse City for their English achievements in a competition held in Matsudo City each year.

The Matsudo students were welcomed on their arrival at school on Friday 15 March. Cr Mark Lane attended as the Whitehorse City Mayor’s representative to greet the students from Japan. Thank you to our College Captains, Jai Reddy and Chloe Shi and our College Language Captain, Aneeba Abid, for their welcome speeches and assistance with running the event. Thank you also to Jasmine Newcombe (Year 12) and Dakota Ho (Year 12) for communicating translations of speeches into Japanese at the welcome lunch.

 Thank you also to the 10 students who volunteered their time to act as “buddies”, enthusiastically looking after the Matsudo students during their visit to Koonung, while taking advantage of the opportunity to practise their Japanese!

Year 8:

Shani Brown

Year 9:

Jason Kwok

Natcha Lertprasertwech

Saoirse Ling

Year 10:

Jay Huang

Charlene Chen

Oscar Lau

Year 11:

Abigail Liu

Claudia Liu

                                                                                         Kris Cooke

During their Koonung visit, Matsudo students visited Healesville Sanctuary where they met with Australian wildlife and enjoyed an Aussie-style BBQ; created artworks reflecting Victorian flora with Mr. Chris Henson; and, attended various classes with their “buddies”. In addition, the Matsudo students enjoyed sharing Japanese culture with some of our Year 7 students through fun activities and presentations, as well as participating in Japanese conversation classes with senior Koonung students.

On Wednesday 20 March, we farewelled the students from Matsudo. Time flew way too quickly!!!  New friendships and special memories were made during the short visit. Koonung “buddies” saying “it was so much fun”, “I want to do it again next year” and “this was the best thing I’ve ever done!”

A big thank you once again to the 10 Koonung “buddies”, our 2024 College Captains and Language Captains and all other teachers and staff across the College who assisted with activities and welcomed the students to their classes.

Matsudo Sister School Visit July 2024

HOST FAMILIES NEEDED!!!

If you would like to be part of our Japanese exchange programs, we are currently seeking additional Host Families for 10 students who will be arriving from our Japanese sister school, Ichimatsu High School, in July (17th to 23rd). 

A reciprocal visit to our sister school in Japan is being planned for 2025. We strongly encourage families of students who wish to participate in this tour to consider becoming a Host Family for the July visit.

If you would like to register your interest in becoming a Host Family, please contact Ms. Mia Poulton via email (mia.poulton@education.vic.gov.au) for further information.

Mia Poulton

Domain Leader - Languages

Japanese, Mathematics and Music Teacher