St Paul’s College has partnered with an Indonesian school through a Bridge program

The program connects school communities from Australia with a sister school in Southeast Asia to further language studies within the schools involved.

St Paul’s College has partnered with Mandastana SMA in Kalimantan Indonesia, with two of the teachers visiting St Paul’s College this week. 

Indonesian teacher from St Paul’s College Beth McMillian said the program will further the students studies.

“It will really enhance cultural appreciation in both schools,” she said.

The Bridge program requires the two schools to present a project that they will work on with the students. St Paul’s and Mandastana SMA will be working towards first reducing and then eliminating plastic from the schools.

Art teacher from St Paul’s College Angus Crowley said the project will be beneficial to both schools.

“This project idea is what both communities need. Through building their dialogue and language skills, the students will work towards reducing plastic in both schools,” he said.

English teacher from Mandastana SMA Muhammad Nazaruddin agreed.

“This will be very beneficial for the students and the schools. Getting the students to communicate and share knowledge will be really good,” he said.

Both of the schools want to eventually expand the project into the two communities and reduce the use of plastic.

“We will eventually have a public site and use posters to spread the project into the community, both here and in Kalimantan,” Mr Crowley said.

“We will also be applying for a community grant through council to further the project,” Ms McMillian said.

Cross-cultural communication has already begun between the two schools with the students beginning to contact each other.

“We want to start up a pen pal type of communication between the students so they can practice their translation skills,” Ms McMillian said.

Mayor Liz Campbell visited the school today to learn about the project and said she supports the idea and the students enthusiasm toward the project.

“It’s good to have different cultures interacting with each other. It’s a great project,” Mayor Campbell said.