Glen Education North Cheltenham

Creating a sense of Beloniong 

Glen North Cheltenham Educational Team

At Glen North Cheltenham we approach celebrations in a holistic and inclusive way. Harmony day is a nationally recognized day for acknowledging the diversity in our society. "Everyone Belongs" is the message we embed throughout the year, and is celebrated and recognised on Harmony Day. On this day, adn every day, we celebrate this diversity, aiming to foster inclusiveness, respect and the idea that people of all different cultures can make a valuable contribution to society.

Cultural safety: recognition, respect and protection of the inherent rights, cultures, and traditions of a particular culture. In a culturally safe environment, there is “no assault, challenge or denial of their people’s identity, of who they are and what they need. It is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared knowledge and experience, of learning, living and working together with dignity and truly listening”. 

(Williams 2008, in EYLF, 2022, p.65). 

Throughout our program we celebrated by creating friendship bracelets. The thought behind this experience was to show empathy and respect for everyone who comes to play and learn at our kindergarten. The children chose to create bracelets for their friends ensuring that each child received this symbol of kindness and inclusion. We intentionally chose to create a collaborative piece of art using our handprints.  This masterpiece will now hang proudly in our kindergarten space, to be used as a visual provocation, a tool to reflect and recognize the symbolism of our hands joined together as one, a community that respects one another, and works together in harmony. 

At Glen North Cheltenham, we recognize that all children learn differently, and therefore we embrace  multimodal ways of learning.

Multimodal play: modes are ways or means of communicating meaning in some way so multimodal play is about children and educators using the many different types of resources and materials around them that can potentially be a mode to communicate and make meaning. ( EYLF) 2022 Pg:67

An example of this  includes the use of digital technology to further investigate the concept of belonging.  Children were given the opportunity to watch and listen to a short story about the history of Harmony day. The children were fascinated about the different ways that the world says "Hello". 

By documenting and making this learning visible within our learning environments, in our portfolios, and in our program and planning, we are able to create authentic partnerships within our kindergarten community.