ACICIS was delighted to host its first ever school tour when Scotch College from Western Australia visited Yogyakarta in July 2012 for a 9-day school tour. In the Scotch party were 7 boys and 2 teachers.
Students participated in all components of the tour:
- Daily language classes.
- Interacting with their individual tutors.
- Out of Class language Activities, and
- School visits and field trips.
Their Perth teacher was a little concerned about the language classes because she thought the boys would begrudge having to attend lessons similar to school. However, they loved the classes as they could see how their learning could be immediatley applied while in-country. One student commented on the third day “the speed of (language) learning is crazy” (he meant this as a positive!). The feedback from the boys was that they were valuable and enjoyable lessons and that all the teachers were great. A few boys mentioned that Mbak Nana, Mbak Ayu and Mas Ade were outstanding teachers and suggested they come to Australia to teach! 2 hours was an ideal time for each lesson. The first day was an intensive language learning day, to really get into the spirit of the program. The test at the end of the program really motivated the students to prepare and do homework. The boys were very competitive about marks so the test was an excellent strategy (they were very proud to receive their certificates too).
The group was lucky because they only had 3 cases of stomach upsets during the two week trip. Their teacher recommends that the first response to illness should be bed rest, even if this means sitting out on activities. In two cases, the boys were back healthy the next day. There was only one case where a boy was sick for two days.
Students also got the opportunity to meet Australian Foreign Minister Mr Bob Carr, who visited Yogyakarta during the time the Scotch College group was there.
Scotch College teacher Kate Reitzenstein’s final comment was – “Can we sign up for another tour next year please”.