Victor Harbor High School

- published, October 2009

School profile

Victor Harbor High School is a Years 8–12 school located in Victor Harbor, a rural town on the south coast of South Australia. It has 780 students and a teaching staff of 55. The student population is relatively homogeneous with students coming from similar cultural and language backgrounds. The school aims to provide students with educational experiences that will enable them to live, study and work in an increasingly internationalised world.

Principal: Peter Crawford peter.crawford@vhhs.sa.edu.au

School website: www.vhhs.sa.edu.au

Peter Crawford, Principal

Early in my principalship at Victor Harbor (I am now in my second year), I became increasingly conscious of the need to create and sustain an internationalising culture in the school. I discovered through focused conversations with school leaders and staff that our students were not experiencing exposure in a consistent way, to international or global perspectives in their learning programs. For a number of reasons it was not considered a high collective priority in the school. There were some good things happening and we were providing an opportunity for students to learn Indonesian but there was no coherent plan.

My own personal interest in Asia through travels in China, strong links to Pakistan through the Pakistani men’s hockey team and working with international Principals in national Principals’ conferences, have helped shape my strong belief in the need to create an international mindset among staff and students at Victor Harbor. I was aware that this would take some time but that we needed to commence the journey.

View video of an interview with Peter Crawford at the 2009 L21CS Forum

Creating an internationalised learning environment

Despite its location in a popular tourist area only 80 km south of Adelaide, Victor Harbor is a relatively isolated community. Demographically it is monocultural in its make-up and students, in the main, have limited exposure to people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The majority of our graduating students move to Adelaide for further study or work. It is critically important for us to broaden our students’ awareness and understanding of other cultures and, in particular, neighbouring countries in the Asian region. It is our responsibility through our school programs to enable them to develop knowledge and skills to assist them to take their places confidently in situations requiring international and intercultural awareness. We have given priority to internationalising the school and see the implementation of studies of Asia as a major vehicle for this. We have formalised processes and approaches to ensure that teachers can deliver studies of Asia and that our students are able to engage with Asia through their learning programs.

Initial steps

Working with the school leadership team early in 2008, it was decided to foreground international education as a major objective in our three-year Site Learning Plan for 2008–2010 (strategic plan). An initial draft was distributed to staff for comment and formally adopted by the School Improvement and Accountability Committee and by the governing school council.

This was very important for us because it provided a reference point and a mandate for engaging teachers in activities designed to increase their knowledge and understanding of Asia and the need to embed studies of Asia in their programs.

Shared leadership

My participation in the Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia (L21CS) project galvanised us into further action. I worked closely with Reena Cavouras, one of our Indonesian teachers and the International Education Coordinator who took the role of the studies of Asia leader in the school. Her enthusiasm and dynamic approach to both Indonesian language teaching and studies of Asia meant that leadership of the studies of Asia agenda was shared.

Together we familiarised ourselves with key resources made available through the L21CS project prior to introducing them to curriculum leaders and staff. The Tool Kit and Asia Scope and Sequence documents assisted us greatly in bringing studies of Asia front and centre in the minds of teachers, particularly the curriculum leaders. The 2020 Engage with Asia DVD together with the National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools provided us with the opportunity to present a rationale for the systematic inclusion of studies of Asia in school programs. They also gave more tangible expression to the internationalising objectives in our Site Learning Plan.

Initial curriculum audit

In conversation and planning meetings with curriculum leaders it was decided to conduct an initial audit of curriculum programs. This gave us a snapshot of the extent to which Asian content was included in teaching and learning programs. It also revealed the need for a more concerted effort to include studies of Asia and highlighted the need for teachers to develop knowledge and understanding of Asia to help to deliver the curriculum.

Importantly this exercise sharpened our awareness of the current scope of studies of Asia across the school and created a benchmark for us to use in future implementation activities.

Access Asia Committee

A further important step was to establish an Access Asia Committee chaired by the Principal to oversee planning for incorporating studies of Asia in school programs. In formalising our approach to the studies of Asia in this way we broadened leadership of the agenda. We signalled a collective commitment to implementation and a mechanism for accountability to staff to our school community.

Building international partnerships

Re-establishing a sister-school relationship

I was made aware that some years ago, a sister-school relationship had been commenced with a school in Pandaan, Sumatra. But for various reasons contact waned and interest had diminished. Through interest expressed by the Student Action Committee (SAC) it was decided to rekindle the relationship. Contact was re-established in 2008 and now, through our Indonesian language program students, the school is in regular contact via email. The SAC has now embraced the sister school and has established a fund-raising project to support it.

Participating in the BRIDGE project

Recently we were accepted as a participating school in the Australia-Indonesia BRIDGE project. This project is designed to make links between Australian and Indonesian schools through combined teacher involvement and the use of information and communication technologies. Early in 2009 we hosted our first Indonesian teacher from Smak Kesuma, a school in Lombok. This had a profound impact on our school and indeed the community. Not only did the visiting teacher work with students in our Indonesian classes, but he talked with groups of students in other classes, the local Principals’ network, Rotary and visited local primary schools. This opened our eyes to similarities and differences in our cultures and proved to be an enriching experience for staff and students. Through newsletters we were able to share this experience with parents and the broader community. An article was also published in the local newspaper.

A new sister school

From this experience we are now on the way to establishing a second sister-school relationship with Smak Kesuma. This will open the way for teacher and student exchange supported by regular electronic links between students. A particular issue at present, however, is a restriction on travel to Indonesia by teachers and students. Consequently we are now seeking a grant under the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP) to bring students and teachers from Indonesia to help drive the infusion of studies of Asia across the curriculum.

International student program

For the first time we have set up a full international program to accommodate full fee-paying international students at Victor Harbor. Whilst our first cohort of students does not include Asians, the program has provided significant impetus for our objective of internationalising the school. We aim to include Asian students in the program at a future time. At present we have students from Italy, France, Germany, Norway, USA, Switzerland and Brazil

Recent steps towards implementation

There is overall acceptance by staff of the need to engage with Asia to enable their students to improve their worldly experience.

A further curriculum audit

Recently and again through our curriculum leaders we conducted another curriculum audit. Preliminary analysis indicates that whilst coverage of Asia has improved we still have some distance ago. This has prompted us to set an expectation that all learning areas are to plan and document studies of Asia in teaching and learning programs.

Survey of teacher interest and knowledge

It was decided to undertake a survey of staff travel, experiences and knowledge of Asia. This survey was undertaken during a staff meeting and generated a huge amount of interest. I used my completed survey as an aid for staff. This time together afforded yet another opportunity to underline the importance of studies of Asia for students. Use of the 2020 Engage with Asia DVD reinforced this. We were also able to revisit our objectives around international education described in our Site Learning Plan.

Survey results have provided us with a knowledge and experience bank, which is available to all staff. It can now be used to help identify resource people for curriculum planning purposes.

Teaching and learning resources

Our Studies of Asia Coordinator has brought together large numbers of resources for use in classroom programs. She is continually seeking resources to fit teachers’ units of work. Resources produced by the Asia Education Foundation and made available through the Curriculum Corporation have been particularly useful as have materials published in New South Wales in relation to the former national Access Asia program.

Indonesian language learning

No longer is our Indonesian language program seen as an isolated part of the curriculum. Our two Indonesian teachers provide a sequential program across all year levels and, because of their keen interest in studies of Asia, provide support to teachers through the sharing of ideas, resources and participation in the work of the Access Asia Committee. Indonesian signage is now evident in the home economics centre and a display focusing on Indonesia has been made prominent in the main foyer/arrival hall of the school. Our aim on completion of our new building facilities is to adopt dual signage (English–Indonesian) around the school.

Because we have made studies of Asia a school priority and strengthened our Indonesian sister-school relationships, the learning of Indonesian has become a more vibrant part of our curriculum.

Two of our teachers participated in an intensive Indonesian language program in Indonesia. Not only did it hone their Indonesian language skills but it opened up new links, which will assist the planning of our program to bring Indonesian teachers and students to Victor Harbor.

Links with other schools

As chair of the Fleurieu cluster of schools this has given me a significant opportunity to raise awareness of studies of Asia and the L21CS project with our neighbouring feeder schools. The State Asia Education Advisor and visiting Indonesian teachers who worked at Victor Harbor through the BRIDGE Project have presented at cluster meetings. Our neighbouring primary schools provide Indonesian language learning and this gives us the opportunity for further cooperative work.

Our next steps

• We are strongly committed to continuing implementation of studies of Asia and associated internationalising activities of the school.
• Our Access Asia Committee will oversee and monitor our implementation plan. At this stage we do not have a fully scoped and sequenced plan for studies of Asia in our teaching and learning programs. But we now have the commitment, will and data to do so. We recognise that further professional learning is required by staff. We are currently planning a workshop for all staff to further discuss the need to embrace studies of Asia and to discuss strategies for incorporating this into learning areas.
• We will continue to explore ways of strengthening our sister-school relationships, emphasising the connections between our students and their peers in Indonesian schools.
• We look forward to continuing involvement in the BRIDGE Project, which provides teachers and students with knowledge and insights they would not gain otherwise.
• We will continue to explore and plan ways in which Indonesian teachers and students can come to our school to enable teachers and students continuing access to international and global perspectives in their regular school experiences.