Old Royalists in Queensland launch project to improve English skills of hostellers at Royal

Past residents of the Royal College hostel have arranged to help present students improve their English skills by facilitating a program which will be conducted for a period of one year by the Wendy Whatmore Academy (WWA).

The project, entirely funded by the Queensland Old Royalists’ Association (QORA), will benefit 50 selected students from remote areas who entered Royal College through the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination and are currently in Grade 6.

Due to the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the course of instruction, originally scheduled to begin in March this year, was eventually launched on 21 September in a simple ceremony held at the school’s Skills Development Centre.

Tamara Holsinger of the WWA explained that students will not merely be taught to speak English as a second language but will receive instruction in understanding a message, exploring effective ways of getting that message across confidently, engaging the attention of the audience. “Along with effective communication, they will be guided in pronunciation and correct grammar,” she said.

Through games and role-play, students will be encouraged to practice the language and with practice in grammar and an expansion in vocabulary it is envisaged that they will learn the whys and wherefores of the language.

QORA was persuaded to take on this project in view of the fact that although the students have excellent skills in mathematics and are extremely fluent in their respective mother tongues, they fall behind when it comes to communicating in English with classmates who have been speaking that language from an early age.

QORA President Kalum Silva, whose brainchild the project is, said that QORA believes it is the responsibility of all Old Royalists to ensure that the future generations of Royalists are well equipped by the time they leave college.

“The QORA Committee and the members take this responsibility seriously. We feel fortunate to be able to support this initiative,” he said.

Recently, when three past Hostellers of RC got together to discuss how best they could pay back their debts to RCH, they all instantly agreed on one thing; absolute and urgent necessity to improve the communication skills of new entrants.  These island-ranking academic stars are excellent in their math and (national) language skills but fall far behind when it comes to communicating with their classmates who have been speaking in English from a very early stage. This inadequacy pushes them far behind visibly affecting their self-confidence. The three hostellers felt that if this can be addressed right at the point of entry, they could all become true champions realising their full potential.