Secondary College of Languages

Connection Diversity Excellence

Telephone02 7814 2115

EmailSCLanguages.School@det.nsw.edu.au

About our school

The Secondary College of Languages is a NSW Department of Education co-educational College that provides a pathway for students to study their heritage language on a Saturday morning. The College operates in Campuses located at 13 high school sites, including 11 Campuses in metropolitan Sydney and one each in Wollongong and Newcastle. Over 2,700 students from Year 5 to Year 12 attend classes on Saturdays during the department’s school term.

The Secondary College of Languages is driven by the core values of connection, diversity, and excellence in language education, which contribute to community harmony by promoting in students a strong sense of cultural identity and a feeling of belonging to their heritage within and beyond the Australian context.

All language courses are aligned with NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Languages syllabuses. The 22 languages that are studied at the school are included as part of a student's Record of School Achievement (RoSA) and Higher School Certificate.

  • Arabic
  • Armenian
  • Bosnian
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Croatian
  • Filipino
  • Hindi
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Khmer
  • Korean
  • Macedonian
  • Modern Greek
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Punjabi
  • Russian
  • Serbian
  • Spanish
  • Turkish
  • Vietnamese.

To find out what languages are offered at each centre, visit the Our Campuses page.

Benefits of studying a language

Studying a background community language:

  • provides an opportunity to develop high levels of skills in a student's background community language
  • improves performance across the curriculum through enhanced literacy skills which are transferable to English
  • helps maintain rewarding relationships with parents, grandparents, relatives and other community members
  • promotes a sense of cultural identity, resulting in heightened self-confidence and self-esteem
  • places students in a better position to take advantage of employment opportunities.