Harmony Day 2024

We are excited to share our plans for Harmony Day 2024.

All the different cultures that come together in Australia bring many things with them: different foods, ways of dressing, languages, customs and beliefs. Harmony Day is about celebrating these differences and learning about new cultures. This year at SKiPPS we have decided to turn Harmony Day into Harmony Week. We aim to use this week to focus on the positive things about cultural diversity and to support each other in countering the negative things. It creates a sense of belonging for all members of our community.

The activities we look forward to sharing with you include:

Activity	When	Details
Whole-school Home Learning Task & Open afternoon - ‘Stay for Dinner’	Wednesday 20th March 2:30pm – 3:30pm	We will run a whole-school open afternoon to share the learning from the week and the home learning tasks based on ‘Stay For Dinner’ (more details below). Parents, carers, relatives and friends are invited into school to share and enjoy the different projects.
Multicultural picnic & Capoeira performance	Straight after school on Wednesday 20th	We invite all of our community to stay behind after school for a multicultural picnic – please bring along a snack to eat and share in the yard, perhaps something from a country you have a link to. We will also have a performance of Brazilian Capoeira taking place at this time for us to enjoy.
Crepes for Change	Thursday 21st March 7:45am – 8:45am	Before school on Harmony Day, we will have a food van at the school from ‘Crepes for Change’ and music playing from the many countries that form the SKiPPS community. Come along for a French-inspired breakfast at school.
Harmony Day Assembly & Cultural dress day	Thursday 21st March 9:00am	After the crepes we will have a whole-school assembly to celebrate Harmony Day. We will share some of the learning from the week and finish with a whole-school parade. On this day we encourage students and families to dress either in cultural dress or in the Harmony Day colour of Orange.
Glenbrae Celtic dancers	Thursday 21st 11:30am	After Intervallo we will enjoy a performance on the basketball court by the Glenbrae Celtic dance group. We invite all of our community to join us at this time.
Grandparents in harmony	Throughout the week	We would like to invite students grandparents to visit their class and share a migration stories or family history.
The SKiPPS World Map	Throughout the week	We will be displaying a huge map of the world in the quadrangle and will ask all of our students, families and staff to add a small sticker to show where in the world they are from.
Classroom activities	Throughout the week	Each class will also take part in a range of learning activities during the week on the harmony day theme of ‘Everyone Belongs’ and that celebrate cultural diversity.

‘Stay for Dinner’ Home Learning task

Stay for Dinner is a powerful story that celebrates culture and connection through food. In it, we learn the significance of food in each family’s story and how sharing our food story can help create an atmosphere of emotional support, empathy, and understanding.

You can watch the story online here

In preparation for Harmony Week, we are inviting families to share their food stories with their children and to spend time making a meal that has some importance in their family.

This may be something steeped in tradition and culture, a recipe handed down from generation to generation or simply a meal or dish that has a special place in the family for other reasons.

See below for some ideas you may wish to explore as a way of sharing your family’s food story during Harmony Week

Make a video of the cooking process
Make a poster showing each step of the cooking process & recipe

Write your own version of ‘Stay for Dinner’ by telling your own family food story.
Interview a grandparent or family member about their special food story.
Research different foods or dishes from your family’s country of origin. Make a poster, a book, or a digital presentation...

Get creative and think of a different way to share this task – perhaps an artwork, collage or photography project that shares your family’s food stories...

Be ready to share your learning at school on Wednesday 20th March when we will have an open afternoon to learn from one another and find out about the different foods and stories that each family has...