As one of the most multicultural communities in the country, it’s fitting that a school from Wyndham was recently honoured for its global approach to education.
Werribee Secondary College received the Dr Lawrie Shears Outstanding Global Teaching and Learning award at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards on October 27.
“I guess we’ve been recognised for our work in developing global citizenship within our school community,” said assistant principal Joanna Sommers about why the school had been awarded.
As for what global citizenship is, the school has developed it’s own definition which states: ‘Global citizenship is where and empowered and empathetic students demonstrate and appreciation for cultural diversity and take an active interest in Indigenous and global issues and perspectives.’
Ms Sommers explained how this was put into practice.
“For example we now have students involved in events like model United Nations conferences, we have a groups of students called global ambassadors who seek to enact change within our school community and of course we offer our International baccalaureate program which adds a lot of value to our school community.”
She said the diversity of both local community and among the school’s own students, meant focussing on global citizenship was a necessity.
“We have over 50 nationalities within our school and even more languages so it means that to build a really strong school community we want students to recognise that despite our differences we have similar goals, aims and ambitions. Our school community reflects contemporary Australia so we want our students to interact with other people and be open minded and respectful of the views of others.”
Werribee Secondary College received $25,000 for winning the award, which it plans to re-invest in its global citizenship programs.
