Quent Alcorn, from St Christopher’s School in Richmond, Virginia, swapped his usual summer camp in North Carolina to immerse himself at CCGS during Term 3. Year 10 student Andrew Williams, who had spent six weeks with Quent and his family at St Christopher’s in Term 2, reciprocated by hosting Quent.

Quent, who plays gridiron at home, was keen to get a start on his pre-season by trying his hand at Aussie Rules. “It looked like fun and I hadn’t played any of the sports on offer before,” he said. He played two games with the Year 10As where his wrestling skills came in handy for tackling. “It was really fun,” he said. “More running and more chaos than gridiron but fun.” He also enjoyed going to some Eagles games with Andrew’s family on the weekend.

While Quent noted the absence of girls (St Christopher’s begins co-educational lessons from Year 9) he was impressed by the many co-curricular activities on offer and was also introduced to the School’s House system. “We tend to do things in year groups but we do have mentors, who provide guidance, which is kind of similar to your tutorial system.”

When venturing out of Perth with the Williams family, the scenery around Boddington and the Karri Valley, reminded Quent of home. “Perth is quite relaxed – it is a lot like Richmond.”

While Quent noticed some of the similarities between Massachusetts and Perth, Dominic Blauth-Muszkowski, from Tonbridge School in Kent, was immediately struck by the differences. Dominic, who has been staying with the family of Year 10 student Tom Shenton, said visually the two schools could not be more different. “Tonbridge is about 400-years-old so the architecture is very different,” Dominic said. “Our chapel is like a 300-year-old church compared to your very modern-looking chapel.”

He was also impressed by some of the different subjects on offer within Visual Arts. “I took Digital Photography, which I hadn’t done before. It was really fun.” While he said he found the academic level quite similar to Tonbridge, he said it was nice to take a break from the heavy Science-based timetable at home. Dominic, who plays percussion and piano, also enjoyed participating in music classes and even played the xylophone as part of an ensemble at a Senior School assembly.

While Dominic enjoyed taking in the sights of Perth on the weekends, a major highlight was visiting Sydney for a long weekend with host student Tom Shelton and his family. He said Australia had appealed to him most as a destination for his immersion and was delighted by Perth’s weather and size. “Perth and London are not similar at all,” he said. “Your winter is like a London summer.” He said Perth was a nice change from the “bigness” of London and that he would highly recommend it to potential immersion students from home.

Both Quent and Dominic said making friends from another country was something they would always remember.

The BQD Immersion Programme, offered to Year 10 students, allows Christ Church students to attend schools from between four weeks to a full term in the first half of Year 10. It is a reciprocal arrangement whereby boys from participating immersion schools attend Christ Church, thus benefiting all students at the School.

For more information on the 2011 BQD Immersion Programme, click here.