Melbourne Senior Grammar School

Melbourne senior grammar school is one of the most prestigious private schools in Melbourne. There are two sections of the school in order to meet the needs of both middle and senior students. Creswick House for Years 7 and 8; whilst Perry House and School House are for boys in Years 9 to 12. Evidently, the school is an all boys school which accommodates for approximately 700 students; in which 70% of this are European and 25% - 30% are of Asian origin. The school focuses greatly on academics and leadership. Sportsmanship is also greatly welcomed.

In terms of the schools' environment, the school is surrounded by nature as well as large football fields and both old and new architectural buildings.

For the classroom observation, i have observed 2 language classes - Latin and French. The Latin Language class contained 15 year 9 students. Tables and the seating arrangements are like most public Hong Kong schools where students are seated in columns and in pairs. The teacher makes use of this by walking around the classroom and in between the rows of tables in order to check and keep an eye on students. However, the lesson followed a very traditional style of teaching, where the teacher constantly spoon-feeds the students. Students often communicate to each other in English with a lot of non-work related conversations. The teacher often have to repeat himself and tries to discourage any discussion made within the class. More than 90% of the lesson was in English despite being a language lesson. I also felt that the lesson was rather sexist as the teacher stated in one of the learning task questions that "men are better than woman".

The french class contained 19 year 11 students. The seating arrangements and the lesson was similar to the Latin class. However, more code switching was made in the lesson, but English was still the dominant language in the lesson. The lesson plan was very exam orientated, where worksheets are made based on the exams, however English was still used in worksheets and students are often left to work by themselves without any aims or preparation given by the teacher.

Overall, i think that Melbourne Senior Grammar school has a very nice and big campus with a good environment for education; but the way the language lessons were conducted used a very traditional style of teaching which can be comparable to some of Hong Kong's public schools.