The subject is delivered using the West Australian Curriculum, mandated since 2018 and beginning in Year Three. The curriculum is full and varied, and study is intense. Reporting is done twice a year, with a number of formative and summative assessments each semester.
We have, in 2019, begun a sister-school relationship with Takinoya Elementary School, in Yabu City Japan. The school is two hours inland from Kobe in Hyogo prefecture. There are only forty two students (2019). The school campus is large, but the classes are small. The Year Six class has 9 students who will participate in the first exchange visit to Perth and Mount Claremont Primary School. We were chosen as their sister school when a district director and school deputy principal visited Perth in 2018 to find a suitable partner in this enterprise.
We regularly have visits from Japanese primary, high school and university students who bring further authenticity to the school’s Japanese language program. Our visitors always have an interesting and educational day when they come, and so do our willing students.
As well as learning the Japanese language, Mount Claremont students participate in a range of hands-on activities, such as cooking, origami, songs, games, dressing up in kimono, craft and research tasks. Wonderful parents volunteer to help these sessions take place. They are definitely the lessons most enjoyed by students.