Grand Avenue State School offers an amazing Japanese program. Japanese is a compulsory subject for the students in years 4-6. The vision is to enable students to engage with an authentic language and cultural learning experience.  

Throughout the program, students have the opportunity to become increasingly aware and appreciative of Japanese culture in order to reflect on their own. They also develop the ability to communicate with Japanese students in both written and spoken forms.

Each term, we have the wonderful opportunity to practice this during live video lessons with our sister schools in Tokyo and Kumamoto city in southern Japan.

GASS prides itself in offering a diverse language learning experience.  Students are engaged in learning through the incorporation of digital technologies in their learning. They also enjoy participating in cultural arts and crafts activities such as: origami, calligraphy, traditional food sampling and festival celebrations.

Units of work are aligned with the Australian curriculum and a variety of assessments, including both formative and summative, are implemented in the process of students learning.

Origami Sent To Japan 

Every year, during Harmony Day celebrations, students learn about the story of Sadako, the atomic bomb and world peace. Paper cranes and hearts are folded, messages of hope are written in English and Japanese then sent to Japan. The teachers and students from our sister schools then take the origami to be displayed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace parks. GASS students love to see the photos of their work displayed for visitors from all over the world to view.

BIG in Japan

In October 2019, some of the Year 6 students took part in a live Zoom video lesson with students at our sister school in Kumamoto Japan. Using both English and Japanese, the students tried to predict what events would be the most popular at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. This special lesson was then shown on Japanese TV and put in the local newspapers. Wow we are big in Japan! 

Japanese Teaching Assistant

Last year, Grand Avenue State School gained a volunteer teaching assistant named Ryo Nishii who is currently studying at Tokyo University. Sadly due to travel restrictions, we are waiting to see him hopefully in late 2021. The program is set to allow young Japanese adults stay with host families within the community and gives children an authentic outlet to practice Japanese within daily school life.

Guest Teachers from Japan

During the normal school year, there are occasions when Japanese people visit Grand Avenue. Apart from visiting LOTE teachers, so far the school has welcomed visiting teachers from Japan including Mr. Sonoda who is the principal of one of our sister schools in Japan. On his last visit in September 2019, he taught the upper school students about Japanese culture and how to play traditional Japanese games including Kendama (a tricky stick and ball game). Like us all, he was very sad to not be allowed to visit GASS last year and is desperate to see us (hopefully) in late 2021.

Japanese Obento Challenge!

Students in Years 5&6 study a Japanese food unit. During this students take part in an interclass role play competition where digital technologies are strongly encouraged to produce interesting videos that highlight Japanese vocabulary they have learnt in class. In addition, students are given the exciting opportunity to make their own obento in class as part of a competition with guest judges

The Curriculum

From Year 4 students are engaged in rich learning experiences that align with the Australian curriculum. As each student progresses through the upper school, they continue to consolidate what they have previously learned. Students explore topics including families, foods, homes and school life.

By years 5&6, they continue to consolidate their acquired vocabulary by learning to place keywords in a sentence. This includes the basic grammar structures of the Japanese Language. The students explore: subjects, games and sports, shopping, differences between Japanese and Australian table manners and food in addition to describing a place and celebration of their choosing. Students use digital resources to further hone their speaking and listening skills.

The NEW ATARASHII 2021 Olympics!

Grand Avenue State School was looking forward to continuing with joint video lessons with Japanese students revolving around the main focus of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Although the Olympics in Japan have been postponed for a year, during the coming months, we have agreed to hold our own mini Olympics between one of our sister schools in Japan and ourselves. Live over SKYPE from the new sports hall, students will compete in a series of challenges over a number of days. This will include the P.E. departments from both schools. Let’s win this for Australia!