During week 6 and 7 of Term 1 we have been fortunate enough to host two wonderful teachers from our sister school in West Java. Nuri and Aya teach at  a Primary School called Ar-ridha-al-salaam (ARAS), in Depok, near the capital city of Jakarta.

The sister-school partnership is part of a government-funded project called BRIDGE: Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement.

In the BRIDGE program students will collaborate on projects, practice language skills, increase cultural awareness and hopefully even develop life-long friendships with students at their partner school.

The specific projects that we hope to work on with the BPS-ARAS partnership include:

• communicating online through emails, videos and video-conferencing
• designing an Indo-inspired mural at BPS
• creating an Australian garden at ARAS
• sharing our cultures through songs, dances and games

We thank Aya and Nuri for their positive contributions to the project so far and look forward to continuing working together in the future!

Below are some photos of some of the initial activities including 3/4 students learning a traditional dance, 5/6 classes trying a “Google Hangout” session, and grade F/1s learning an Indonesian song. Keep an eye out for further BRIDGE activities…