St Raphael's School

Student Wellbeing

eSmart Digital Licence Course

Over the last two weeks, students in Years 3-6 have started to complete a digital licence course which the school has purchased this year. Year levels will complete the modules over the year and all modules are aligned with the Victorian and Australian Curriculum. 

Students will cover areas such as: 

  • Digital devices
  • Protecting privacy 
  • Searching and researching
  • Creating and sharing
  • Social networking and gaming
  • Communicating safely online
  • Friends and strangers
  • Credits, coins and tokens

Students have started with the module, Communicating safely online. Please read an article about how vulnerable children are when being exposed to information online.

More information will be shared with the parent community in the coming weeks. 

Harmony Week

This week is Harmony Week with Harmony Day falling on March 21st which is on Sunday. Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity.

It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. At St Raphael's we will be celebrating Harmony Week in a variety of ways from RE and Wellbeing activities in Year 3/4 to Cultural Days in Year 1/2.

As a whole school, we will be having a shared lunch where year levels will have a 'buddy' to get to know. Foundation will have their Year 6 buddies and then the rest of the school will 'buddy up'. 

Weather permitting, Lunch will be on Greenland with music and lots of conversation. We can't share food but we can share our stories. It will be a fantastic opportunity to get to know others from our beautifully diverse community at St Raphael's.

Our cultural diversity

Australia is a vibrant and multicultural country — from the oldest continuous culture of our first Australians to the cultures of our newest arrivals from around the world.

Our cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths and is at the heart of who we are. It makes Australia a great place to live.

An integrated multicultural Australia is an integral part of our national identity. All people who migrate to Australia bring with them some of their own cultural and religious traditions, as well as taking on many new traditions. Collectively, these traditions have enriched our nation.

Facts and figures

There are some fascinating statistics about Australia's diversity that can be good conversation-starters:

  • nearly half (49 per cent) of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was
  • we identify with over 300 ancestries
  • since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia
  • 85 per cent of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia
  • apart from English, the most common languages spoken in Australia are Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, Tagalog/Filipino, Hindi, Spanish and Punjabi
  • more than 70 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.