Throughout the year a few of my peers have embarked on journeys outside of our School and have gone across the world, taking advantage of the many international initiatives offered globally to students. As the year concludes and we reflect on the theme of 2024, gratitude, we can take the opportunity to reflect and elucidate on some of the international programs our students have been grateful to have been involved with.

Lucy Bernie – Oxford

I had the incredible opportunity of partaking in a two-week English Literature and Creative Writing Course at Oxford University. It was run by Oxford Summer Courses, a company that runs different programs for teenagers as well as activities and trips that enrich and enhance our experiences. For my course, we spent three hours a day in class with a tutor working on different techniques to produce a short story at the end of the two weeks. It was great to hone our creative writing skills and spend one-on-one time with tutors who teach at the university. As well as this, the sense of accomplishment and pride at the end, being able to say you have graduated from a course at Oxford University is truly rewarding. The social aspect was also amazing and provided memories that I will cherish forever. Our course guides organised weekend excursions and activities such as debates on the topic of AI or trips to Borough Market, allowing us the independence to collaborate and work together. I gained not only writing skills, but also social connections that benefit me in real-world situations. I am still in contact with many of the people I met at Oxford and am so grateful for the friendships made over those two weeks. I would highly recommend one of these courses, as there are so many subject areas to choose from, the sense of independence and confidence it provides you and the incredible learning experience as a whole.

Aston Di Donato – Los Angeles

I went to the New York Film Academy campus in Los Angeles during the July school holidays and it was great. I got to meet and connect with lots of other young filmmakers. The teachers were all industry professionals who have worked on many TV shows and projects, which helped make our overall project and experience excellent. We made two short films and got a feel of what it’s like to work in the industry. I learned that collaboration is a very big deal when it comes to this industry, really working with others and bouncing ideas off of one another. That’s a really strong point of filmmaking. I would recommend this to anyone keen on filmmaking or anything within that industry. I would one thousand percent recommend it.

Robbie Lavalle – Abu Dhabi

I went to Abu Dhabi for basketball at the start of October for a week. I was with NBA Basketball School Australia and we first met at Sydney Airport and travelled over as a group. It was a great experience as we played in a tournament over three days and there were so many advanced facilities in Abu Dhabi. We also got to do a lot of sightseeing. The group and I were lucky enough to attend an NBA game, go to the NBA Fan Appreciation Day, visit a mosque and there were also a load of mini-games where athletes were selected from each team to participate in. Overall, I finished first in the shooting challenge and my team finished fourth overall. We competed against some quality players and I got to experience some new coaches who provided new coaching techniques so I learned a lot about alternative play styles and scoring/defending tactics. I would absolutely recommend the NBA Basketball School Tournament to anyone interested in basketball and putting their name out on the global stage. The opportunity was such a fantastic trip, and if I could attend again I would.