Strong Hearts Strong Minds

Harmony Day

Harmony Day is held on 21 March. It is a day to celebrate that Australia is a multi-cultural country and whatever ‘tribe’ you come from you can still call Australia your home.

It is also an opportunity to pay tribute to the original inhabitants of the country, the Indigenous Australians.

At MECS, we do a SP and MP Get Together (GT). At the GT a group of people perform and talk about their culture (where they were born). We celebrate wherever we were born, and people wore their traditional outfit or they wore orange. We put up flags for different countries in the world and people would find their country flag and talk about their childhood.

Conclusion:

The school day was a bit different than other school days, whatever schoolwork we did, was about Harmony Day and what happened. Everyone was really interested in learning about everyone’s culture. It was a day to remember and lots of fun!

Kyhar & Grace H

We arrive at school eager to see what other people’s cultures are like through their traditional dress. Pops of bright vivid Orange are scattered across my vision as each person stands out and catches our attention easily and in their own way. Harmony Day is an important and breathtaking time when we all come together to recognise and celebrate other countries and cultures' unique diversity and authentic customs. Harmony Day is supposed to be a time, a date, but we think that it's actually really important that we stop talking and thinking like it's something to look forward to, but as more a state of mind that influences our actions that we embrace together unitedly, just as we showed on the day. Hopefully, we will continue to display this attitude proudly and through everything we do and to everyone we speak to.

Gabrielle & Amelie 

Backflips against Bullying

On Friday 19 April, Senior Primary students went up to the Theatrette to see ‘Backflips against Bullying.’ (The people who run Backflips against Bullying are named Charlie and Luka). They showed us how to not react to bullying. They also showed us what it felt like to get bullied and what to do if someone bullies you. 

My favourite part was the end because Luka asked ten volunteers to sit in a line and then he jumped by doing a flip over them. Then he asked Mrs Carlson to come up on stage and stand up with the kids on stage - Luka made it! (with the help of a trampoline).

Taia

Senior Primary got to see really cool people called Charlie and Luca who were very talented and taught us about how to stop bullying online and offline. At the start Charlie pretended to bully Luca to teach us how to respond. Next we learned about cyberbullying and about rumours, they taught us to block or ignore people when texting! It was really good.

At the end Luca did a front flip over lots of students and Mrs Carlson - it was scary but crazy at the same time. We at MECS are really grateful to see this and have awesome people come talk to us at school to help us in the future! 

Arianne 

Table Tennis Table Thankyou

A few years ago, as part of their CS Unit, a group of Senior Primary students decided to campaign for a table tennis table. They wrote a letter to Leadership, outlining the benefits of this sport. The idea was accepted and scheduled into the school budget. In the meantime, these young entrepreneurs were able to obtain an indoor table tennis table, for which they created a roster to set up and pack away the table each day. Table tennis soon became a fast-growing trend, and there was great disappointment if the table couldn’t be used due to inclement weather. Late last year, IGA Managers (Mount Evelyn), Donna and Tony, donated money toward a special project, and an outdoor, all-weather table tennis table was purchased! This has been an instant hit with our MP and SP students, with tournaments being run each lunchtime. 

Last term Donna returned to MECS to be officially thanked by the Senior Primary cohort and was presented with a certificate and small gift of our appreciation. 

It goes to show just how far-reaching the effect CS learning has and how the legacy of previous work can now be enjoyed by present and future classes.

We are blessed to have an ongoing partnership with IGA Mount Evelyn, who are mutually proud to partner with our school.

Senior Primary Team