International Students
English Conversation Club
The International Student Program (ISP) team and leaders are running English Conversation club for students who have recently come to Australia and are learning English as an additional language. The club is intended to help EAL students who need exposure to more English speaking and listening opportunities and to make friends with local students and learn about the Australian culture. Student volunteers are local Australian students and are from years 8 to10.
To kick start the event, the ISP team organised a Speed Dating event last month, which attracted many volunteers from years 8 to10 and selected EAL students. Students were paired up and had prompting questions and noted down their partner’s responses before moving on to the next person after three minutes of conversation. Students were very engaged and lots of conversation was happening. Afterwards, students indicated who they would like to be paired with for the fortnightly English Conversation meetings.
In the last few weeks, student volunteers have met with the partners once a fortnight in recess or lunch times. The activity will continue for the year with the hope that it will improve EAL students’ speaking and listening skills. Also once a term there will be a speaking and listening competition, such as debating, to encourage the pairs to continue to work together.
Thank you to all the student volunteers and EAL students who actively participated in this worthwhile program to help improve students’ English speaking and speaking skills. Also, thank you to Ms Chang and Ms Feng for organising this and making it happen.
Cultural Diversity and Harmony Week
This year Cultural Diversity week is celebrated on 21st-28th March 2021. Each year this event brings together people to celebrate the diversity of cultures and an opportunity to share food, music and conversation about the different cultures we have. Harmony week occurs on 15 to 21March 2021 and aims to celebrate Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. MGSC usually combines these two events and this year we celebrated Cultural Diversity and Harmony week on from 15 to 19 March.
During the week, volunteers made cultural quizzes testing students’ knowledge about culture and traditions from different countries. Many students participated in order to get their answers in the fastest to win a prize. Congratulations to our three winners: Amy Sin of year 12, Viha Shah of year 7 and Matilda Renkin-Onwuji of year 9.
On Thursday 18 March, there were food stalls, music and performances as MGSC’s big celebration day. The food stalls were set up by students during lunch time so that everyone had a chance to taste food from around the world and learn something about another culture. There were many delicious foods from Australia, Brazil, Vietnam, China, Japan, Iraq and Philippines made by MGSC parents and students.
Thank you to all the students and parents who put hard work in to make the delicious food to share with MGSC. Thank you to students who came to meetings to help in planning and organising the event, and to help with setting up and cleaning up. Thank you to Ms Chang, Ms Feng and Ms Zhang for supporting the students so that this day could happen. This day could not have happened or been so successful without everyone’s participation, and the college has become richer for this because of this.
Multicultural Club
Starting next term, the ISP team and the EAL and International Captains and student volunteers will begin the Multicultural Club, every blue Thursday lunch time in Room 19.
We are planning activities and workshops to introduce different cultures and traditions from all over the world. These will include calligraphy, origami, dumpling making, friendship bracelet making, mooncake making, foreign films, drawing.
Keep an eye on the bulletin boards, emails and Compass next term for sign ups for these workshops and events, and get it quick as spaces are limited!
If you would like to volunteer to help with organising some of cultural activities or workshops or if you have any suggestions, please email us with your ideas.
Sophie Xu and Elyssa Zhang (International student captains)