Australia Exchange visiting 2010

 Australia

Melbourne Study Tour plk phps

Introduction

The study tour to Melbourne, Australia, was held on 23^rd October to 1^st November in 2010. This was the third study tour hosted between the school to visit Melbourne and our sister school, Princes Hill Primary School (PHPS) in Melbourne.Twelve students (7 P.6 students and 5 P.5 students) were chosen to be the school representatives of the tour. Principal Chan and 2 teachers led the team for the visit.

Through the overseas exchange program, we wish to expand students' horizons and enhances their competitiveness so that they can learn to "think globally, act locally". The authentic and practical environment creates language awareness and needs for students to communicate actively in English on a daily basis, which results in improvement in English. For teachers, the program helps to enrich the pedagogies and competence levels. Thus, this is a golden opportunity for our students and teachers to learn and develop.

Team Members and grouping

Mr. Chan Wing Kwong (The Principal)
Miss CHAN Wai Sum Candy ( English teacher) 5D Flora MAN Hiu Ching 6L Coco NGOR Yat Lam 6L Andrew SHI Pok Lai 6R Ivan CHAU Wai Hin 6D Brian YU Cheuk Hin 6S Jacky CHENG Tsz Fung	Miss LAM Kit Ying Calista (English teacher) 6D Natalie YEUNG Tsz Yan 6S Christy IP 5R Ian CHIU Yee Hang 5R Brian SHIU Hin Yeung 5D Phoebe CHOY Yi Ting 5D Simone NG

ITINERARY

23rd October (Day 1)

1930 – Gather at PLK LFC
1945 – Set off to the airport
2335 – Depart HK

24th October (Day 2)

1400 –	Arrive Melbourne
1400 –	Meet host family and PHPS teachers Students follow host family to homestay homes Teachers go to apartment
1730 –	Picnic dinner @ PHPS
1930 –	Go back to homestay

25th October (Day 3)

0900 – Welcome Ceremony
0930 – Debriefing
1100 – Lunch
1210 – Class activities
1530 – End of school day

26th October (Day 4)

0900 –	Debriefing
0915 –	Excursion to Healesville Sanctuary, including platypus and nocturnal houses, and Birds of Prey presentation area (Packed lunch provided by host families)
1315 –	Lesson in the Discovery Centre
1415 –	Leave Healesville Sanctuary
1545 –	Arrive at school

27th October (Day 5)

0900 – Debriefing
1000 – Class activities
1100 – Lunch
1210 – Class activities
1530 – End of school day

28th October (Day 6)

0900 –	Debriefing
1000 –	Class activities – cooking session
1100 –	Lunch
1210 –	Class activities – interschool sport (a walk to another site – other schools and a park with playing grounds)
1530 –	End of school day

29th October (Day 7)

0900 – Debriefing
0930 – Excursion to Melbourne Museum
1100 – Lunch (Packed lunch provided by host families)
1210 – Class activities
1530 – End of school day

30th – 31st October (Day 8-9)

Weekend activities with host families

1st November (Day 10)

0900 – Debriefing & Rehearsal for the performance
1000 – Farewell Ceremony
1200 – Set off to the airport
1530 – Depart Melbourne
2145 – Arrive HK
2300 – Travel back to LFC

Parents' briefing

Highlights of the study tour

Group photos

Day 1 – (October 23, 2010 Saturday)

We are leaving for the Melbourne exchange program at the Hong Kong International Airport. All the families came and we took many photos along the way at the airport.

Day 2 – (October 24, 2010 Sunday)

After 11 long hours (including a short stop at Adelaide) on the plane, we finally came to Melbourne and met up with the host families!

School lives

Day 3 - (October 25, 2010)

Our first day of school was exciting. We started our day with a small ceremony with our Aussie buddy to the rest of P.5 and 6 students. The rest of the day is followed by three types of classes that day, Italian Class, Physical Education, and Visual Art.

Day 4 – (October 26, 2010 Tuesday)

Our students went to Healesville Sanctuary today. It was huge with lots of wildlife animals. We visited the Wildlife Hospital. There we saw a keeper feeding a little bat. ‘Birds of Prey’ is another interesting show to take part with. We learnt how big birds catch their preys and we could feel the ‘wind’ when the eagle was flying over our heads. It was fantastic! In Wildlife lesson, we were able to touch some animals like a snake and a reptile. Last but not least, we saw the famous Australian animals like kangaroos, emus and koalas. They were really cute!

Day 5 – (October 27, 2010 Wednesday)

In the afternoon, Miss Candy Chan and Miss Calista were having a Mandarin lesson with both LHT students and some Australian students. It was about some daily use Mandarin conversations, as well as talking about Chinese New Year. Students could respond to the teachers’ questions well. At the end of the lesson, they made their own lovely 3D Goldfish using red packets.

After that, our LHT students with their buddies, had a live chat with their schoolmates in Hong Kong. They saw and talked to each other using Skype, sharing the interesting experience through the stay in Melbourne.

Day 6 – (October 28, 2010 Thursday)

In the morning, our LHT students had a lovely cooking lesson with 3 PHPS parent helpers. They made ANZAC biscuits, chocolate cookies and honey joys. Look at their pictures. Our students all working hard and became “professional chefs”. After that, they all enjoyed the food they had made.

The food “sold out” quickly. Why? It was because our students shared their food with their buddies, teachers (including Principal Chan), as well as some kindergarten kids next by! If you would like to see how tasty the food was, you may ask Principal Chan about it.

After lunch, all PHPS Year 5/6 students with LHT students took part in interschool sport. It is a school sport event which holds twice a year, each lasts for 6 weeks in summer and winter. All PHPS are eager to participate in this interschool sport as they can compete with students from other schools located in the same zone.

Unlike Hong Kong, there were sport games like crickets and rounders. It was really an amazing experience for our students to play the sport games in a park (15 minutes walk away from PHPS) with many big trees and beautiful green grass!

Principal Chan, Miss Candy Chan and Miss Calista visited Michael Campbell’s (Brian Shiu’s buddy) house. They spent a wonderful afternoon time there, enjoy tea and cakes.

Then the two teachers, Miss Candy Chan and Miss Calista joined Claudia’s (Christy Ip’s buddy) house to have a BBQ party. Many of their friends came and had a fun time, eating and playing around. They tried the famous “fairy bread”!

Day 7 – (October 29, 2010 Friday)

Today morning, our LHT students with their buddies visited Melbourne Museum. We saw a lot of fossils of animals, e.g. blue whale, dinosaur. They also explored “Bunjilaka” (Aboriginal Cultural Centre).

On the way to Princes Hill, they stopped for a while and played in the playground. It was a playground with swings, slides and sandpits. Students were playing in and out. They could also sit under the big trees to have a short break.

The next two days, our LHT students are going to spend the weekends with their host families in Melbourne. They are both very excited. If there are funny and interesting things happen, they may tell you about them.

Day 10 – (November 1, 2010 Monday)

The journey of this Melbourne study tour was nearly came to the end. Our LHT students had three performances during the farewell ceremony. The first one was a recorder ensemble ‘Edelweiss’. The second performance was a flute solo by CoCo Ngor. It was called ‘Tambourine’. The final one was a group singing. The song was ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

2^nd November is Melbourne Cup Day. It is a holiday for all working people. Therefore, PHPS held a Melbourne Cup costume parade after recess. Many students dressed up deliberately to celebrate this whole-state festival. Some little girls wore tiny and beautiful hats. They were really cute!

It was never easy to say ‘goodbye’, especially for the joyful and unforgettable experience for both LHT and PHPS students had been going through. Hope that they will keep in touch and look forward to seeing each other in the future.

After a 9-hour flight, the tour members arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at 9:30pm. Parents were delighted to see their children back.