Renmark High School has welcomed 13 students from Hachioji Junior High School, which caters for 1500 students on the outskirts of Tokyo, in Japan. They arrived last Wednesday night and were greeted by Mrs Tassios and 13 excited host families who have opened up their homes for these students for the duration of the 10-day program. 

With the support of their teacher, Mr Shintaro Namihira and their translator Ms Haruna Sekiguchi they have participated in a tour of Renmark with Mr Elliott and Ms Bower, enjoyed improving their English skills with Ms Bower, experiencing some Australian cuisine with Ms Riar and Mrs Hooper, as well as developing their relationship skills with their buddies through activities with Mr Branford.

The Japanese students have also accompanied their buddy students to regular lessons to gain an insight into what is feels like to be a part of a typical high school class in Australia.

Over the weekend, students participated in a range of different activities with their host families, watching a range of different sports, spending time down the river and kangaroo spotting!

A highlight to date, was a visit to St. Joseph’s School, where the Japanese students taught the two Year 5/6 classes how to put make some fantastic origami creations and performed a wonderful song in Japanese at the end of the session.

With a range of excursions off site for the remainder of the week, we hope our guests will enjoy a further taste of Australian culture and lifestyle.

We look forward to hearing more stories of our exchange of cultures this Thursday evening as we farewell the students with a dinner celebration before their return to Japan on Friday morning.

Jasmine Tassios

International Education Program Manager