By Jonty Ralphsmith
Hillsmeade Primary School’s Harmony Week celebrations culminated in a powerful assembly on Friday afternoon.
Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s multiculturalism and the integration of migrants into the community.
It is underpinned by inclusivity, respect and belonging for all, regardless of cultural or linguistic backgrounds
Students at the school in Narre Warren South watched a Bollywood performance and celebrated their diversity by the waving of flags.
Each student was given a blank flag on Harmony Day, Monday 28 March, and have coloured it in throughout the week with the colours of their country of heritage.
The exercise showed students the cross-section of cultures they mix with everyday to reinforce the sentiment of conclusion highlighted by the event.
Each day the students were engaged in various ways to different cultures.
Staff members wearing orange introduced the idea of acceptance to the school community and multicultural pre-bell music strengthened the message before the Bollywood performance visually excited the cohort.
At the school’s breakfast club, Punjabi cookies and seaweed snacks were among the food on offer to broaden the students’ understanding on typical breakfast foods.
Head of wellbeing and youth connections at the school, Todd Caldwell and Rana Davidson, organised the week and Mr Caldwell believed it was positively received by the students.
“There’s been a really good energy across the week,” he said.
“We’ve implanted Harmony Day dialogue in the classes which opened up discussions with students about connecting with different cultures that they previously had not connected with.”
“That has created a positive environment in classrooms.”
Another highlight was a visit from Melbourne City Football Club on Harmony Day, with soccer being a unifying vehicle among different cultures.
“We identified very quickly the huge cross-section of culture at this school and the huge interest in soccer, being the world game, to connect students.
“Soccer itself was a powerful tool to bring everyone together and while we celebrated the individuality of cultures, activities like soccer brought everyone together.”
