Brookside Junior School, Mowbray College

School profile

The Brookside Junior School of Mowbray College is located in Caroline Springs a growing outer western suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. Mowbray College is an independent school and Brookside is a K–6 campus with 30 teachers and 380 students organised into 18 class groupings. Twenty-eight nationalities are represented in the student population with many coming from an Asian background. School programs aim ‘to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect’.

Campus website: www.mowbray.vic.edu.au/index.php?id=csjnr

Alistair Rayner, Head of Junior School

Brookside Junior School is an accredited provider of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP). We deliver a transdisciplinary program of international education designed to foster the development of the whole child. Structured inquiry is the major vehicle for student learning in our classrooms and units of work incorporate global and international perspectives. Involvement in the Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia (L21CS) initiative has enabled us to add new, significant dimensions to our teaching and learning programs. With the support of staff and our school community we have adopted a Studies of Asia and Australia policy which requires Asia-focused learning activities to be incorporated into units of inquiry at each year level.

View video of an interview with Alistair Rayner at the 2009 L21CS Forum

Getting started

Implementation of studies of Asia has been an important and natural progression for us. The time has been right for us to explore ways of infusing Asian content into our learning and teaching programs. Global and international dimensions are central to our policies and programs. The multicultural nature of our student population, the continuing commitment to Chinese language teaching, provision of the PYP and our involvement in the international Round Square program has given us a base for embracing studies of Asia in a focused and systematic way.

Teachers have been trained to implement the PYP, which is based on a structured approach to curriculum through transdisciplinary themes of global significance. Guided by the six themes Who We Are, Where We Are in Place and Time, How We Express Ourselves, How the World Works, How We Organise Ourselves and Sharing the Planet, teachers design units of inquiry and structure learning activities for students.

Developing a studies of Asia and Australia policy

Participation in the L21CS initiative has given me a strong incentive and the motivation to move our internationalising work to a new level. Meeting with Principal colleagues and exploring the range of Asia-focused teaching and learning resources together with the L21CS Tool Kit Modules has been stimulating and challenging. It has also assisted me to introduce studies of Asia to staff and the community in the context of our current global and international practices.

I found the 2020 Engage with Asia DVD an excellent resource for engaging staff and members of our school council in conversations about the importance of expanding our global and international foci to embrace studies of Asia in a systematic way and to provide opportunities for students and staff to connect with Asia.

Through our staff meetings it was resolved that we would develop a Studies of Asia and Australia policy for the school drawing on the National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools. Guided by L21CS Tool Kit Module 3 Defining a school vision for engaging students with Asia, I drafted a policy statement for discussion by staff and parents. 

Following consultation, this policy was adopted in early 2009. It includes our beliefs about what students should have the opportunity to develop and guidelines for implementation of studies of Asia across the school.

Importantly we refer to our commitment to studies of Asia on the welcome page of our campus website. We make it clear that studies of Asia are ‘intended to be infused into appropriate levels in areas of the curriculum to provide students with sequenced and sustained understandings of the region within our Australian context’.

A seamless approach to incorporating studies of Asia

I have worked closely with the Assistant Head K–2 to ensure that studies of Asia are incorporated in a systematic way across the school. She has responsibility for leading implementation and monitoring of the PYP from K–6.

Initially some parents were concerned that the focus on Asia may narrow the global and international dimensions of classroom teaching and learning programs. However, through continuing professional dialogue and the adoption of our Studies of Asia and Australia policy, this issue has been satisfactorily resolved. It is expected that through the PYP all units of work at any year level should include global perspectives but that one unit each year must include a focus on Asia. 

This is being embraced quickly by staff and has led to the purchase of classroom resources to assist implementation. Asia Education Foundation resources available through Curriculum Corporation have been particularly useful for us.

Curriculum planning and implementation

Staff meet regularly in small teams to plan units of work together. A program of inquiry template for the PYP has been developed. This template indicates the scope and sequence of all units of work from K–6.

Units of work specify the concepts and understandings (central ideas) upon which specific classroom learning activities are designed. Explicit references to Asian content are included in specified units of work at each year level.

Planning teams are the vehicle for significant professional learning by staff.  Staff share strategies and resources in order to make teaching and learning more powerful for students. Sharing of units of work occurs across year levels with an expectation that teachers will offer ‘critiques’ of colleagues’ plans. 

Evaluation of units of work is an important part of the implementation process. Teachers assess students’ learning against the expected outcomes and in relation to the prior knowledge and skills students bring to the topic being studied.

Mandarin language learning for students and teachers

Mandarin is taught at all year levels. Now that we have incorporated studies of Asia systematically into the school, we have a greater capacity to provide students with opportunities to gain deeper understandings of Chinese culture and society. The Mandarin teacher works with teachers in their planning teams to ensure a close relationship between studies of China and the learning of Mandarin. His profile in the school is now at a higher level and he has become an important source of information and ideas for teachers as they design and implement their units of work.

By staff agreement the learning of Mandarin has become a regular part of our weekly staff meetings. It has added a significant dimension to our policy of embedding studies of Asia into school practice and is an enjoyable experience for all of us.

Connecting with Asia

We have established a partnership with a Chinese school following a visit by the assistant head and me. This has opened up possibilities for joint projects involving students.

Six students from Hong Kong recently visited the school to show and talk about an audiovisual animation project they have developed. Our students loved what they saw. Importantly they enjoyed the experience of relating to the Hong Kong students.

Now we are exploring the possibility of a collaborative project across international borders to take this animation concept further.

Involving the community

Our public commitment to studies of Asia has generated significant interest among parents. We have established a parent register including information about nationality, language and interest in supporting the school in implementation of studies of Asia. We now have parents and community members prepared to lend artefacts to the school for school display and use in classrooms. We were very pleased with the response to this request.

Planning is now under way for a Year 6 exhibition focusing on art, culture, beliefs and values related to Asia. Community involvement will be a key part of the exhibition.

Our next steps

We will consolidate teaching and learning about Asia in the PYP program of inquiry. We recognise that as a staff we need access to experts who can expand our knowledge and understanding of Asia. The resources of the state Asia education adviser are being drawn on to assist with this.

We are exploring implementation of a Chinese–English bilingual program in 2010 and have developed a proposal for collaboration with a Chinese school using ICT as a vehicle for expanding the recently completed animation project involving Hong Kong students.