From our offshore International Student (Part 2)

Gustave Bacareza

..... Continued from our previous newsletter

Fairhills and Virtual School of Victoria (VSV) have both tried to support Gustave to the best level that we could offer.

From the start, Gus was  to arrive in Australia in April 2020.   Due to the closure of international borders, he did not arrive.  Department of Education and Training released a provision for offering online high school education to those who were enrolled but couldn’t come. 

From early August 2020, Gus attended our online internet course, as we were under complete lock down. When the school reopened again in November 2020, there was a very short period of time that Gus faced a hybrid mode of remote learning online face to face.  Our Associate Principal Ms Karen Dean who also headed the International Student program, coordinated Gus’ continuation of studies.  Gus sat his exams and passed all of his subjects. Gus’s personal best subject was his Business Management in Semester 2, 2020.

Throughout these times, the family and Gus were under the constant stress of not knowing whether the border might  open or not.  When the first week of Term 1 came in 2021, we decided to enrol Gus into the Virtual School of Victoria.  VSV is specialised in supporting Victorian students in accessing high quality education. Generally, their students will be students staying with parents in a remote community around Victoria. 

Gus studied four subjects with VSV, while continuing his Business Management course with Ms La Leggia at Fairhills High School. The coordination between VSV and Fairhills became my role.  Mr Julian Stokes our VCE coordinator spent a lot of time in supporting me.  Gus, as an international student studying offshore encountered many challenges. Studying 4 subjects and 1 subject with Fairhills was an exceptional challenging task for administration purposes as well.    There was extra time and support given by Ms La Leggia to help Gus finish his Business Management course such as extended personal face to face lessons and after classes support. As a liaison person with Gus, I called to provide as much information about Covid-19 restrictions, assist in application for travel exemption and supervising School Assess Course work (SAC) as well.  Our Chaplain and Wellbeing Coordinator also supported Gus remotely. 

There were times when Ms La Leggia needed to spend extra one to one sessions with Gus to support his studies in Business Management.  As for the other four subjects with VSV, there were numerous occasions that School Assessed Coursework (SAC) would be extended to six o’clock in the evening. At one stage, it was about 8pm.  There was one week when Gus was required to sit for three SACs - at times he had had a heavy study load.

I hope that Gus will be able to come to Melbourne for his studies in nursing.  It is extremely difficult for anyone to finish their Year 12 studies just relying on online learning and interaction with the teachers and classmates.  There were minimal interactions between students.  However, Gus succeeded. He finished with great family support and his discipline in fighting for his best one step at a time.  Gus demonstrated his success was largely because he had a goal, good time management skills and study method.  His plan for the future is to come to Australia to study a nursing degree.   He has a balanced lifestyle of playing music and basketball with his friends and focus on his studies.  He was always polite and on time. 

We hope that Omicron will settle down soon, as inbound flights are paused for international students until further notice.   Gus will then be able to come to Melbourne.

Edmund Chow

International Student Coordinator