A slice of Mandarin

Welcome to our Machong Sister School

A Slice of Mandarin-Machong Sister School visit (7/5/2018)

Ni Hao! We have just bid farewell to a lovely group of 15 students and 5 teachers from our sister school in Machong.  They were here for a one-week exchange program from Guangdong Province in Southern China!  The Machong students had 90 minutes of English lessons each morning to enhance their English language skills, and then they spent the majority of the day with Grade 4 classes to experience what it is like to be an Australian student. A special thank-you to the families who agreed to host the Chinese students for dinner on Tuesday night to give them a precious Australian family experience.  

In addition to experiencing school life, Susan and Kevin took the group to the Melbourne Museum for a two-hour practical English lesson about the history of Melbourne and the eco system of a typical Australian forest.  This year, we also worked with our music teacher Roz to have an Aboriginal cultural incursion during our sister school’s visit.  The Machong students had a great day joining our students in learning about Aboriginal culture. 

As you can see from the pictures, they had a lot of fun learning with our students! The Machong students were all in tears on their last day because they didn’t want to leave us. I am sure they have not only improved their English language skills, but also developed a deeper understanding of school and daily life in Australia, and made friends with our students.  This has truly been a rewarding visit from our Machong sister school.