Tranby College

- published, October 2009. See Tranby College's presentation at the May 2011 AEF National Summit.

School profile

Tranby College is an independent, co-educational Uniting Church school located in Perth. It is a K–12 college with 1000 students. The junior school of 470 students is organised into 18 K–6 classes. The mission of Tranby College ‘is building an accessible and inclusive community in which students are educated to discover and realise the excellence within themselves. Within the values and ethos of the Uniting Church in Australia, it is developing people of conscience who play a responsible role in creating sustainable compassionate communities.’

School website: www.tranby.wa.edu.au

Graeme Badge, Head of Junior School

The impetus for expanding studies of Asia at Tranby has stemmed from our strong Indonesian language program. We recognised it as a major vehicle for expanding students’ cultural awareness of Asia, and the program has enabled us to explore ways of embedding studies of Asia in a more systematic way across key learning areas.

 

Indonesian as a catalyst

The teaching of Indonesian has been a strong point in both the senior and junior schools at Tranby. Highly motivated teachers deliver the program which is compulsory from Years 1–8. The senior leaders in the college recognised that the language program could be strengthened by starting Indonesian language learning in the pre-primary classes to ensure continuity throughout the college and to provide new opportunities for students to develop awareness and understanding of Asia. Our students were generally lacking knowledge and understanding of other cultures and languages. The linking of language learning and cultural awareness became a key driver for us, together with a longer term aim of increasing the number of students studying Indonesian in Years 10–12.

Moving forward

For some years we have had an Asia-focused policy in the school. However it has been loosely applied. My involvement with the Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia (L21CS) project has been timely. L21CS resources enabled me to reflect on our current school practices and to generate focused discussions among staff. The 2020 Engage with Asia DVD provided us with a clear understanding of the need for our students to be more ‘Asia-savvy’. Importantly, the key messages contained in the DVD resonated with staff, thus paving the way for expanding the school’s approach to the studies of Asia.

Formation of studies of Asia curriculum committee

A new committee was established with a brief to revisit the school’s Asia education policy and to explore more systematic implementation with the aim of ensuring that studies of Asia were undertaken across all year levels.

Conducting an audit

Using the teacher and school resource, a guide to implementing the National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools (National Statement), and the Asia Scope and Sequence documents for Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE), The Arts and English we conducted an audit of the curriculum to determine the extent to which studies of Asia were incorporated in teaching and learning programs. We were surprised to find that teachers were doing a lot already, particularly in SOSE and to a lesser extent in English. However we did find it was more of an ‘ad hoc’ approach than an integrated, systematically planned one.

Engaging year-level team leaders

It was critically important for year-level team leaders to demonstrate a collective understanding of the need to incorporate studies of Asia at all year levels. The National Statement and Asia-focused curriculum resources stimulated considerable discussion about ways in which teaching and learning programs could support the Indonesian language program. An aid to the discussions was a focus on the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians and emerging trends and issues related to the development of the national curriculum. It was through these meetings that a commitment to incorporate studies of Asia across the school was generated.

Expectations of staff

It was expected that the team leaders would work collaboratively with year-level teams to plan for the incorporation of studies of Asia into their teaching and learning programs. Staff meetings were used to engage staff with the studies of Asia agenda. These meetings helped generate a collective awareness of the need for students to develop knowledge and understandings of Asia. The rationale outlined in the National Statement was presented to staff, together with strong encouragement to embrace more structure for studies of Asia across the college. Using Asia-focused curriculum materials including the Asia Scope and Sequence documents for The Arts, Science and English, in conjunction with the Western Australian Curriculum Framework, teachers are now developing units of work with an Asian focus. They are also being encouraged to draw on their own experiences of Asia.

Connecting with Indonesia

Tranby constantly looks at ways in which connections with Indonesia can be made. Our Indonesian teachers have worked hard to establish valuable relationships with people who can act as resources for Tranby programs. The editor of the English-language Jakarta Post was invited to Tranby to observe the way in which the college was pursuing its study of Indonesia and to speak to students. She then published an article in the Jakarta Post for dissemination in Indonesia.

In late 2008, 30 students and five teachers, including Geography and History teachers, participated in a study tour to Bali. This enabled links with the college teaching and learning programs for Years 9 and 10 students. An article describing the experience, and written in Indonesian and English, was published and disseminated in Bali and the Tranby College community.

Sister-school relationships have now been established with schools in Bali and Jakarta to consolidate our plan to deepen students’ understanding of Indonesian life and culture. Tranby has also become involved in the Australia-Indonesia BRIDGE Project, which has enabled an Indonesian teacher to spend 10 days at Tranby. His stories of Indonesian life and culture were brought to students. In addition, he participated in our Indonesian language program. The college is looking forward to a visit from a second teacher later this year.

An expansion of our ICT infrastructure means that communication between Tranby and Jakarta students can be facilitated. The use of web logs, digital cameras and iPods is being encouraged. We recognise the need to shift the pedagogy of teachers to embrace the use of ICT tools in their teaching and learning programs. Consequently, teachers are being engaged in continuing professional learning for this purpose. This is particularly important for ensuring teacher and student access to web-based resources for Asia-focused learning activities.

Promoting studies of Asia in the college community

The college newsletter has been used to inform parents and friends of our commitment to programs and activities designed to engage students with Asia. We have now instituted Indonesian assemblies in the college to promote our links with Indonesia and to showcase student work and their growing understandings of Indonesian life and culture. Student artwork arising from the study of the Japanese novel Sadako in the English course, has been publicly displayed.

Following the student study tour to Bali, an event for parents, friends and members of the college staff was staged. This was a celebration of student learning and included dance, drama and the presentation of student work. Later this year, the college will involve students and teachers in learning activities and events in a week devoted to studies of Asia.

Our next steps

Our approach to the studies of Asia has broadened over the past year. Sustaining programs which will which integrate language learning with studies of Asia across the curriculum is a key objective. Continuing implementation of our Asia-focused policy through team leaders and collaborative planning by year-level teams is a strong driving force for the college.