Page215 - Week 01 - Thursday, 3 December 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . 2020 Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
2) After significant effort to maintain and sustain the languages program were unsuccessful, consultation with the local Parents and Citizens (P&C) Association led the School Board, including the Principal, to make the school-based decision to discontinue both French and Indonesian. This occurred at the school in 2017.
3) Residents within Belconnen High School’s Priority Enrolment Area (PEA) were informed of this change through involvement with the P&C, and via the school’s newsletter, website, prospectus and parent/student information nights. Initial notifications occurred in 2017 and the information about the change of program is still available on the school website.
4) The Directorate currently offers a pathway for French language learning for families who live in Belconnen. Melba Copland Secondary School is a hub for language provision, including a clear pathway in French. French language is offered at both the high school and college campuses. Canberra High School also offers a French language program.
5) The ACT Education Directorate continues to work with Belconnen High School to seek opportunities to deliver language options for students. A school’s ability to provide and sustain language education in a specific language, such as French, is strongly influenced by the availability of suitable language teachers. Language teachers are specialist teachers who have substantial language learning experience and fluency in the target language. They also need to be qualified teachers who meet the requirements to hold a Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) registration. The Directorate is continuously working to ensure appropriately qualified staff are providing quality education to our students.
The low numbers of language teachers is a national issue and the ACT is tackling this through targeted national recruitment campaigns and specific scholarship programs to both attract new languages teachers to the ACT and to develop the skills of our current workforce.
To provide a language option for students, the school collaborated closely with the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to develop and implement the unique Connecting to Country course, which includes both language and cultural components.
6) If continuation of a particular language is important to a student, the family can apply to enrol into a school outside of their PEA that offers this language. Schools may consider applicants whose PEA school does not provide a specific curriculum choice, including preferred language choice. Enrolment will be considered as per standard enrolment criteria where a school has capacity to enrol out of area students. More detail about enrolling in out of area schools can be read on the Directorate’s website: https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/enrolling-in-a-public-school/enrolling-in-kindergarten-to-year-12.
7) The ACT Education Directorate will continue to work with Belconnen High School around language options for students. The school offers Connecting to Country for year 7 and 8 students which aligns with the Australian Curriculum subject Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages. Spanish, Chinese and Japanese are also offered as electives for year 9 and 10 students, leveraging the language resources of teachers of other subject areas to support this offering.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . 2020 Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video