This year the Year 1 students have found out that friendships can extend across oceans, as well as the classroom. They have been connecting with peers around the Asia-Pacific region as part of a program that is helping them to build new understandings of their world. 

“This is part of helping the students to have a sense of connectedness to the Asia Pacific region; an ability to understand and appreciate different cultures and opportunities,” says Niki Preston, Deputy Head of International Outlook and Deputy Head of Junior School (Teaching and Learning) at Haileybury Newlands (Keysborough). 

Through postcard exchanges and sharing different interests, there has been much excitement among the Year 1 students as they have formed friendships and shared information with children in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. For many students, the most exciting part has been the chance to share who they are with their overseas buddies, as well as the anticipation of hearing back from their new friends. 

“I found out my buddy from Indonesia likes playing chess and I love playing chess too,” commented Aurora, while her classmate Emily enjoyed receiving the drawings from her buddy, commenting, “I liked my buddy’s stick person drawing of themselves because it made me smile.” 

One of the most delightful aspects of the program for Vivian Liu, Head of Languages and Cultures (Junior School), has been seeing the care students have put into the All About Me posters the children shared. Rather than simply writing their name and age, many included details such as traditional clothing or cultural elements that have special meaning to them. This has provided an opportunity for students to also celebrate their own identity while learning about the lives of others. 

There were two exchanges during the year. In the first exchange students created and received postcards introducing themselves, and shared information about each other such as favourite foods and hobbies. A second activity was held during Book Week, with students sharing favourite book characters and children’s stories.  

The program is all part of encouraging students to have global outlooks and laying the groundwork for future language study. “We want the children to understand that other children elsewhere celebrate different holidays, eat different foods and speak different languages. We want them to find these differences interesting rather than strange,” explains Vivian. She said the program helps the children to develop genuine empathy and curiosity about different cultures and languages.  

The exchanges help to gradually grow students’ world views. “We begin with countries closer to home, where the connection feels a bit more relatable for young learners. Then to new hemispheres, new languages, new ways of life. By rotating, we are building a genuinely global perspective rather than deepening just one connection year after year,” says Vivian.  

Next year, when in Year 2, the students will continue the program with exchanges between South American school students in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina.  

By the end of Year 4, students will have made many different global connections. “They will have noticed patterns and differences, and begun to see the world as genuinely interconnected and diverse,” says Vivian. 

Through these exchanges, the students are also learning that there are many traditions and life experiences across the world. By becoming more aware of these differences they are learning more about themselves and beginning to appreciate that there is more than one way of seeing or understanding something.