On April 6, Special Envoy for Trade Mr Andrew Robb AO MP and international cricket champion and Australia-India Education Ambassador Adam Gilchrist, visited Bluebell's School in New Delhi, India, to join in a Skype session with their BRIDGE partners at Cooinda Primary School in WA.
Mr Robb spoke about the benefits of building bridges between Australian and Indian schools, while Mr Gilchrist shared his insight on the bonding power of education and cricket, and chatted with students about career opportunities in sport.
The visit to Bluebell's was part of a diplomatic visit aimed at deepening the bilateral education relationship between India and Australia through school partnerships, vocational education, higher education and research.
As part of their BRIDGE School Partnerships Project, Year 6 students from both Bluebell's and Cooinda have had the opportunity to learn about each other through a book exchange titled 'A day in the life of a Bluebell's and Cooinda student' and also had the opportunity to speak to each other and form new friendships via a video-conference in February.
Teachers from Bluebell's have already been to Bunbury, Western Australia to spend time at Cooinda Primary School, and teachers from Cooinda have visited New Delhi from Bunbury this past January. Later this year, more teachers from Bluebells will visit their counterparts in WA for a homestay and professional development program and further reciprocal trips to India for the Cooinda teachers will occur soon after.
Bluebells and Cooinda Primary began their BRIDGE School Partnerships Project over a year ago, but Bluebells has a long history of engagement with Australia and Australian schools. As well as the BRIDGE school partnership with Cooinda Primary School, Bluebells also has a sister school relationship with Rangebank Primary School in Victoria. Rangebank Primary School was the first Australian school to teach Hindi language. The Year 5 students from Bluebell's have a weekly Skype session with the students from Rangebank to help them with their Hindi lessons and learn about Australian culture.
Access our Storify of Twitter activity from the event.
Find out more about the Australia–India BRIDGE School Partnerships Project.