World Languages Growth Plan: Grace James Academy of Excellence
World Languages Growth Plan:
Grace James Academy of Excellence
The benefits of learning a language are significant.
Learning a language improves the neuroplasticity of the brain, it can quite literally make you smarter. The promotion of cognitive development, enhanced memory and critical thinking skills can set young Australians up to succeed. Learning another language is actually proven to improve performance in other academic areas as well and will even improve individuals’ awareness of their first language.
All of those benefits are significant without even taking into consideration the value students receive in being exposed to another culture. In a world deeply affected by COVID-19 and peoples capacity to travel overseas being limited, through no fault of our own, our lives have become more insular. Yet the need to develop global citizens is more important than ever and exposure to another language and culture is vital in equipping young Australians with the knowledge, skills and values to thrive in a globalised world.
We are proud of our cooperation with Grace James Academy of Excellence to date and want to support a whole school vision for World Languages:
2020/21 – Started with 6th grade only class, once per week
Aspiration for 2021/22:
Expand program to include 6th (incoming students)
and 7th grade (current students).
2021/22 School Year:
In addition to the provision of our World Languages program, Meg’s in-house experts will work with your school – free of charge – to help develop a strategy to internationalise the school more broadly in the pursuit of developing Global Citizens
Grace James Academy of Excellence will be given the opportunity to conduct a gap analysis against Meg’s Internationalising Schools Framework to identify the school’s focus areas for next year and beyond.
As part of our Going Global Initiative, professional learning days and self-paced online professional learning courses are provided to teachers to get the most out of the program and to help develop a Global Classroom.
In a pre-covid world, Meg was hosting regular study tours to China for both students and educators. When the threat of covid has subsided, we will be in a position to provide Grace James Academy of Excellence with these types of exciting international opportunities.
At Meg, we are very familiar with how to start small with one of our partner schools and grow over time as we continue to add value beyond just our World Language programs.
To understand the journey we’ve had with one of our largest partner schools, check out this Case Study.
Mernda Primary School
Beyond engaging your students and your staff, we take great pride in being able to engage your broader school community in regards to languages and culture.
As the world returns to normal, Meg is excited about engaging Grace James Academy of Excellence with many forms of developing a community of learners, including:
- Engaging your parent community with parent night demonstrations that include such activities as taichi demonstrations, cooking courses and an introduction to Mandarin language
- Student run Chinese festivals in the local community
- Using technology such as Virtual Reality to engage the school community in technology based interactions
We’re excited about the future and we want you to be too.
Please contact me to discuss how we can grow together next year.
