From Lucy & Gen, Fete & Parents & Friends Committee

Our North Melbourne Primary School Around the World Fete saw our local, diverse, multicultural community come together to celebrate what makes this school so very special. The weather was kind after many days of rain, and people came in their droves to celebrate community and connection and have a whole lotta fun.

Planning for the fete began in March this year with a group of parents determined to bring a celebration to our school after so many limits of events over the last years. Once we had settled on a theme - Around the World, it was all systems go and we quickly divided our committee into teams to bring to life all of the big ideas.

One of the first major jobs we had as a committee was to seek out sponsorship from our local community and Dominic Luddy jumped straight into the job and made contact with a number of local businesses who were happy to support our school with goods, services and financial donations that helped us make our big plans come together. Michelle Lim was charged with seeking out the best rides and activities that she could and before we knew it, we had a great selection of rides booked to keep everyone busy. Parent Beck Ng created the eye-catching graphic design for the fete seen across the logo, maps and posters.

Lucy Bond who took responsibility for keeping track of all of the fete communications noted that ‘After all the hard work over the past 8 months it was so exciting to see the pieces of the puzzle come together,’ said Eleanor Bennett, our Performing Arts teacher was instrumental in helping those puzzle pieces fitting together seamlessly by bridging the communications between the school staff and the parent organisers and Gen Kelly worked on the logistics and planning so that systems for the evening were all taken care of. One of the big improvements we saw at this fete was the introduction of online payment systems and Rowan and Rachel Kimber can be thanked for their tireless efforts in designing and implementing the systems.

Lucy Bond worked hard to ensure that there was a strong community presence to bring the outside world into our school. Families had the opportunity to check out the police car, learn about fire safety, join a rainbow art activity with The Centre, go on a treasure hunt with the Melbourne Young Writers Studio and participate in sporting activities with the North Melbourne Football Club and Renegades and Youlden Parkville Cricket Clubs.

The International Food Hall was managed expertly by Alice Woodruff and Katrien Janssen and was a huge success with so many different cultures represented by families from our school. There were 2000 dumplings homemade by a wonderful group of Chinese women and they were the first to sell out in just over an hour! Visitors were spoilt for choice with dishes from the horn of Africa, Japan, and India, Belgian waffles, African spiced coffee and sweet bread, a bake sale, pizza, and a phenomenally busy halal sausage BBQ run by the Eritrean Australian Humanitarian Aid (EAHA) and coordinated by Lou Olliff.

We can't forget the sweet treats of course with the ever-popular fairy floss machines (4!) located on the gym platform. Apeksha Zhao ensured that we had the machines we needed and that our volunteers were ready to spin their magic during the fete.

The entertainment stage added to the festive atmosphere with live music performed by students, teachers, and parents, and the debut performance of DJ Hex added to the fun. Sonia our Auslan interpreter was appreciated by the audience for her enthusiastic contribution to the performances, and the kids got involved singing and dancing along, with overhead comments including ‘this is my first rock concert’, ‘I love this song!’ and ‘is that your Mum?’ It’s not often you see a 7-months pregnant Mum rocking out on drums! Penny Hewson did an amazing job coordinating the entertainment and performing as lead singer in the newly established 'Parents Rock!' band. She was also instrumental in the setup and running of our social media presence.

The Silent Auction on display in the School Library really captured the spirit of the event with over 170 local businesses and family donations listed, showcasing how much a local community can achieve when it comes together - #localsupport #supportlocal being the hashtags of the day. Penny Hewson and Liza Ediet worked tirelessly to bring all of the donations together and coordinated the logistics of the massive operation. More on the incredible fundraiser in our next Errol Street News issue.

Of course, an event like this can’t be run without support from the school community to fill the extensive volunteer roster, ‘I was very excited to be a part of the henna stall and time spent interacting with the parents and students while creating designs on their hands was a superb experience for me,’ said volunteer and parent, Sabeeha. Each year level was responsible for creating, designing and running an activity or stall supported by the boundless energy, creativity and ingenuity of NMPS staff. Lucy summed the feelings of the Parents & Friends Association perfectly, noting that ‘It’s been an incredible experience to be part of and I’m so grateful for the small but mighty core team who made this event possible.

Thank you to our staff

An event the size of our Around the World Fete can not be possible without the contribution of our wonderful NMPS staff. While the Parents & Friends Association took on the role of planning and setting up the fete, we called on the teaching staff to help the students find ways to engage in the planning and operation of the fete and to keep the lines of communication open with our families. It is a huge job for our teachers on top of their regular workload and we would like to send out a very big, heartfelt thank you to all of the classroom teachers and specialists who responded so positively to our requests for help.

One of the absolute highlights of our fete was student engagement. Our children created stalls, made items to sell, donated their time and their skills, and made the event a real NMPS student event. The proud Year 5 students with their handmade items for sale were responsible for the longest handmade stall setup we have ever seen at NMPS, stretching all the way along the outside of the Library. The incredible sideshow alley that was built entirely by the students (and their families) by hand and provided nonstop rollicking fun for so many of us. Many of the teaching teams introduced fete planning into their teaching such as the Year 4 maths unit where students were asked to plan out rides for the oval to enrich their maths classes. All of the extra jobs that our teaching staff did, helped bring the students along on the journey of preparing for the fete. Thank you to all the teachers who took on the extra work with such enthusiasm.

It was so lovely to see our teaching staff relaxing and enjoying their time at the fete on Friday afternoon, wandering around, enjoying the food, activities, and festival atmosphere, and even introducing their families to the NMPS families.

We also want to thank the gardening, maintenance, and cleaning team who are essential for getting everything ship shape before and after an event like this and the Biz-E-Kids team who shared their space were incredibly flexible with changing care space on the night and creating a fun evening for the children in their care who did not attend the fete. We are so lucky to have such a professional and dedicated team of carers.

Lastly, a huge thank you goes to the School leadership team and School Council for their unwavering support with all the big and small, logical and fanciful ideas the Parents and Friends came up with. There were a lot of behind-the-scenes issues to work out to make sure the fete was safe and functional and all of the extra time they spent making sure everything went smoothly was invaluable.

The Fete Committee

Thank you to Penny Hewson, Liza Ediet, Eleanor Bennett (teacher representative), Katrien Janssen, Michelle Lim, Alice Woodruff, Lucy Bond, Gen Kelly, Rowan and Rachel Kimber, and (not pictured) Dominic Luddy.

Map, Activities & Events

Fete-carnival capers

Image: animal farm