CAV CHINESE SCHOOL
Speak. Read. Write.Give your children a chance to learn the Chinese Language and to understand and learn more about Chinese traditions and culture

General Info
Principal: Ramona Chua
Grade Levels: K-12. The school is accredited by the Victorian Department of Education and Training
Curriculum: K-12 in accordance with the requirements of VELS and VCE. Our program has been designed to meet the learning needs of children learning Chinese as a second language in Melbourne. The program is broad, interesting and builds on the Social and Emotional Learning needs of the children as they progress from Kindergarten to Year 12.
- Small classes for personalised attention to students capabilities
- Highly qualified and experienced Principal and Teachers
- Air-conditioned and well-equipped classrooms
- Safe and beautiful environment
- Outstanding VCE results
- Free admission for 3-4 years old & free trial lessons
- 创建于1982年,墨尔本历史最悠久的中文学校
- 专业教师团队、师资雄厚、VCE成绩显著
- 校舍舒适、环境优美、设施先进
- 开设课程:幼儿班 — 十二年级VCE中文班
- 幼儿班(3-4岁)学费全免、免费试听
Quick Info
Registration and Enrollment
Student Registration
All students need to fill in the enrolment forms and pay school fees before commencing classes.
School fees cover textbooks and exercise books (replacement of lost books requires additional payment). There is an additional charge for VCE trial exam and supplementary materials.
For all children’s safety, Kinder to Year 2 students need parents/carers to “sign in” at “dropoff”, and “sign out” at “pickup” every time.
Withdrawal Conditions
Written Student Withdrawal notification is required. 50% of paid tuition fee is refundable if student withdrawal occurs within 4 weeks of enrolment. Enrolment, material and admin fees are not refundable. A withdrawal fee of $20 applies.
History of the School
In the Beginning
Founded in 1982 by 3 friends, Dr Ka Sing Chua, the late Dr Khee Kok Pang and Ramona Chua, the CAV School began teaching Chinese Language with teachers initially employed by Mrs Easter Wu who was subcontracted to provide the service. An Education and Cultural Subcommittee (ECS) was formed to oversee the running of the school. The following year, ECS took over the entire operation of the School, from employment of teachers to locking up classrooms at the end of the day. For 14 years, classes were conducted at Nunawading High School, Forest Hill. In January 1996, CAV School moved to its own, new home in Wantirna, where classes were organised into morning and afternoon sessions. In 2008, classes were reorganised into Sundays only. As student numbers increased in 2010, 2 portable classrooms were added. By 2013, the School had expanded to a total of 13 classrooms.
School Administration
Throughout the history of CAV School, all administration has been overseen by the School Council that comprises of several CAV EXCO members, teachers and parents. All members of the subcommittee are volunteers with the exception of the Office Administrator and the teaching staff. School council meets regularly to discuss
Curriculum Framework (Chinese)
Curriculum Framework (English)
About our Teachers
Not your average school…
%
teaching staff with, or completing Masters Degrees
Saturday Teachers
From L-R: Row 1: Xiuping Chen, Yuntong Wang, Xiaoying Zhang, Qiang Fu, Zhixuan Fei, Min Si, Jie Liu Row 2: Catherina, Vicky Zheng, Ramona Chua, Yuli Bao, Shan Liu
Assimilating Chinese Traditions and Culture
A key strength of the Chinese School is in the integration of professionally managed Chinese festival celebrations, traditions and culture organised by the CAV, into our curriculum. Its not just about learning another language. Its about family and culture.
Our Curriculum
Children in preschool class learn greetings, numbers, family members, colour recognition and body parts, etc.
On the basis of the knowledge learned in the Kindergarten, the preschool class begins to learn Pinyin initials, finals and four tones; learn to sing nursery rhymes, learn to write a word every week; recognize Chinese numbers / family members / colours / statio-nery / pets, farm animals / fruits, etc.; Learn to speak simple classroom language and polite language.
See links in “QUICK INFO” on left for detailed curriculum in English and Chinese.
Year 1 |
Textbook: “Chinese 1”. Review the knowledge that Prep has learned; continue to learn Pinyin (Double Pinyin / Triple Pinyin); four tones; the teaching of the first volume of Chinese; learn the radicals of the characters and the correct stroke orders; be able to use the new word groups that have been learned to make sentences. Learn to sing nursery rhymes; be able to speak classroom language and polite language and simple dialogue. |
Year 2 |
Study “Chinese 2”. Continue to learn and consolidate Pinyin; learn quantifiers /radicals and group words. Introduce the pronunciation rules of Chinese characters; use simple polite expressions and classroom expressions in the classroom; tell the time and date or the content and topics related to the text |
Year 3 |
Study “Chinese 3”. Further strengthen the study of Chinese Pinyin; my family, my birthday, and learn Tang / Ancient poems, read texts, recite certain sentences; understand the structure of Chinese sentences; proficiently use polite language and classroom language . |
Year 4 |
Study “Chinese 4”. In addition to the content of the textbook, understand the seasons and climate; learn fairy tales and Tang / Ancient poems; understand some of the places of interest in China; learn fairy tales (politeness, wisdom) + diary entry format. |
Year 5 |
Study “Chinese 5”. In addition to the text, continue to study Chinese places of interest, learn fairy tales and idioms, ancient poems; learn how to look up new words in dictionaries, + Chinese food culture and traditional Chinese medicine: Li Shizhen. |
Year 6 |
Study “Chinese 6”. Learn idiom stories, stories of historical celebrities, teach Chinese food culture; traditional Chinese festivals; learn fable stories and folk stories. |
See links in “QUICK INFO” on left for detailed curriculum in English and Chinese.
Year 7 |
Study Chinese Book 7. Learning idiom stories, my school life and the learning life of Chinese students, my good friends, and Beijing Opera Facebook. |
Year 8 |
Continue to use Chinese 8 Learn idioms and fable stories; places of interest in China. Chinese family life; Chinese customs; zodiac signs. |
Year 9 | Introduce Chinese education and Chinese schools; learn and understand Chinese historical figures and Chinese culture; (Chinese drama, traditional Chinese medicine, etc.) learn folk stories and idioms; understand some of China’s major cities and their tourist attractions; understand Chinese folk Craftsmanship. |
Year 10 | Study related topics: My hobbies; Earth — our only home; my ideals; major cities and tourist attractions in Australia; major cities in China, demographics, economic conditions, etc. |
See links in “QUICK INFO” on left for detailed curriculum in English and Chinese.
Year 11 |
Unit 1 & Unit 2 Training in reading, listening, speaking, writing and translation skills ; master the requirements of various styles and text types Identify Prescribed Themes. Teaching by themes. |
Year 12 |
Unit 3 & Unit 4 Continue and repeat the training of reading, listening, speaking, writing and translation skills ; master the requirements of various styles and writing formats, and strengthen training research questions and answer to questions (From the second semester onwards, we will increase the tuition time appropriately, mainly to help students practice general conversation and “discussion on the subject of looking at pictures and talking.”
|
See links in “QUICK INFO” on left for detailed curriculum in English and Chinese.
Name | Chinese Name | Class |
RuiLan YUAN | 袁瑞兰 | Principal |
Nicola JIANG | 姜琳 | Admin |
YiJie Mu | 沐仪颉 | Kinder |
SiMiao Liu | 刘思淼 | Sat K |
Connie Wang | 王康妮 | Sat P |
Bowen Lin | 林博文 | Sat 1 |
Yuna Zhu | 朱泓谚 | Sat 2 |
Yan Mu | 穆燕 | Prep/Sat 3 |
ChenXi WANG | 王晨希 | Sat 4 |
May Li | 李彩梅子 | 1 |
Yiying Fang | 方艺颖 | 2 |
Ying ZHANG | 张映 | 3 |
Qianfan Ma | 马千帆 | 4 |
Ting Zhang | 张婷 | 5 |
Qiang FU | 付强 | 6 |
Yi Le | 乐艺 | 7 |
Rachel Zhao | 赵苪漪 | 8 |
LanLan Zou | 邹兰兰 | 9 |
Min SI | 司敏 | 10 |
ShiWei CHEN | 陈诗玮 | Y 11/12 |
Our Mission & Vision
The CAV Chinese Language School was established by the Chinese Association of Victoria (CAV) in 1982 to provide an environment for learning the Chinese Language and Culture. It offers a Chinese LOTE program from Prep Level to Year 12 classes.
(LOTE: Languages Other Than English)
Objectives
- Teach students to speak, read and write Chinese using the modern simplified Chinese characters.
- Introduce Chinese culture, history, geography and philosophy to students.
- Provide students with a better understanding of the Chinese heritage.
The guiding principle is to provide a stimulating, supportive, challenging and safe environment for teaching and learning of Chinese Language and Culture. The School is committed to help each and every student to reach his or her full potential. Students are assisted not only to achieve academic excellence but given encouragement to continue to appreciate Chinese culture throughout their lives.
CAV Team receives Excellence Award

Multi-modal teaching: Practising Language by Singing
Engaging students in ZOOM sessions
Photos of our Mid-Autumn class celebrations (click on image)
Location
8 Ashley St., Wantirna,
Victoria, Australia, 3152.
School Hours
9:30 AM to 12:15 PM
on Saturdays and Sundays only
Our Principal
Previous CAV school principal 1982-95, 2008-2011
Ramona has served on committees of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Victoria, Modern Language Teachers of Victoria, Ethnic Schools Association of Victoria, and NGV Guides Committee.
Ramona Chua - Bio (English)
Ramona is a foundation member of CAV. She is no stranger to CAV, as many members will recall. In 1982 when CAV first started the CAV Chinese School (The School), Ramona was one of the School Management Committee, together with the late Dr Khee Pang and Dr Ka-Sing Chua. With the help of Mrs Easter Wu and parents and members of CAV, The School flourished.
The same year, Ramona gathered some of the children not attending The School and founded the CAV Cultural Dance Group.
For many years, Ramona was involved with The School until her resignation as principal in 1995, due to heavy full-time teaching commitment at a government school and her further studies.
Ramona has many tertiary qualifications including: Master of Education (Univ Melb), Graduate Diploma Education Administration (Univ Melb), Graduate Diploma in Arts-Interpreting & Translating (Deakin Univ), Bachelor of Teaching (Deakin Univ). In addition to these, she has diverse qualifications in Advanced Certificate in Horticulture (Burley Horticulture College), Bookkeeping & Accounting for Small Business (Box Hill TAFE), Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults (Cambridge University Examination Syndicate & Royal Society of Arts, London), etc.
Over the years, Ramona has taught in the CAV School, government primary schools, VCE classes, and had been VCE Chinese oral assessor for 6 years. In 2000, she was a member of the Chinese First Language CSF reference group at the Board of Studies (currently Victorian curriculum and Assessment Authority). Ramona had presented workshops at various teachers’ conferences. She was a casual lecturer at the University of Melbourne, giving lectures to Victorian School of Languages and ethnic schools Chinese Language teachers.
At the international film festival, Five Asian Filmmakers, organized by AsiaLink, Ramona was engaged as a translator to a Chinese film director.
Community-minded Ramona has worked as a voluntary guide at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) for 20 years since graduating from an NGV 18-month course in 2001. In the 20 years, Ramona has taken numerous general English tours and Chinese tours of the gallery. In addition, she has taken tours in special exhibitions such as Art Décor, Andy Warhol & Ai Wei-Wei, Van Gogh and the seasons, Viktor & Rolfe, Terracotta Warriors, to name just a few. During the exhibition A Golden Age of China-Qianlong Emperor 1736-1795, Ramona gave a public lecture (paid & ticketed event) on The Beginning of the Qing Dynasty. On top of that she also participated in guiding in some evening corporate functions. Ramona has also taken diplomats like the Japanese, Chinese, Turkish ambassadors, Consul generals, and public services personnel, such as the police group.
She has extensive work experience having served on committees of many associations, e.g the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Victoria, Modern Language Teachers of Victoria, Ethnic Schools Association of Victoria, and NGV Guides Committee. For the last one, Ramona served as Coordinator of Education, Treasurer, Vice President and President over a number of years. Australia wide, Ramona had served on the committees of the Chinese Language Teachers Federation of Australia and Association of the Australian Gallery Guiding Organizations.
In 2008, Ramona was asked to come back to lead The School after the resignation of the then principal. She handed over the reigns to Ruilan Yuan at the end of 2011. Now, we are thankful that Ramona has once again agreed to come back to be the interim principal, and we look forward to working with Ramona again.
Calendar
School Term 2 Begins
Sat/Sun 30 Apr/1 May
School Term 2 Ends
Sat/Sun 18/19 June
School Term 3 Begins
Sat/Sun 16/17 July

Ramona Chua returns as Interim School Principal
Introducing our new principal: Ramona Chua Ramona is a foundation member of CAV. She is no stranger to CAV, as many members will recall. In 1982 when CAV first started the CAV Chinese School (The School), Ramona was one of the School Management Committee, together...
Testimonials
What Parents are Saying
I have been sitting in most of the online classes and I’m really impressed with how prepared the teachers are and the extra lengths they took to make the classes engaging.
Year 6:
1. Online games for kids to learn new phrases and pinyin
2. Researching and showing videos and pictures to explain the content of the lesson
3. Addressing kids’ questions in the chat box very promptly
Year 9:
1. Typing and repeating the keywords as she speaks, making it easier for my son to follow
2. Make very relevant and interesting (and sometimes funny) example sentences with new phrases, making it fun for my son
3. Posing questions to kids and asking them to answer over microphone to check if they are following the lesson
All in all, I’m really grateful for the efforts that CAV has put in to ensure continuity of the lessons.
Mei Wan
Students
Chinese Festivals
Faculty
Years Established
Get In Touch
Location: 8 Ashley Street, Wantirna, VIC 3152
Telephone: 0478 438 578 (Saturdays and Sundays only) please email at other times as the line is not staffed.
Email: [email protected]
School Hours: Sat – Sun: 9:30am – 12:15pm