At Pullenvale, we offer Japanese lessons to all students from Prep to Year 6 with the Languages Program being implemented by Mrs Stephanie Madden.
Japanese at Pullenvale State School
Our children today live in an increasingly interconnected world, with over 50% of the world being bilingual or multilingual. As tomorrow's leaders and citizens, students need to be aware of global issues as well as having a cultural understanding of our broader community.
In line with Education Queensland's 'Advancing Education', Pullenvale State School recognises the importance of global languages and delivers a Japanese program from Prep through to Year Six.
Pullenvale State School provides rich language experiences for all our learners. Students from Prep through to Year 5 receive a 30 minute per week Japanese lesson, with Year 6 students participating in a weekly 60 minute lesson. The programs delivered are aligned with the Australian Curriculum – Languages.
Our Curriculum
Learning another language fosters students' ability to think and reflect as curious learners, develop mental flexibility and l-solving strategies.
Prep – Year 2
For our foundation Japanese language learners, the initial focus is on listening to the sounds and patterns of Japanese through language-rich activities such as rhymes, songs, clapping and action games. Repetition will help children to identify frequently used words, simple phrases and non-verbal communication strategies employed in greetings and other social interactions. Learners experiment with simple responses to prompts and cues.
Year 3-4
The development of oral proficiency at this stage continues to rely on rich language input in different modes. Learners listen and respond by actions to build active listening and comprehension skills. They participate in classroom routines and tasks and use some spontaneous language to describe feelings related to classroom activities. They participate in games and activities and engage with texts through teacher-generated questions and prompting.
Year 5-6
Learners use Japanese with peers and their teacher for a widening range of purposes: asking and responding to questions, exchanging information, expressing ideas and feelings, performing, responding to learning experiences, and interacting with Japanese language resources. Learners engage with a growing range of oral, written and multimodal texts, including published texts, songs and computer games, as well as teacher-generated resources such as language games, exercises and presentations.
Links with Japan – Katori City Tour
Pullenvale SS have welcomed over 100 junior high school visitors since 2013 from Katori City, Japan. Our Friendship City, Katori City in the Chiba Prefecture has sent young ambassadors from their local junior high schools to Pullenvale State School. The inaugural group that arrived in 2013 numbered 13 students, and has grown to 38 students each visit. The students are hosted generously by Pullenvale State School families, and attend English speaking classes in the morning session and are then integrated into their Buddy Class from Prep through to Year 6 for the remainder of the day. The Japanese students form wonderful friendships with their Host Families, Year 6 Buddy and their Buddy Class. Their visits are in conjunction with Education Queensland International, Katori City Board of Education and Australia Japan Study Program, and is made possible through the generosity and openness of the Pullenvale State School and Katori City communities. We look forward with great anticipation to our Japanese friends from Katori City returning in the future.
Links with Japan - Friendship School Nagano, Japan
Our friendship school, Shimauchi Elementary School, is located in Nagano City. Our Year 5 and Year 6 students have an individual Japanese buddy from Shimauchi Elementary School with whom we regularly communicate via videos, cards and emails. Year 4 students also write Christmas or New Year Cards to Shimauchi School students. We enjoy and value this friendship, and look forward to their videos, paper dolls and letters introducing themselves, personal interests and school throughout the year. We thank their ‘sensei’ Mrs Haruna Obayashi for her continued support of this program.
Pullenvale Japanese Friendship Garden and Eucalyptus Forest
Our beautiful environment at Pullenvale State School is a reminder of the changing seasons, and of the hard work of past parents and students who have contributed enormously to our Japanese Friendship Garden and our Eucalyptus Forest.
With significant support from the Mizuno Family, the Australia-Japan Wildlife Conservation & Education Foundation, the Smidt family, the Mabin family, and a team of hard-working parents and students, the Japanese Friendship Garden was created. It was designed by a Japanese landscape architect and constructed in 2011. The stunning peach blossom is currently in bloom.
In addition to the garden, the group lead by the Mizuno family and the Australia-Japan Wildlife Conservation & Education Foundation, our Year 7 students planted over 50 Eucalyptus saplings in the back section of the Pullenvale State School oval. These saplings were planted for the purpose of being harvested when the trees would grow to maturity. When the leaves would grow to abundance, the leaves would be cut and to feed the sick koalas from the Moggill Koala Rehabilitation Centre. We have watched these trees grow over the years, and finally last term our trees were harvested. Now the trees are well established, the next harvest should take a much shorter time for the leaves to grow.
http://www.ajwcef.org/english/top_japan.htm
Japanese Teacher
Mrs Stephanie Madden smadd14@eq.edu.au (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) delivers our Japanese curriculum and has taught Japanese since 'Languages other than English' (now known as 'Languages') were introduced into Queensland primary schools in the early 1990's. Mrs Madden has taught in many educational settings in Australia and overseas, including primary school, high school, tele-learning, School of Distance Education and adult learning. In 2014 & 2016 Mrs Madden escorted Pullenvale State School students on a tour to Kani City, Japan during the September school holidays, and hopes that future tours may be possible.