Holy Family Gowrie, Sts Peter and Paul’s Garran and Rosary Primary School in Watson have been chosen to showcase the exemplary standards of their students’ school work for The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Languages Work Samples Project.

The schools’ work samples displayed on the ACARA website will enable teachers from other schools to compare work samples with their own students’ work to assist when making judgements, planning for teaching, learning and understanding the scope and diversity for assessment.

Holy Family Primary School Indonesian teacher Arika Bassett and Sts Peter and Paul Primary School Japanese teacher Amanda de Jongh were fortunate to partake in the Work Samples Annotation Workshop coordinated by ACARA in Sydney with teachers from around Australia.

Mrs Bassett said that after teaching Indonesian for the past ten years it was a privilege to take part in the project which has boosted her classroom morale.

“It was a great opportunity for my professional learning, and a ‘wow’ moment to be able to annotate students work from other schools and year levels,” she said. 

Amanda de Jongh volunteered Sts Peter and Paul Primary School to be a part of the Languages Work Samples project after introducing Japanese into the school curriculum last year.

“The whole experience was very rewarding and affirming for me as a Japanese teacher,” she said.

“I saw many samples that were similar to my own, which provided me with reassurance that my students, although only first-years, were able to meet the prescribed standards.”

Mrs Bassett said that through learning languages schools are able to broaden students’ horizons, and emphasise the importance of respecting other people’s differences and culture.

“Our school is lucky to have great resources, connections with the Indonesian Embassy and a partnership with a school in Jakarta to allow students to have authentic exposure to cultural experiences,” she said.

“Exposing students to languages other than English in primary school embraces students to be responsible learners who are aware of their identity as global citizens.”