What an amazing trip the year 6 students had to Japan! After two weeks in Japan the big adventure was over for our nine Year 6 students, who had completed a very full program which involved visiting four major Japanese cities, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima as well as living for a week with a Japanese family from our sister school in the country town of Tamba.
One of our key selection criteria for this tour was resilience. The ability to overcome hardships when out of their comfort zone, including homesickness, was beyond our expectations. You all showed real grit and determination to tough the hard times by enjoying the good times to the max. Well done you were outstandingly resilient.
These nine wonderful students have spoken more Japanese than ever before, they’ve eaten plenty of Japanese food, attended a Japanese PS for a week, have seen snow falling outside their home and their school, have travelled on a Shinkansen travelling at more than 250km an hour through fields and mountains covered in snow and seen the devastation a nuclear bomb can cause in the city of Hiroshima. And that is just part of what they saw and did.
It was a life changing experience for these nine children and one they will remember for the rest of their lives. I want to thank Ron and School Council for allowing us to be one the very few Victorian Primary Schools to conduct an overseas tour such as this.
To my fellow teachers on tour, Siobhan Ilseley and husband Rob Martin, we worked together so well as a team it made the 24/7 care of 9 children for 2 weeks so much easier and your humour and professionalism made it all the more enjoyable. Thank you.
Mami Sensei
