Most Significant Change Story

School Bendigo South East College

Title of Story Bendigo Team China

Domain Student Outcomes - Knowledge and Understandings

1 What was the Most Significant Change: (one sentence) Sharing our expertise and experience in Asian languages to assist Bendigo Team China develop a Mandarin program.

2 Beginning (situation before the change) small preamble: Bendigo South East College (BSE) has been teaching Mandarin for ten years to our Year 7 -10 students and is the only junior secondary school in Bendigo with a pathway for students into VCE and VET Mandarin. The Chinese program at BSE includes a sister school relationship with Dongzhou Middle School in Haimen, China that has led to a successful student exchange program with Dongzhou Middle School.

3 Middle (what happened) tipping point: Students were coming to BSE from our feeder primary schools with a mixture of language experiences including Indonesian, French and German but not Mandarin. To strengthen our languages program and to provide a stronger pathway for students learning Mandarin we investigated teaching it in local primary schools. This investigation found interest from Kennington PS, Marong PS, Huntly PS and Epsom PS. At this time some Bendigo primary schools were interested in developing an Asian literacy program and a delegation of Principals visited Suzhou to establish sister school agreements. This created an environment of excitement in Bendigo language education so that the primary schools, junior secondary schools and Bendigo Senior Secondary College worked together to develop a Mandarin program that would provide an authentic learning context for students and create a pathway for Mandarin language learning. Bendigo South East College and Bendigo Senior Secondary College provide Mandarin teachers to Bendigo Team China primary schools to enable the Mandarin language program occurs. The Mandarin teachers have worked together to develop a high quality curriculum with consistent pedagogy delivery that enables a language learning pathway across Bendigo schools.

4 Now (situation after) Bendigo South East College has provided native speaking teachers to deliver Mandarin language and Intercultural Understanding to students from P-12. The program has been so successful the primary schools have created more time in their curriculum for it, with subsequent requests for more teacher time provided by Bendigo South East College and Bendigo Senior Secondary College. The primary schools have had Chinese students stay in their communities for 8 weeks and had their students visit sister schools in Suzhou.

5 Why did you choose this particular change? Why was it significant? The Bendigo Team China program has ensured an ongoing and sustainable pathway for students to learn Mandarin language and appreciate the Chinese culture. This strengthens the ties Bendigo has had with China from our history as a gold mining city and is important in this, the Asian Century.

Based on materials from Jessica Dart & Rick Davies – Clear Horizon Consulting – Most Significant Change Model.