5.9 Academic Support and Expectations

Learning in Australia

No doubt school in your home country is a lot different than school in Australia. Approximately 65% of students are born overseas, and many of these students do not speak English at home. A higher percent of the parents of Lyndale students are also born overseas, with many students having two or even three languages spoken at home. Students of Lyndale Secondary College come from almost 60 different countries with just as many cultures and languages attached to them. Additionally, staff come from a long list of nationalities and backgrounds.

Lyndale is immensely proud of its multicultural community – we consider it one of our great advantages. Staff members strive to learn about your culture and your language. The understand that understanding you and your culture better will help them to support you in your learning. However, there are some important points of Australian school culture that you must be aware of:

We love hearing different languages around the college, but in situations where speaking our first language might exclude or disadvantage someone else, we revert to a language we can all speak – English. This is a strong component of wider Australian culture. If you are not confident in English, ask a friend to interpret for you.
Perhaps in your first language it is common to refer to your teacher as ‘Teacher’ and this is perfectly normal. In Australian culture, ‘teacher’ is not a title, it is a job. Teachers want to hear their name just as students wish for their name to be used. There will be lots of (probably foreign-sounding) names to remember, and teachers realise this. Many teachers make their name easier to pronounce, and always prefer you ask their name again and again, or look it up on Compass.
Australian culture places a lot of emphasis on manners and respect. It may feel like you are overusing such words, but ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘sorry’ and ‘excuse me’ go a long way to everyone.
In Australian school culture, an effort is made to provide your first choices in subjects, however they cannot always be provided (for example if there are not enough or too many students for the class). Options will be provided but be ready for this to occur. Additionally, whichever teacher is allocated to a class is because that teacher has the expertise to teach you well. Students do not have the opportunity to choose teachers.
Offices are staff spaces. The International Student Office is always open to students who need to ask questions or seek support. Other areas are provided for you to socialise with friends and chat with teacher informally.
If you’re not sure if something is culturally appropriate, just ask. If you make a mistake, that’s a great learning opportunity and teachers are very patient to explain what to do next time.
There are many other cultural differences, but also a lot of similarities. Enjoy your time at Lyndale Secondary College while being proud of the two (or more!) cultures that now belong to you.

Keys to Academic Success

Studying at Lyndale Secondary College will at times be challenging. Schooling is difficult for local students. If we add in the fact that you may speak English as a second language, then it is even more difficult for you. But there are many things you can do to help ensure your academic success:

Take responsibility

Understand that you and only you are responsible for your academic success. There is a huge amount of support and help that can be given, but it is you who often needs to ask for this help.

Discipline yourself.

Develop a routine where you study at a set time and for a set time before taking a break. Even if you do not have much homework on a particular day, review what you learned in class.

Manage your time

Plan when to study and when to have fun. A work-life balance is important but difficult to balance. Procrastinating will steal away all your time.

Stay ahead

Feel free to read one of two chapters ahead. Your teachers will not mind and you will be prepared for upcoming class work and assignments.

Be present, prompt and prepared

Avoid being late to class – important announcements occur right at the beginning of class sometimes. This also communicates to your teachers that you are serious about your learning. Staying awake all night then trying to stay awake in class is a waste of time and impacts your learning greatly.

Communicate with your teachers/international student coordinator

Sometimes you will be sick or unavoidably away. This is understandable. Make sure you let your teacher or the international student coordinator know. While it is difficult when you are away, it is your responsibility to chase up and catch up the work. Teachers will be as flexible as possible to help you do this.

Don’t give up

There will be some times during your study that you will feel that going any further is absolutely impossible. It only seems that way. New things, especially a whole new language, takes a lot of time to learn properly. When it is possible, walk away from the work for a while, then come back to it with a fresh head. Also, there is always help around – all you need to do is ask.

Set goals and aim high

Successful learners always set SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely goals. Set your goals and work hard to achieve them. Even if you don’t quite get there, you will have made progress regardless. When you try your best, you can be happy that you did all you could to reach your goals.

Plagiarism

Many countries take plagiarism seriously. Australia is one of those countries. Plagiarism is when you take someone else’s words and copy them into your work, representing them as your own words. Copying exact words from any source material, including any internet website, book, magazine or formal spoken interview, is plagiarising. This is essentially stealing and can carry quite severe penalties. There are ways to use someone’s ideas to help support your writing while acknowledging them by using speech marks (“….”), indicating a page number and referencing the resource in a bibliography or reference list. If this is confusing for you, it is a skill you learn in secondary student and it requires a bit of practice.

English Language Support

When you begin studying at Lyndale Secondary College, even if you have studied English for a number of years in your home country, you might struggle with using English. Although there are in-house interpreters who can help you, you will need to reach a level of English proficiency yourself. The English Language Centre helps you with this, however the Intensive English Language Program (IELP) taught in the ELC is a stable start, but it takes many more years to be competent in another language. You need to make your own, strong commitment to engaging with English as much as you can. Some suggestions to help you do this are:

Watch TV in English – use English subtitles to help you understand what is being said
Listen to English radio stations
Make friends with students from other nationalities and chat with them in English
Borrow grammar and vocabulary books from the library to review
Make a list of questions to ask your teacher after class or during the allocated Homework Program time
While out and about, listen to the people around you
Keep your own vocabulary list and review it everyday
Read an easy novel or non-fiction book and record the words from there