On Thursday 30 May the Year 10 Indonesian class travelled to UWA for the “Languages for My Future – Year 10 Forum”. Our students joined more than 300 other Year 10 students from fourteen different WA schools. This valuable forum was organised by the Future Studies Team at UWA and the MLTAWA (Modern Language Teachers’ Association of WA). During the day students heard from a variety of speakers who enlightened the students on the many benefits of continuing their study of a Foreign Language through to the end of Secondary School and beyond.
The speakers included Prof John Kinder – Associate Professor of European Languages at UWA, who spoke about the benefits of learning a language and that language is the most important way we can express ourselves and who we are, and how language opens up the world to you. Prof. Kinder informed the students of the many languages offered at UWA and also spoke about the various combinations of degree programs with Language studies that are available to students at UWA – for example Law and a Language or Engineering and a Language.
Mrs. Nadia Civa spoke about the General and ATAR courses available for students to study in Years 11 and 12.
Mr Wayne Belts from TISC spoke about the fantastic “LOTE Bonus” which enables students to have 10% of their scaled score in Indonesian added to their TEA (Tertiary Entrance Aggregate) which is then used to calculate their ATAR score for Tertiary Entrance, even if Indonesian is not one of their top four subjects used to calculate their ATAR. This is a fantastic incentive for students to continue their study of Indonesian to the end of Year 12.
Students heard about various overseas study and exchange programs offered by several universities and then the day concluded with a panel discussion. The panel was comprised of 6 students from UWA and Murdoch Universities who shared their incredible and invaluable experiences studying languages at both Secondary and Tertiary level.
Through this forum our students have gained an amazing insight into the benefits of continuing their language studies and becoming global citizens with the work at their feet!