Principal's Message

Multicultural day

Here at St Luke’s we have a vibrant diverse community. One of the wonderful things that I tell new students at our school is that it is a place of inclusivity. I think one of the reasons for this, as I explain to our new families is that no one here has been here for more than 5/6 years- including myself- and everyone can still remember being the new kid or the new teacher.  It means that students are very welcoming and inclusive of new students, an the community in general are very caring of others. 

Every morning I walk past the world map and the word “welcome” in some of the major languages of our school and it reminds me of the wonderful diversity of our community. With students from at least 36 different countries around the world and approximately 27 different languages we have so much to learn from each other.   There is so much opportunity to learn about different ways that people do things - like  celebrate holidays, the norms about how we relate to people and what respectful behaviour looks like, what we eat, our historical perspective, different types of dance and music, even the types of knowledge and skills  and the different ways that we learn.  When I was younger I went to high school in Sydney in an intensive english centre where young people new to Australia went to learn to speak english, and it was a great opportunity to experience other peoples cultures as part of a rich tapestry of Australian Multiculturalism. 

Next Friday we will host our first Multicultural day. This is intended to be a celebration of the diversity in our community. To begin, the day will be cultural dress mufti and we encourage everyone to wear something from their culture.  There will also be activities during the day. We encourage all parents if you speak another  language to teach your children to say “good morning” in that language and there will be some opportunities to see displays of cultural dance and music. 

More information will follow about the day during the next week, but we look forward to the day. 

Kind Regards, 

Kelly Bauer

Principal Leader