|
How
many students are there in your school?
1117,5
(who’s
the half student?)
How
old are they?
The
students who attend Lowanna College are from 11 years old to 18,
which correspond to the 7 higher levels of the 12 total grades of
the Australian school. The students have to attend all the 7 years
of secondary school in order to finish it.
Can
you describe us a typical school day at Lowanna College?
There
are 6 periods, each lasting 48 minute and two breaks: one of 20
minutes and the other one of one hour, in which you can have lunch.
School starts at 8.50 a.m. and ends at 3.04 p.m. Students go to
school only 5 days a week.
What
about the subjects?
For
the first two years, there are 12 subjects which students must do:
English (literature and grammar), one foreign language which can be
chosen (Italian and Indonesian), maths, history and geography (together),
p.e., music, art, science, physics, theatre, nutrition science and
computer science. As for the last four years, students can
choose between photography, sport and work with different kinds of
materials (wood and metal)
What
do your students usually do after High School?
1/3
goes to College (Monash campus, the nearest one, is only 25 km far
from Lowanna College), 1/3 starts working and 1/3 serves his/her
apprenticeship.
What
kind of relationship do teachers have towards their students?
The
relationship is often friendly, teachers are always available to
help their students. Unfortunately, I am always very busy with my
job and I rarely have opportunities to have close relationships with
my students.
What
is the reason why you have decided to become headmaster?
When
I was 15 years old, I looked at my teachers thinking “I can do
better!”. So, I have started my career as a geography teacher in
England, then I moved to Australia and I have become headmaster of
Lowanna College… and here I am!
We
talked about students… but what can you tell us about the school
staff?
At
Lowanna College there are 90 teachers and 40 helpers. I dare say
that teachers have much power in the decisions taken at school: a
lot of them work in the different services of the school. Therefore,
in Australia we have a democratic system and many teachers decide to
take part in different unions and do politics… also at school!
A
curiosity: why is Italian studied in an Australian school?
In
Australia, the highest percentage of immigrants is represented by
Italian people. Moreover, despite its geographical distance,
Australia feels very close to both Europe and Asia; for this reason,
both Italian and Indonesian are studied as foreign languages.
We
always hear talking about Australia as the last continent to be
discovered, and for this reason it has become an attraction to all
immigrants of the world…
Yes,
the increase of immigration has reached the highest level in the
70s. In Australia you can meet people from all over the world!
How
many inhabitants does Australia have?
20
millions (Australia is the country with the lowest density: 4
inhabitants per square km!)
How
is life in Australia?
Don’t you feel a little bit apart from the world?
No,
we do feel safe from any threat or war in the world. Moreover, the
police is quite strict, so we live in a very peaceful country.
Are
there still Aboriginal people?
Yes,
even though they are just a minority (nowadays they are just 100,000), but
they no longer live in shelters or in isolated areas of the country,
they live together with the rest of the population except for the
small tribes who live in the desert, still in primitive life
conditions.
We
know that in Australia there are many families that
live thousands
of kilometers far from the city centers. How can they live in such
difficult conditions, and how can youngsters study at the same level
as all the other students? And how does your school help them to
improve their situation?
As
I have previously said, Australia is the country with the lowest
population density of the world, only 4 inhabitants per sq km (Italy
has a density of 192 inhabitants per sq km in a geographical territory
which is 1/25 smaller than Australia). Even if in Australia there
are 20.000.000 people (almost 1/3 as many as Italy), they do not all
live in the same urban areas of the south-east and on the coast (Lowanna
College in the state of Victoria, which is the state with the
highest density among all the other Australian states).
Even if most
of the biggest central areas of Australia are deserted, a limited
percentage of people live there. For this reason, there can be
difficulties of communication with the “rest of the world” and
not everybody has helicopters.
In my school there are 12 students
who live very far from the College and they cannot go to school
every day. Therefore, there are some teachers who are available to
help them with a special school program, which we call “distance
education”. Thanks to it, they can attend their lessons through
telephone and go to school just at the end of the school year in
order to pass the exams. This system allows them to attend
University regularly too, which is organized with courses by
correspondence.
What
kind of services does your school offer to your students?
We
have got 260 computers for the students, 20 of them are in the big
hall of the library within the school, an auditorium with 580 seats,
a gym, 2 basketball fields and 2 for soccer games and there is
eventually the possibility to join the many sport teams of
the school.
To
conclude, we would like to ask you some questions about yourself:
Ø the most beautiful things of
Italy: history, food and soccer
Ø the strangest thing: how
can you eat horse meat??
Ø describe Italy using 3 words:
beautiful, funny and friendly
Ø
why do you like Australia?:
Australian people love to take things easy. Even work is done in a
more relaxed way than in Europe, where you have to have a frenetic
rhythm of life.
Ø
what’s beautiful in Australia: music, the
landscape (we have rocky deserts, the Great Barrier Reef and much
more) and the climate.
Ø
the biggest difference
between Australia
and Italy: Italy is
much older, in Australia we do not have buildings older than 200
years!
Ø
would you live in Italy?
I would not resist more than 2 weeks.
Ø
what will you do when you are
no longer a headmaster?
I
have already decided I will move to a very small Cook island (in the
Pacific Ocean) which is a real paradise: clean water, sand, sun and
there are just 4 inhabitants- I will increase the population rate of
25%!
Ø
And now, complete these
sentences: “when you think about Australia,
you immediately think about kangaroos and koalas… but I think
there is much more…: “come and visit!”
Ø
“I am an Australian
headmaster and I would eventually like to add that…: the world
would be a sad place if there weren’t such interesting and
interested students!”
|
