Chatham Happenings

'LEAD IT’ YEAR 6 INCURSION

On Wednesday 22nd March, our Year 6 students participated in an exciting ‘Lead It’ incursion, where they explored what it takes to be an effective leader. The entire day was led by Lauren, who engaged the students in a range of activities that focused on developing teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, presentation, and, of course, leadership skills.

During the incursion, students were given the opportunity to discover their own leadership style by exploring the qualities and values of an effective leader. They also learnt how to use their unique skills and talents to put everyday leadership into practice, and how to create a campaign to inspire others to follow their lead and make a positive change in their school community.

Throughout the day, students actively participated in a range of engaging activities that allowed them to not only improve on their leadership skills, but to also reflect on their own leadership style. They worked together in groups to complete tasks and challenges, which helped them to develop their teamwork and problem-solving skills.

The students are now looking forward to putting their new skills into practice as they embark on their recently appointed leadership roles. We are excited to see the positive impact they will make on our school community and beyond.

Thank you to Lauren for leading such an inspiring incursion, and to our Year 6 students for their enthusiastic participation. We look forward to seeing their leadership skills in action.

Rafael Fernandez and Zac Barry

Year 6 Teachers

Harmony Day 2023 

It was just wonderful to see our students dressed-up and full of enthusiasm for our whole-school Harmony Day celebrations last Tuesday 21st March. 

Whilst many students and staff wore national colours or traditional national dress to represent their family’s background, others chose to wear orange, the symbolic colour of Harmony Day.

Teachers spent the morning exploring and celebrating the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students in their grade, with students relishing the opportunity to share their family’s heritage. 

During the middle session of the day, students were split into multi-age groups across the school to learn about 1 of the 33 countries that represent the backgrounds of our student population.

Throughout these sessions, students learnt about their particular country using fact sheets pre-prepared by our Year 6 Junior School Councillors. Our teachers also spent time sharing their extensive knowledge of these focus countries, which was just fantastic. Our senior students assisted our junior students in creating a beautiful large flag along with mini flags to be used at our whole-school Harmony Parade. Students also enjoyed making friendship bracelets for both themselves and others, an activity symbolic of living in harmony with one another. It was also marvellous to hear traditional cultural music playing from classrooms as well as students learning simple greetings in other languages. 

The activities culminated in a Harmony Parade in the Hall with family and friends in attendance. Our wonderful Year 6 Junior School Councillors hosted this event, opening with an Acknowledgement of Country. Remy, Rowan and Zara then delivered a speech outlining the relevance of Harmony Day, and all the wonderful aspects of life that we now enjoy in Australia that have been a direct result of migration to our country. Noah and Sam then called upon each country group to parade around the School Hall to traditional cultural music, proudly displaying the flags they had created. This was a fantastic chance for our school community to come together and celebrate cultural diversity and the key messages of the day around inclusion and acceptance.

Many students also enjoyed our special ‘A Taste of Harmony’ lunch, thoughtfully prepared by Canteen Manager, Ms Jo Paterson and Ms Belinda Dalton. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Jo and Belinda for their support of this initiative; Ms Judy Holland, Ms Tina Casey, Ms Dimitra Ouliaris and Mr Chris Cotching for their assistance with preparations; Mr Rafael Fernandez and Ms Tanya Dolence for their assistance with technical matters, and our whole Teaching and Integration Staff for their enthusiasm for this event and highly engaging delivery of all the activities.

A special mention goes to our Year 6 Junior School Councillors who worked so hard preparing activities for the day. Well done and we look forward to more events facilitated by these students throughout the year. 

What a wonderful day we had celebrating harmony at Chatham!

Ms Georgina Kirwan

Assistant Principal