Earlier this year the students from Methodist Ladies College visited Australian Islamic College in Thornlie as part of an interfaith program to foster understanding between different backgrounds.
On September 7 MLC extended an invitation to AIC and welcomed 30 students from years seven to 10.
AIC teacher and program coordinator Idroz Shah said the purpose of the visit was to strengthen the friendship and collaborative spirit between the two schools.
“Students from AIC joined their buddies from MLC in their respective classes to experience classroom learning including maths, science and English,” he said.
“The students then had a go in playing the role of a teacher teaching Arabic to year five students from MLC.
“The session was a buzz with the students eagerly learning the pronunciation and writing of Arabic alphabets, which eventually led them to write their own names in Arabic.”
Mr Shah said the day was a good learning experience and after lunch break students from both schools collaborated in cooking class and whipped up dishes such as quiche, Lebanese bread pizza, spinach and feta filo triangles and vegetable spring rolls.
“The girls rolled up their sleeves full of enthusiasm and helped one another to prepare the marvellous dishes with the teachers acting solely as facilitators,” he said.
“The end product of the lesson was a full stomach from the delicious, mouth-watering dishes prepared.”
Mr Shah said it was a harmonious and humbling experience to see students of different faiths come together with ability to recognise, accept and celebrate their subtle differences and achieve a bond of sisterhood while addressing misconceptions about their faiths
“It was a great opportunity to see all the hard work and planning from staff from both schools pay off,” he said.
“It was yet another heart-warming event and the schools hope to build on this for further collaborations in future.”
