Back: Wallarano Primary School principal David Duff with students Kelly, Luke, Chris, Haylea, Fatimah, Elly, Anthony, Shaq, Denise, Keysborough Ward councillor Roz Blades and, front, students Jimmy, Sahin, Alan and Liv-Yi.
By Shaun Inguanzo
MINZHULU School in China and Wallarano Primary School in Noble Park have a lot in common.
For five years the two have been sister schools, sending delegations to and from their respective countries.
This week one of the driving forces helping build sister school relations between the two schools, Greater Dandenong councillor Roz Blades, presented gifts and correspondence from MinZhulu students to Wallarano students.
Cr Blades was handed the items by MinZhulu during a recent delegation by the City of Greater Dandenong to China.
She said she believed in the sister schools program and was working to create new relationships between other schools in Greater Dandenong and their Chinese equivalents.
“When I am in China I go to all of the schools and visit them,” she said.
“This year I visited several schools and am expecting two new sister school relationships to eventuate from this visit.
“I also take letters and presents from the schools here to the schools in XuZhou province, or give them to the delegation that is going to take them.”
Cr Blades said the ties had evolved to include teacher exchanges.
“There is, in fact, a local Australian teacher working at MinZhulu Primary School and I visited her as well when I attended this year,” she said.
“Her unit, which she shares, is very nice and she is enjoying the experience.
“(The Chinese) actually train them at the Education Office in Nanjing before they teach in a school.”
