Telopea Park School
Encyclopedia
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Australia. It is named after the adjacent Telopea Park
Telopea Park, Canberra
Telopea Park is one of the oldest parks in Canberra, Australia. The name of the park is from Walter Burley Griffin's original plan for Canberra where he planned Telopea Park at the end of Sydney Avenue. The park is named after the floral emblem of New South Wales, also known as the Waratah...
. It was founded in 1923, making it the oldest operating school in Canberra. Telopea Park School is one of the few public schools in the ACT
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
to teach students from kindergarten to tenth grade and is the only bi-national school in Canberra (following an agreement signed with the French government in 1983). It is also the only high school (as opposed to college) in the ACT to be part of the International Baccalaureate
International Baccalaureate Organization
The International Baccalaureate , formerly the International Baccalaureate Organization , is an international educational foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and founded in 1968. IB offers three educational programmes for children ages 3–19.The organization's name and logo were changed...
Middle Years Programme
IB Middle Years Programme
The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme is an educational programme intended for students aged approximately 11 to 16 . Thus, in the United States the programme is often taught throughout the middle school years and the first two years of high school...
(IB MYP), having gained IB membership in 2006.
Primary school
One half of the school's buildings has been allocated to the primary section of Telopea Park School. All of the students in primary at Telopea Park School follow a bilingual education, with 80% of the lessons from Kindergarten to Year 2 given in French by teachers recognised by both the French Education department and the ACT Department of Education. In Years 3 to 6, French and English is taught as a 50/50 ratio. French staff are generally contracted for 2 to 3 years. They arrive and depart mid-year in accordance with Northern Hemisphere schooling. Students also have classes given in English by Australian staff to complement their French language education.Secondary school
The secondary school is not exclusively English speaking. The English/French Stream (EFS) allows students to continue their education in French. It follows the French education system while incorporating three compulsory ACT courses. The other students, who form about two thirds of the student body, follow the ACT secondary school system and can then complete the International Baccalaureate Organisation Middle Years Program. Most students from Telopea Park School go on to Narrabundah CollegeNarrabundah College
Narrabundah College is a government college that teaches the last two years of secondary education in the Australian Capital Territory. It was the first school in Australia to offer the International Baccalaureate, starting the programme in February 1978....
, the EFS in particular as Narrabundah College is the only college in Canberra (and one of only two schools in Australia) to allow students to sit the Baccalauréat
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
français.
Languages
During Years 7 to 10, learning a language other than English is compulsory at Telopea park school, unlike most other ACT secondary schools. Students usually study a single language for all four years. However sometimes beginner classes are started for new students to the school in years 9 and 10. Students choose between SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
The English/French Stream
The English/French Stream (EFS) is essentially a portion of students at Telopea High School who follow a different system and curriculum to those of the English Stream (who follow the standard ACT system and curriculum). These students are usually those who follow on from Telopea Park Primary School. The way the EFS students learn is very different to that of the students of the English Stream: EFS studens have less elective classes, as they have compulsory History and Geography every term, and they learn three languages instead of two (English, French, and a third language).As the EFS follows a different system to the English Stream, it has a different timetable. The French stream classes have always been contact groups _.1 and _.2 (like 9.1 and 9.2) until 2008, when the new year 7s were mixed in with the English Stream. The Bilingual Stream has its own principal (le proviseur). French Stream students are often affectionately referred to by their English Stream counterparts as "Frenchies".
To underline the equal importance of the French and Australian streams, both national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
s are played at the beginning of the school assembly which is on every other Friday.
Notable alumni
- Steve MaugerSteve MaugerStephen George "Steve" Mauger was an Australian politician. He was the Liberal member for Monaro in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1965 to 1976, and was Minister for Youth, Ethnic and Community Affairs from 1975 to 1976.Mauger was born in Williamstown in Victoria to Albert Stephen...
: Australian politician - Caroline Le CouteurCaroline Le CouteurCaroline Le Couteur , an Australian politician, was elected to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Molonglo for the ACT Greens at the 2008 election- Life before election :...
: Australian politician - Matthew Le NevezMatthew Le NevezMatthew Le Nevez is an award-winning Australian actor.-Early life :Le Nevez was born in Canberra in 1978 and attended The French-Australian School, Telopea Park School and St Edmund's College, Canberra before accepted into NIDA aged 17...
: Australian actor - Gough WhitlamGough WhitlamEdward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
: former Australian Prime Minister. - Kofi DanningKofi DanningKofi Danning is an Ghanaian born Australian football player who plays for the A-League club Brisbane Roar. -Early life:Kofi Danning was born in Kumasi in southern central Ghana...
: Footballer currently playing for Sydney FCSydney FCSydney FC is a professional football club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and competes in the country's premier football competition, the A-League...
in the A-LeagueA-LeagueThe A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company...
. - Nikolai Topor-StanleyNikolai Topor-StanleyNikolai Topor-Stanley is an Australian professional football player who currently plays as a defender for the Newcastle Jets in the A-League.-Club career:...
: Footballer currently playing for Newcastle Jets in the A-LeagueA-LeagueThe A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company... - Leon FordLeon FordLeon Ford is an Australian actor who has appeared in many television and theatre productions. He is best known for his roles in the television series The Cooks, Changi and the telemovie Stepfather of the Bride.Ford portrayed 1st Lt...
: Australian actor