Above: Beaconhills students with Japanese visitors Rei Goto and Maiko Nishino (back) with Jemma Bartlett, Mariana Karavias, Hayley Bosman, Heidi Boer, Satomi Kinoshita, Maya Fukuda and Mithila Karve.Right: Robert Garrie and John Bares with Brad McLean, Loren Siacci and Jake Granieri.EXPERIENCING other cultures comes easily if you’re a student at Beaconhills College in Pakenham.
Over the last two weeks the college has been hosting a group of nine year 11 exchange students and their teacher from Ibaraki Senior High School in Japan.
Cooking Anzac biscuits, lamingtons, having an Aussie barbecue and visiting Phillip Island’s penguins were among a few of the Australian experiences the visitors had.
The college is also currently hosting students from Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Japan, and only last month welcomed three students from Bourg St Maurice in the French Alps.
Headmaster Tony Sheumack said the exchange program was working well.
“Enriching students’ understanding of the diversity of our world and to see things from a local, interstate and international perspective are part of the key learning experiences for our students,” he said.
“It is wonderful to watch the interaction of cultures between the students.
“With two sister schools in France and one in Japan, I don’t think there is ever a time when Beaconhills is not hosting an overseas guest or saying farewell to one of our own students on an exchange program.”
As well as hosting students from around the world, the college was also active in the establishment of schools in Bangladesh and East Timor and continued to support those communities, Mr Sheumack said.
