On 24th November, 4 staff from SMK DPM set off from Kota Kinabalu for a visit to Tallangatta Secondary College and Melbourne.
The group consisted of Badinah Bianis and Nainey Ajik who had previously visited with students in 2011, Mohd Fadley Fauzi and Naimah Hj Din accompanied by her husband Martin Bin Bubin
The group arrived in Melbourne at 12.15 am on the Monday morning and were met at the airport by Mr Alby Freijah, Principal of Tallangatta Secondary College and Mr Con Madden, Assistant Principal.
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| Monday morning in Melbourne with TSC Principal Alby Freijah |
Monday 25th November 2013After a short sleep, the group along with Alby and Con, visited Brunswick Secondary College in Melbourne, Brunswick Secondary College is one of the most multi-cultural schools in Australia and has many special programs including intensive English language courses, to assist new arrivals to Melbourne to adjust to their new life in Australia,
Following this visit the group headed up the Hume Highway to Tallangatta, arriving at TSC at about 5 PM then joining their host families.
Tuesday 26th November 2013
The group spent the day at TSC, taking a guided tour of the school. This included the new science centre which had completed since the visit in 2011. The group visited classes and had the opportunity to discuss different approaches to teaching and learning compared to SMK DPM. They visited a range of classes from general Maths and English classes to cooking, science, humanities, textiles and music. This also included seeing the benefits students had at TSC as a result of being in classes with a maximum size of 25 students compare to 45 - 50 in Penampang. |
| Textiles class |
Wednesday 27th November 2013
On Wednesday, the group were taken by Mr Con Madden and Janet Floyd on a tour of the local area to learn about the geography and the history of the area.This included visits to Yackandandah, Myrtleford, Bright and Beechworth.
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| Map of area |
On Thursday the group paid a short visit to Tallangatta Primary School, visiting most of the classes and catching up with some staff they had also met 2 years ago.
The rest of the day was spent in discussions with the principal and other staff members discussing different aspects of teaching and learning and education processes in Tallangatta compared to Malaysia. We also spent time discussing potential projects for the future, including teacher and student exchanges, possible curriculum projects and even the viability of work experience placements.
On Thursday evening the guests and hosts ventured into Albury for an enjoyable farewell dinner at a Thai restaurant.
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| Visitors and hosts at dinner |
Friday 29th November 2013
Friday morning was spent in discussions with Mr Madden and Janet about different student management strategies and support programs in place at Tallangatta.
This was followed by a morning tea and an exchange of gifts before farewells and promises to meet again in 2014 were exchanged
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| Plaque to commemorate the visit created by TSC teacher David Goodwin |
About 2.00 pm, the group once again to the Hume Highway driven by TSC teacher Rhys McKee and accompanied by Janet.
The next few days were spent site-seeing and shopping in Melbourne, followed by a day trip along the well-know Great Ocean Road to view the 12 Apostles, before returning to Malaysia on 3rd December.
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| The 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road |
Thanks to Rhys McKee, Con and Chris Madden, Yanti Grant and Sue Ledsam for extending their hospitality and their homes to make our colleagues from SMK DPM feel welcome.
