Teachers awarded overseas study trips

Mr Greg Raffin, History Head Teacher, was recently awarded one of the Premier's Military History Scholarships. The focus of his study is the impact of Japanese Imperialism on the people of South East Asia and the Australian military (including POW's) during World War 11.

He will travel to Singapore, Malasia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) early next year. He plans to produce a booklet on this topic which can be used by Year 10 History students.

Meanwhile fellow teacher teacher, Frances Pike will travel to Italy in January to study, through the receipt of an Endeavour Language Teacher Fellowship, an initiative of the Australian Government. Apart from a 3 week intensive study programme in a variety of countries throughout Europe, Asia and South America, during which teachers improve language skills, the Fellowships develops a pool of language teachers who are a resource at school, system, state and national levels. It strengthens links between educators in Australia and target countries, promoting the value of language education in Australian schools.

While in Italy Ms Pike. will also visit Italian schools, and research aspects of contemporary Italian life to be developed into learning resources, e.g. video lessons, recordings of language in a variety of contexts, interviews with Italians involved in interesting ventures. She intends to research Italian environmental preservation and sustainable lifestyle action.

Italy initiated the international Slow Food Movement, a reaction to "Fast Life, which... forces us to eat Fast Foods, which diminish opportunities for conversation, communion, quiet reflection.......and has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes." The movement involves the Ark of Taste project "which aspires to identify and catalogue products, dishes and creatures in danger of disappearing."

The Slow Food Movement has given rise to the "Slow cities Movement" of which there are now 30 in Italy. They operate on the premise that there is an antidote to a crisis of haste and a lack of hospitality in the world and its cities. They limit population to 50,000 people to enable local solutions to the protection of urban fabric and of local production, rooted in culture and tradition, which contributes to the 'typification' of an area. An example of a strategy employed by some Slow Cities in Italy is to disallow the use of cars for much of the time. Since the movement encourages tourism, such measures must be presented in a way that will emphasize their advantages to the visitor as well. Other techniques relate to noise curtailment and ecologically advanced sewage systems.