International Student Program

The McClelland College International Student Program has now been running for 4 years and is well-established within the school. We currently host approximately 40 students from the following countries: China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Peru, and Germany. We have also hosted students from Italy. Many staff work in the program as well, Ming Liu (International Student Coordinator), Alison Fox (International Homestay Coordinator), Sacha Fisher (EAL teacher and in charge of the English Language Program) and Yuchen Zhou (English language support) and we also have an English Language Centre which sits in the Information Commons.

Each month we like to celebrate students’ birthdays and they have developed a particular liking for Maltesers and Allan’s Snakes!

Students participate in many areas of the school and recently organised a Basketball match against International students from Frankston High School. The score was 31-31 and we look forward to the re-match. Thanks to Rhys for being such an awesome coach!

Homestay Families Wanted

For more details contact Alison Fox on 9789 4544

Hosting an International student.

The Andrews family had the pleasure of Hosting Phoenix an international student for two weeks while in transition from one Homestay to another.

The two weeks gave us the opportunity to share many laughs, experiences and cultures. Simple things that we take for granted were a huge learning curve for Phoenix. My first insight into this was our first night when I took Phoenix home, we stopped at Safeway so that I could purchase some foods Phoenix enjoyed. Phoenix was fascinated with how the trolley system of putting a coin in worked. Another thing that Phoenix found quite fascinating was fruit cake, Phoenix could not believe that a cake could be kept and remain fresh for so long.

Not only did we purchase foods that Phoenix enjoyed but also many others to try including Kangaroo, Turkey and a variety of different cheeses. Turkey became her favourite meal, her favourite cheese was apricot and almond fruit cheese.

Phoenix had not had much opportunity to explore the local area so we decided to take two days out of her hectic study routine.

Our first Sunday visit was a drive to Portsea where we went for a walk along the pier then to Point Nepean where we explored the area, then to Portsea Backbeach, back to Sorrento followed by lunch at the Sorrento hotel.

The second Sunday we drove to Mt Dandenong, - roamed around the Alfred Nicholls garden, had lunch at Sassafras and explored the William rickets sanctuary.

I encourage families to take up the opportunity of having a Homestay student as the sharing of cultures is a very enriching experience.

Mrs Andrews