Languages

The new school year has started with a lot of exciting events happening in the Languages Domain.  

Harmony Week 

This year for the first time, Languages teachers supported by the Wellbeing Team, Prefects and Vocational Major students organised numerous activities to celebrate Harmony Week between 14 and 21 March.  By participating in Harmony Week, BHHS recognises and celebrates the cultural diversity of student and staff at our school. Across the week, students and staff participated in class as well as lunch time activities like: 

• foreign language movie screenings 
• Kahoots on cultural knowledge 
• a competition to identify teachers’ cultural background 
• research activities on local Aboriginal culture and our German sister school Marienschule Lippstadt 
• Chinese eye massage 
• a Whitehorse Youth information stand 
• German & Chinese board games and water calligraphy.
• a panel discussion with current students, alumni and staff about their experiences of living overseas.

Harmony Day, 21 March 

Celebrations concluded on Harmony Day with lots of students showing their support by wearing orange.  Several students and teachers also dressed up in a culturally significant outfits and presented their outfits in a fashion parade in the quadrangle at lunch time.  In addition, students could purchase German pretzels and delicious, sweet treats from various cultural backgrounds like Lamingtons, Anzac Biscuits, Short Bread, Jo-Jos, Gugelhopf, Marble cake, Black Forest cake, Honey Joys, Ruebli Torte just to name a few. The food sale raised about $440 which will be donated to the Migrant Information Centre East Melbourne. 

I would sincerely like to thank all families who donated items to our cake stall, especially the wonderful parent helpers who volunteered to set up the cake stall and helped selling goods.  Your help is much appreciated and made it a lot easier for activities to run smoothly.  A special thank you also goes to our Prefects and the Vocational Major students who produced promotional posters, created a Kahoot, organised the sound equipment and the great background music on Harmony Day. 

PASCH Scholarships 

We are excited to announce that Taj Fox (10C) and Elliot Gibson (10C) were awarded the prestigious PASCH Language Course Scholarship.  The scholarship includes international return airfare, full board and activities for a 2-week language course in Bremen, Germany in June/July 2023.  We wish Taj and Elliot all the best for their time in Germany and look forward to hearing their report on their return.  PASCH Language Course Scholarships are available to Year 10 students learning German.  Due to Covid, we were unable to award these scholarships over the past three years. We are pleased to announce that the scholarship has been reinstated and will be awarded annually to two students in Year 10 learning German at BHHS. 

Chinese Classes 

Junior students in Chinese classes created a number of impressive artworks related to Chinese cultural activities and festivals like: 

• creating a poster of a poem depicting a cultural festival 
• creating decorations for Chinese festivals, for example Chinese New Year 
• creating a power point about a Chinese festival 
• colouring in fish paper cuttings 
• drawing a school map in Chinese 

Have a look at the photos showing students’ work. 

by Jana Kühn

Languages