BISHOP Epalle students who went to Australia for a cultural and education engagement program are due back in the country today.
Twenty one students, one ex-student and four teaching staff of Bishop Epalle Catholic School have visited Murwillumbah, in NSW, Australia.
They left Honiara last week on Thursday 5th of May for a week of cultural and educational immersion with their sister school, Mount Saint Patrick College.
The immersion or exchange program has been an eye opener, for the students and one that exposes them to visualize their knowledge about their own surrounding with the world outside.
This immersion trip just like any others in the past was only made possible because of the relationship they had with Mount Saint Patrick College, a school backed with strong support from the entire school community.
They are the ones who meet all the expenses while in Australia.
On the other hand, parents of Bishop Epalle Catholic School also played a very important role in financing their child’s return airfare to Brisbane.
The relationship started in 2008 after the Sydney World Youth Day encounters.
It was then during one of the visits of a team from Lismore diocese that a staff from Mount Saint Patrick College approached Bishop Epalle Catholic School to be their twinned school.
Since then Mount Saint Patrick College visited Bishop Epalle and other friends in and around Honiara in 2009, 2010, 2012, and last year 2015.
They planned to come in 2014 but because of the April flash flood in Honiara, they postponed that trip until 2015.
Alternatively, Bishop Epalle Catholic School visited Mount Saint Patrick College in 2011 of which thirty students and staff went.
In 2013, twenty five students and staff altogether went and this year twenty six of them went.
Bishop Epalle Catholic School, as a community encourages its parents, and ex-students to participate in such program in the future.
Ex-students and parents are very much part of the school and therefore the success of such program also depend on their valuable contributions.
Visale Community High School in North West Guadalcanal also went for the first time to their sister school.
The school is St Mary Mackillop in Port Macquarie, in NSW. They are expected back on the same flight as Bishop Epalle today.
The Principal of Bishop Epalle Catholic School is happy to welcome his students and staff on arrival for a successful trip. He is also happy that their trip has fetched some contributions towards the school grand bazaar on the 28th May 2016.
