The ASEAN-Australia BRIDGE School Partnerships Program has proven to be a wonderful means for stronger relationships to grow between peers in Australia and throughout Southeast Asia, providing professional opportunities to exchange know-how and good practices between schools.

Cowes Primary School in regional Victoria is one of 38 schools (19 here and 19 in other Asian countries) to have been selected to participate in the BRIDGE Program for 2024-2026.

The schools join a prestigious network of more than 1200 schools that have already participated in BRIDGE across the Asia-Pacific region since 2008.

The program facilitates educator and student visits to partner schools to learn about their host country, to forge sustained partnerships between that benefit both schools, as well as opportunities for students to engage with their peers through interactive forums.

The schools also learn about social and cultural dynamics which can only help enhance connections now and in the future across the Asia-Pacific region.

Cowes is Phillip Island’s main town, and located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, two hours south of Melbourne.

The primary school is made up of 530 students and 60 staff, and while the student demographic varies greatly economically, from very low socio-economic families to the very well off, culturally the area is nowhere near as diverse.

Tyrell, however, says that is slowly beginning to change, which is why her school’s participation in programs like the BRIDGE School Partnerships Program is so important.

“Typically, we’ve been a very Anglo-Saxon community, but we’re starting to see a shift,” she says.

“It’s quite isolated down here, so we really want our students to have that experience of learning all about another country in our region.”

Cowes Primary teacher Alice Hurst, pictured above right, will be flying to Thailand later this year as part of the ASEAN-Australia BRIDGE School Partnerships Program.

With global perspectives and firsthand cultural understanding not readily available for schools such as Cowes, Tyrell says for many students when they don’t have that as part of their day to day lives, they often can see other cultures as being completely different.

Famous for its Little Penguin parade and the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, tourists flock to Phillip Island for its fur seal colony and cosy wine bars, with a big percentage of visitors being foreign nationals, particularly from Asia.

“I think sometimes there can be a bit of an 'us and them' (mentality), so I think it also breaks down that barrier as well, that we are all global citizens and we want to work together, not see a divide at all.”

BRIDGE aims to build intercultural understanding, real-life digital capability and literacy, and strengthen students’ regional knowledge and language skills.

“[If they] don’t have that understanding, they may not have the same respect,” Tyrell, who has been at the school for 16 years, with seven-and-a-half years in her current role, says of her students.

“Whereas when these kids are working in a collaborative project and communicating online, they can see that, ‘oh, this child’s just exactly the same as I am’, even though they’re from a completely different culture.

“And I think it can just shift their mindset and for them to be thinking: ‘what else can I get out of getting to know these students learning about their culture?’”

The assistant principal says she hopes it’s going to open students' minds as they move into high school and then into the wider world.

“…that they’re going to see all walks of life as an opportunity to collaborate, to have an open understanding and give them a little bit of perspective that the world doesn’t end when you leave the bridge at Phillip Island.”

The school previously has linked with an Indian school in 2023 and 2024, as part of a women in school leadership Victorian Government initiative, with reciprocal Delhi and Cowes visits.

Tyrell says the benefits and learning opportunities afforded by that partnership have proved ‘immeasurable’ and she is certain the school’s next partnership is going to be equally of value.

Cowes is one of three schools paired with Thailand schools.

“So there’s some school-based professional learning that’s going to happen in teams, and I’m envisaging it’s going to be with the other Thai/Australian partnership schools.

“With our partner school in Thailand, we’ll also be getting our students working and collaborating together, and later one of our staff will be heading over to Thailand and a Thai teacher will be coming here.

“So I see it as those three parts are going to strengthen in different ways, and then all come together to have that really solid partnership, which I’m hoping extends far beyond the 18 months that the program runs for.”

To learn more about the BRIDGE School Partnerships Program, click here.