International Students

Virtual School Familiarisation Tours

Filming Day!

The International Education Division recently launched a project called the Virtual School Familiarisation Tours. It aims to bring education agents and students to our schools by providing virtual school tours highlighting the features and benefits of Victorian Government Schools (VGS) through the eyes of a student on campus or living in Victoria. 

This project will give us that creative edge over our competitors – serving as a powerful promotional tool and marketing resource for our education agents, prospective international students and parents. 

Our school has been selected to be part of it because DET believe that our experience and the unique program we offer will help them promote Victoria as a destination, to bring prospective international students back to our schools.

The filming crew came to our school on 27th May and the filming day went smoothly. The weather held up for us and it did not rain at all. All students and staff who got interviewed did quite well. I want to thank Susan HAYWARD, Nick Dean, Howin, Eugene, Kristin SKENNAR, Paris and Tara for their support. Special thanks go to Lisa FAIRWEATHER for her great efforts of organizing things. 

Thank you so much everyone for contributing to the Filming Day. I will share the final product with DSC when it’s available. I look forward to its release!

Art of Culture Photography Competition

The International Student Forum have been active in promoting multiculturalism in our school through a friendly competition this term. We have just announced the winners!  

Thank you to all the participants. Our judges and the International team are so excited to announce: 

Most Creative

Lovisa Forsberg (Year 9) & Ash Ralphs (Year 10)

Best Camera Technique

Berry Eain (Year 11) & Angus Lau (Year 11)

Most Unique

Sylvia Hao (Year 11) & Che Cai (Year 9)

At  the Award Ceremony, our Principal Mr. Glenn Morris and Ms. Huang, the Director of International Student Program,  presented the prizes to the winners. “Special recognition” certificates have also been given for those whose entry had meaningful interpretations. 

Thank you from our International Student Forum representatives...

DSC’s international forum representatives have successfully completed one of their many events to promote multiculturalism in the school community. Last month, the team introduced a friendly photography competition, ‘Art of Culture’, with the theme around ‘culture’ where students were able to express their own interpretation of what ‘culture’ meant to them. The team wanted to express their appreciation for all the support that they had received from staff. They wanted to thank and show their appreciation for the guidance from Ms Huang and big shoutouts to the judges, Mr Tomada, Mr Robinson & Mr Dennis for their professional decisions. The team also wanted to send their warmest gratitude to the college principal, Mr Morris, for his continuous support throughout the whole process, as well as, providing the funding for prizes including an Instax Camera set, 2 Westfield gift cards and the multiple canteen vouchers. Additionally, many other events have been arranged throughout the coming terms to further connect international and local students. This includes changing bell music by adding songs with a variety of different languages and some sporting events to promote inclusivity. Last but not least, thank you to all the participants who made the Art of Culture come to reality!

--Nathan, Che, Jenny and Berry

The Dragon Boat 

Festival celebration

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. Dragon boat racing and eating Zongzi is a typical celebration activity.  Zongzi is sticky rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. This year’s festival is Friday 3rd June. 

With the support of DSC’s leadership team, all international students have received a small bag of Zongzi with pork stuffing as part of the dragon boat festival celebration. The international students and their families asked me to pass on their deep appreciation for this caring gift, it certainly lifted their spirits and made 2 years away from their home country much easier because they know our school cares about them. 

International Students on Music Camp

By Ruisen Liu & Mila Xie

Why did you join the music camp? 

I joined music camp because it’s a very good opportunity to improve my music skills and make even more friends.

What did you do at music camp? 

First, we got into different groups, then we started practicing, the second day, we did flying fox and more practice at night, everyone had so much fun. We also did the chicken dance party everyone loved it, there were also so many talented peoples there, well on the third day we need to wake up at 8 AM to get ready to go, we did archery, team challenges and box climbing. 

What did you enjoy the most there?

I really liked the practices because they were just really fun and kind of relaxing. I also really enjoyed being together as a whole group, having fun at any stage of the day, every activity that we did, the food there were awesome as well and of course the peoples there, they are really nice to us and very helpful for us. 

Chinese VCE Information Sessions 

for Year12 Internationals

The International student program organized a VCE information session conducted in Chinese for some Y12 Chinese international students. This session is designed to help students better understand the VCE cycle in their own language. The information of universities’ requirement,  scholarship opportunities, and visa renewal process is also included in the session. 

Attendance Awards

Congratulations to those students who have excellent attendance in Term 2 study. You have shown us your ability of being resilient and being responsible for your own study. 

Virtual Multicultural 

CPR training

At this session our International Students had a very interesting topic about what CPR is and how to conduct CPR to adults, young children and babies through Zoom meeting with Mr Ramzi from Life Saving Vic. 

They had a very good practice of conducting CPR on their Teddy bears or pillows. 

They learned the basic life support Chart:

DRS ABCD 

which stands for Danger, Response, Send for help, Airway, Breathing, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and Defibrillation.

All the students enjoyed this session very much. 

Tara Fang

International Student Program Assistant

Student Reflections:

I have learned how to save people by doing CPR.  I learned CPR is a first aide measure to help patients with Cardiac arrest, artificially maintaining brain function until natural breathing and blood circulation recovered.

Mila XIE

I learned how to do CPR, and understood what each letter stands for. CPR stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. It is an emergency life saving procedure that is done when someone’s breathing or heart beat has stopped. This may happen after a medical emergency, such as an electric shock, heart attack or drowning. CPR combines rescue breathing and chest compressions.

Nikki Wang

I learned that DRSABCD, and how we can help /rescue a person by conducting CPR. I have understood what DRSABCD mean and how to conduct the steps to save people. 

Ruisen Liu

When conducting CPR, we are suing the weight of our upper body press directly down on their chest about 2 inches, but no more than 2.4 inches, Press hard at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. And I am happy that I have learned how to save people’s life by conducting CPR.

Ruilin Zhao

It’s a life -saving way that helps us to come back to life. I learned how I could save somebody’s life by giving the breath through mouth and pushing her/his chest. For baby we should put our 2 fingers together to push the chest but for but for adults we should do it with two hands that are crossed to each other, Finally it was useful to use it in terrible situations. 

Rana Molaverdikhani

Language Support 

Program Sessions

Based on feedback from the English Language Centre teacher, we have identified some international students who need a little extra support to improve their English.  For this purpose, the International Team set up Language Support Program Sessions to assist these students. 

The sessions run during recess, lunch and after school in the international student Office where we help them with English speaking and reading skills. 

International Team has been helping international students who are poor in English with their English reading, English pronunciation and English Grammar. The students chose their favourite books such as: Reptiles on the Move, Because of You, Pirate … to read and they come to read the books at recess, lunch time or after school. 

I have been helping them with their pronunciation by using the words they are familiar with to build a slight awareness of phonetics which will help them with new words’ pronunciation they will come across through language learning. I have also introduced word formation to them to help them build up more words such as: rose- rosy; cloud – cloudy; cold- blooded; red-headed; warm-hearted … 

We believe the more they read, the easier they will feel English language learning. Wish our international students to progress better and better.

Tara Fang

International Student Program Assistant

Homework Club Update

This week we focused on strategies for stepping out of our comfort zone. Students were invited to share their own "comfort zones" and the challenges they were facing. Some students compared their experience of moving from their home country to our school to the process of getting out of their comfort zone, for example adapting to a new environment and improving their English skills.

After watching the video showing steps that help overcome our comfort zone, students reflected on how they could apply these strategies to their studies and goal achievement. I hope this session has helped students reflect on their personal goals and apply these strategies to their lives to achieve positive changes.

A visit from the 

Victorian School of Languages

Despite the chill and wet weather last Thursday, after school it was my pleasure to be invited by our International Students Coordinator, Sally Huang to share with students in the Homework Club about VSL (Victorian School of Languages) and the importance of learning a language while you are at school and continue the learning it for VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) studies. 

Many people might not know but consolidating a language is not that easy. In fact, for some people, it might take up to seven years to master the language itself and understand the culture. However, it is not a challenge for our students who participate in the Homework Club because every student is determined to do well in their language studies with a well-deserved result when they completed the VCE studies. 

During my visit to the Homework Club, we had many positive and interesting discussions, also there was an opportunity for me to clarify a few issues and misunderstandings on language learning. I am looking forward to having other opportunities to share with other students on language learning at Doncaster Secondary College because it is important not to be monolingual nowadays if you are seeking a better career opportunity. Why not consider joining VSL for a language that you are interested in? 

Kerry Law, Area Manager

Victorian School of Languages

Sally HUANG 

Director of International Student Program 

Doncaster Secondary College

Phone: 9848 4677