Overseas Learning Experiences Transcript

Visual of Overseas Learning Experiences (OLE) Logo

Photo montage of overseas students from the various countries visited and Victorian students during their visits to the respective countries.

Female Voiceover: In 2011, 140 Year 9 students from all Victorian regions took part in an overseas learning experience. Groups travelled to China, India, France or Malaysia for three weeks where they spent time living with local families and attending local schools.

Bibi Peerbux, Southern Metro Region, interviewed at OLE event at the MCG: “Before the actual kids were chosen there was like a selection process, we had to put in applications and then through the selection process the kids were interviewed.”

Tanya Pearson, Northern Metro Region, interviewed at OLE event: “Most of them hadn’t been on a plane or overseas. Some of them hadn’t been interstate before, some of then hadn’t left really their hometown. So, it was huge.”

Student conducted interviews prior to their overseas trips.

Male Student 1: “I’m hoping it’s going to be a pretty good experience and I’m pretty sure it will be.”

Male Student 2: “I’m probably most worried about the home stay.”

Female Student Interviewer: “Why is that?”

Male Student 2: “I don’t really know the people over there.”

Photo montage of students at OLE event.  

Female Voiceover: “Before setting off each group decided on a topic of research and developed a big question.

Two Female Students on stage at OLE event.

Female Student 1: “A class was created of the students travelling to Malaysia where an enquiry unit based on the similarities and differences between Colac and Kuantan was developed.”

Various interviews at OLE event.

Male Student: “My topic of enquiry was ‘Would I swap my life for a Malaysian student’s life?’”

Two female students interviewed at OLE event.

Female Student: “Our question was ‘Do Australian teenagers have better lives and futures than Chinese teenagers?’”

Sheryl Carnie interviewed at OLE event interspersed with photo montage of Bairnsdale Secondary College Students in China.

Sheryl Carnie, Gippsland Region: “Amazing thing for kids to do on their first overseas experience. Country kids too, in huge, huge cities, they coped exceptionally well.”

Vic Pappas interviewed at OLE event interspersed with images of various student groups during their overseas visits.

Vic Pappas, Manager International Education Division: “The actual experience itself is really about giving kids the opportunity to see that they are global citizens, that they’re not just kids from Colac, they’re not just kids from Bairnsdale, they’re not just Victorians, they’re not just Australians but they are truly global citizens and from that hopefully get a sense that they fit into the global picture and they have a global responsibility.”

Photo montage of the MCG and students arriving at the venue.

Images of attendees in Olympic Room, MCG during OLE event.

Justin Shortal, Manager Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority: “Welcome to the Olympic Room at the MCG for the presentation of this Performance of Understanding event.”

Images of attendees in Olympic Room, MCG during OLE event.

Female Voiceover: “In December of 2011 participating students were invited to share their experience in a Performance of Understanding, for an audience that included the Minister for Education and Department Officials.”

The Hon. Martin Dixon, Minister for Education, addressing OLE event: “What you have done, what you have learnt, what you have experienced is just the start of something really important and a huge part of your future life but also an example of what we need to be doing for all Victorian students.”

The Hon. Martin Dixon interviewed at OLE event.

The Hon. Martin Dixon, Minister for Education: “I saw the students when they left and now I have seen them when they’ve come back and there is just this incredible difference in them and the experience of it has made a huge difference in their life.”

Two students on stage.

Female Student: “Participation in this program has been a life changing experience for the students involved. Teachers, parents and the students themselves all commented on the impact of the experience.”

Sheryl Carnie interviewed at OLE event.

Sheryl Carnie, Gippsland Region: “Life changing for them in terms of opening up their horizons and their world. They’re now looking at career options that are broader and taking them into parts of Victoria and Australia and internationally that they wouldn’t have contemplated before. They now see being part of the international world as their world.”

Two female students interviewed.

Female Student 1: “I thought I was just going to stay in Australia.”

Female Student 2: “So did I, probably not even leave Bairnsdale. I wanted to but I wasn’t sure it was quite possible and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to.”

Female Student 1: “It seemed, it seemed a bit scary but now this trip has pushed us way outside our comfort zone and I really want to travel and work overseas when I am older.”

Parent interviewed at OLE event.

Laurise Hedley, Parent: “He’s come back with a completely different outlook on his future I think. It’s really changed him as a kid.”

Group of Students on stage at OLE event.

Male Student: “Our excursion really opened our eyes and gave us a completely different outlook on life. Collectively we realised we are incredibly fortunate where we live and the advantages that it affords us.”

Two female students interviewed at OLE event.

Female Student: “Poverty over there was really shocking, we could go to the Taj Mahal and it would be absolutely beautiful and then you will walk down the road and see kids sleeping on the road. In Australia we can be taught about poverty but if we don’t see it how can we really believe it, and we saw it every single day over there.”

Elaine Rooney interviewed at OLE event.

Elaine Rooney, Grampians Region: “It really developed their sense of self and they became much more confident individuals.”
Sheryl Carney interviewed at OLE event.

Sheryl Carnie, Gippsland Region: “It brought out what had probably been latent leadership skills because they’ve developed extra confidence in their own ability.”

Two female students interviewed at OLE event.

Female Student: “Definitely a better understanding of the world and what there is out there for me and what there is I can do to help other people.”

Student interview with Chris Taylor prior to OLE event.

Chris Taylor, Gippsland Region: “It was pretty obvious that you guys are a unique group of kids and maybe it was part, I am sure significantly part of it was the fact that you had an experience that changed your lives. That experience you’re bringing now back into your classroom so that it’s not a teacher versus student war going on but it’s kids and teachers working together on a really amazing project that you’re doing. It was just fantastic to see all the great work.”

Interviews at OLE event.

Laurise Hedley, Parent: “I think that every child needs to, to have an experience of seeing how other cultures live.”

Robert McNamara, Parent: “ I think it’s fantastic. It’s a great opportunity for those that do get a chance to go. I wish it was around when I was at school.

Justin Shortal interviewed at OLE event, interspersed with images of students overseas and on stage at OLE event.

Justin Shortal, Manager Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority: “It’s an extraordinary experience that many of these students would not be able to have if this funding were not made available, so they’ve had an opportunity to have an experience quite early in their life, at a formative stage of their life. And you can see from the things they’ve said today, they’ve come back with a new sense of who they are, of their goals in life and the fortune they have for a good education and they’re starting to take that far more seriously.”

Male student on stage: “In India education is harder and opportunities are less than here in Australia. I realise I am very lucky to have great education and heaps of opportunities. I am going to work harder.”

Interview with The Hon. Martin Dixon at OLE event, interspersed with images of student travel experiences.

The Hon. Martin Dixon, Minister for Education: “It just gives them a broader understanding of the whole world, a broader understanding of themselves. The world is shrinking and they’re going to be a part of that world and we want them to be able to meet that world with lots of confidence so I think it’s important that as many students as possible get that opportunity. Now, we can’t promise everyone an overseas trip but we want to make it as easy as possible for them to do it.”

Interview with Tania Pearson at OLE event, interspersed with photo montage of scenes of India.

Tanya Pearson, Northern Metro Region: “There is only so much you can teach in a classroom but to take them somewhere, to let them experience it, smell it, see it, taste it, it’s a whole different way of educating the kids so to be immersed into a culture and to experience that first hand, you can’t beat it.”

Vic Pappas interview interspersed with images of Vic Pappas facilitating student workshop at OLE event.

Vic Pappas, Manager International Education Division: “My view is that an overseas learning experience is nothing more than extending the walls of the classroom and one of the things we’ve been promoting is that the world should be a classroom for the students and every student in this state should be able to access the world. Now some students can access it physically and other students can only access it virtually but every student can use the classroom as a learning resource to improve themselves, to improve the quality of their engagement with education.”

Female student on stage: “The whole trip made us think. Really think, think about our lives, how we live and how we treat others.”

Female student interviewed at OLE event: “Now that we’ve been to a different country we know what it’s like to be stared at and judged. So personally myself I won’t be doing that, ever.”

Two female students being interviewed interspersed with images of trip to China.

Female Student: “I did want to be a journalist just locally in Bairnsdale but now that I’ve been to China I just want to travel and be a journalist overseas and give my experience and show other people’s cultures to the rest of Australia and make kids, like just like I was, and want to travel.”

Group photograph of OLE students with The Hon. Peter Dixon, Minister for Education.

Image of OLE Logo.