Northcote and China

Huaibei Sister School Visit

On August 17th our special guests from our China Sister School - Huaibei No. 1 High School arrived at Melbourne Airport to commence their annual visit to Northcote High. This visiting delegation of 3 staff and 14 students brought the number of such visits to 19. Next year marks the 20th Anniversary. This was another highly successful visit, further cementing and celebrating our long and rich relationship. Over their weeklong stay in Melbourne our guests enjoyed a full, fun and culturally rich program. Our guests were also very appreciative of the warm hospitality our Northcote High School Homestay families offered.  Student guests very much enjoyed their Australian home life experiences with their NHS homestay buddies. The school is very grateful to our families for being on board and being such an important part of the long lasting Chinese sister school program over many years. We hope their experience and cultural understanding gained was positive and rewarding to their family too.

Highlights of this year’s Sister School visit included: homestay experiences with our local families, classroom immersion, visiting the Melbourne Zoo and Aquarium, a joint student concert, sharing an Aussie BBQ, sightseeing along the Great Ocean Rd and local food experiences ……

In return the Northcote High School Sport Delegation (30 students!) will be on their 19th visit to Huaibei No.1 High School in late September.  We know they  will receive a very warm welcome too.

Cultural Exchange - Year 9

On Tuesday the 21st, period 5, a cultural exchange was occurring. The new International students from Huaibei High School in China had arrived on Friday, and Miss Chiang’s year 9 Chinese class were speed interviewing the exchange students.

Everyone was very excited, and the year nines were bouncing off the walls at the thought of a chance to practice their spoken Chinese with strangers their age. At first everyone took a while to warm up, but quite soon you could hear fluent Chinese being spoken throughout the room. It was great to practice our Chinese and learn about the culture first hand from other teenagers. It was a great learning experience and everyone enjoyed it. Some of the students from Miss Chiang’s class have even added the exchange students on WeChat, a Chinese messaging app. Overall it was a successful lesson and lots of fun.

Chloe Pattas

Long interviews in Chinese

We asked them about their family, where they lived and their names. I was fairly nervous and it was somewhat disheartening when they didn’t understand our Chinese, but it was interesting to learn about their lives and practice our Chinese in a practical situation. They were all really friendly and encouraging.

Pippi Hayman

The lesson was structured perfectly, everything was organised really well, everybody got an equal chance to talk to the exchange students. We talked to the exchange student in Chinese. I felt very good when talking to the exchange student because I felt like I knew what I was talking about. Their English was very good and all of them were really smart.

Ritish Kandel

The Class on Tuesday was a good experience because it showed how much I have to improve with my Chinese skills. I enjoyed meeting the people but it was a humbling experience. The class set up was good but I felt like I was constantly repeating myself and all the students were soon disinterested. Thank you Miss for setting that up for us, experience like this is what will improve our Chinese in leaps and bounds.

Grace Foley

On the Tuesday 21st of August,, we met several students from HuaiBei High School. Our tasks were to interview them in Chinese and advance our conversation skills.

At the start of the task, I was not extremely confident and I was a little scared. I eventually became less scared and I am now more confident with my speaking skills. My highlight was when I exchanged phone numbers and wechat with two students. I enjoyed speaking with the students and can’t wait to do the same with other students in China.

Flynn Rolfe

Cultural Exchange - Year 10

On Wednesday the 22nd, the Year 10 VET Chinese class met about 15 students travelling from our sister school, Huaibei No.1 High School when they came to give us some much needed practice on our Chinese conversational skills. We talked to them about everything ranging from animals at the Melbourne Zoo, to sports they played and hobbies they enjoyed. They told us all about life in China, what their school was like and what they enjoyed doing at home. We also all talked about our cultural differences, including things like food and mannerisms. 

Some of us shared out contact details to we can keep in contact with the students we met. We had a lot of good conversations and made a lot of new friends.

Rose Halloran, Llewi Bargh, Gemma​ O’Toole