Page 3861 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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Three schools in Canberra operate bilingual or immersion programs. They are at Mawson primary, Yarralumla primary and Telopea Park. Mawson primary began its immersion program 10 years ago. In 2010, Mawson has 40 students in years 3 to 6 who participate in a two-day-a-week language program. Students in kindergarten to year 2 at Mawson currently learn Chinese Mandarin for 90 minutes per week. This prepares them to move into the more intensive program in year 3. Mawson has the support of a teachers assistant two days a week under an MOU between the department and the embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Language teachers at Mawson receive significant professional learning support from the department. Further expanding the program at Mawson would require sourcing additional teachers, with not just the target of language proficiency but with an understanding of Australian schools curriculum and practice.
Yarralumla primary school currently has seven classes operating in an Italian immersion program. These children have 50 per cent of their week with Italian as the classroom language. And from this year, all new kindergarten students are enrolled in the immersion program. Funding from the Italian government provides teachers assistants for the development of the necessary resources and relevant teaching materials.
Telopea Park school is a binational French-Australian school created through an agreement between the French and Australian governments on behalf of the ACT in 1983. There is a significant financial contribution made by the French, commonwealth and ACT governments to deliver this bilingual program. Students satisfy both the ACT and French curriculum requirements. There is high parent demand for enrolment at Telopea, from both the French and Australian communities. Four hundred and twenty students, in 20 classes in the primary school, work in a wholly bilingual setting.
Over time, the government will examine the viability of an additional bilingual school for Canberra. This examination will consider a number of factors. These include demand, the wishes of those in the priority enrolment area, resources and staffing. A key indicator will be parent and student demand for further immersion programs.
We will carefully monitor interest in the Mawson and Yarralumla programs to see whether there is demand for an additional program. To date, it would be fair to say, though, their enrolments are not growing any more than is the case in other primary schools in similar demographic circumstances. However, if there is strong interest and embassy support, the government will consider expansion in the future.
We must also, though, give consideration to a school’s priority enrolment area and recognise that parents in the priority enrolment area may prefer for their children not to be included in the school’s bilingual program, and we must respect this wish. But in doing so we must recognise that the ability to opt out can make establishing an adequately sized cohort in each year problematic. We are also conscious of the need to focus on implementing the new Australian curriculum at this time and recognise the need to develop curriculum materials both in English and in the immersion languages. The cost of this curriculum development is considerable and it will take some time to deliver.
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