Engaging with the Vietnamese community - a school visit

Image above: The Tan Phu Primary School North West of Ho Chi Min City

To find out about the South Australian Premier's School Spirit School Prize go to the South Australian Government website. The prize has been conducted by the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) in collaboration with the Department for Premier and Cabinet since 2007. During that time 76 students and 21 teachers have been involved in the Premier’s ANZAC Spirit School Prize Tour to France (2007-2012 and 2014), Singapore/South Korea (2013) and Gallipoli (2015). In 2016 eight students and two teachers will participate in a study tour to Vietnam from 2 to 13 October. This blog has been developed to support commemoration activities and student learning during the tour. 
Since 2007 it is estimated that over 7000 students have participated in the research competition that forms the basis for the selection of the students to participate in the tour. Winning entries can be viewed on the Veterans SA site. It is also important to note that all 431 entries submitted to the judges since 2007 have been integrated into the South Australian RSL Virtual War Memorial - an initiative with a very close relationship with the Premier’s ANZAC Spirit School Prize.

Visiting a village school in Vietnam

As time has gone by in organising the tour to Vietnam it has been thought it would be a good idea to engage in some way with the Vietnamese community. To this end, on one of the early days of our tour we have organised to visit a village school outside of Ho Chi Min City.  (see map below).

The school is called the Tan Phu Village Primary School and is in the Tan Huong  village (Tan Huong Ward, Chau Thanh, Tien Giang province). The student ages are from 6-10yrs. When we visit we are hoping to be able to have the opportunity to mix with the students and meet some of the staff.
 

As expected they are a poor school and any help we can give them would be greatly appreciated. When we visit I am hoping to do something practical to support their work and will get back to you about what we can do when I have a good chat with their teachers (they are on holidays until 5 September). 

I am also planning to do some fund raising in the office and around the place before we go – I would love them to be provided with some funds (or maybe a learning resource) to do something to support their teaching program when we visit. Feel free to do something in your school or community groups if you want to help out with any fund raising before we depart. There is no pressure on you to be involved on a personal level but we thought it would be good to engage with the Vietnamese community and do something positive in the community when we are there.  If you do raise any funds it would be best to feed the money into what we plan to give. We do not want you to take any money with you to Vietnam – could be problematic.

When I have more information on this part of the trip I will get back to you. I have checked out the school and been assured by the tour group who have dealt with the school in the past that any money/resources provided will go directly to help the students. Please give me a ring if you want to discuss this initiative for the tour.