Ethnic school

pictureVietnamese Community Ethnic School has been formed and directly operated by VNCASA Management Committee. The school was established with the following objectives::

  • To foster and strengthen the youths’ self-identity by increasing their understanding of their background.
  • To educate young children about cultural preservation.
  • To build a well balanced community by providing weekend Vietnamese language and culture classes for children in order to foster intergenerational communication and understanding among Vietnamese people.
  • To sponsor special events involving the public of any or all of the above objectives.

The Vietnamese Community Ethnic School is dedicated to promoting and preserving Vietnamese culture. There are approximately 600 students enrolled, aged from 4 to 17 and grouped into 30 classes. The curricula for 1st to 3rd grades concentrate on spelling and vocabulary, and for 4th to 7th grades, to assist students in building their skills in comprehensive reading with an emphasis on Vietnamese literature, history and geography. The Math classes are established to help our students in Years 1 to 12.

There are usually around 35 volunteers in the organization. These comprise of professionals and university students living in South Australia. The volunteers work together in researching and compiling classroom materials as well as managing and administering the program. The school also holds orientation sessions regularly to refresh and sharpen the skills of the teachers.

In order to preserve Vietnamese culture and to raise a young generation aware of the "Vietnam" heritage, the School has taken the adage, "Love your child by teaching her or him to become a Vietnamese", to be the pedagogical truism. This truism in practice is manifested in the parallel teaching of behavioural lessons plus Vietnamese history together with Vietnamese language.

Included in the classroom hours are activity sessions and community events. These extra-curricular activities are opportunities for students to learn to live compatibly with their friends, nature as well as with people of the same Vietnamese heritage.

 

Summary of major activities

This year has been a year of many achievements, in particular:

Cultural Preservation

  • South Australian Weekly Magazine (Nam Uc Tuan Bao)
    The well-written class essays by students are published in Nam Uc Tuan Bao. These essays express their love and gratitude for their parents' and teachers' effort in nurturing and educating them.
  • Arts Performance
    Dancing, singing performances by the students, presented to the general audience and the parents at New Year Festival and Full Moon Festival, are opportunities to display the talents of our students. This is also the occasion through which students are familiarized with the ethos of Vietnamese folklore as they wear traditional Vietnamese apparels.
  • Competition
    120 students took part in the SA Vietnamese language competition. 20 of them received very good prizes and were rewarded in the New Year festival.

Text - Books publishing

  • Completing and publishing the 6 volumes of “Tieng Viet” for use in Pre School, Reception, Years 1,2,3 and 4. These books are now used by 14 mainstream schools and 2 ethnic schools.

Staff training

  • Most of staff members attended the Basic Casualty Care Course run by the Australian Red Cross ( 17 teachers)
  • 10 teachers attended the Mandatory Course run by the Ethnic School Association
  • 3 new teachers are training through the Accreditation Course organized by the Ethnic Schools Board
  • All teachers attended the T&D seminar “How to teach reading in the mixed ability class”
  • The SACSA Framework was introduced to all staff. It has been used as the basis for the curriculum planning.