EAL/D News

Author and Ex-Burrendah Primary School student, Alton Walley reads to our Year 3 students.

Alton Walley, who once sat in our classrooms as a student, was delighted to return to our school once again to read his book Chunyart and the Cheeky Parrot to our Year 3 students. Alton and his partner Rebecca Long, also an ex-Burrendah student presented this book to all of our Year 3 students on July 30.

Alton, his sister Rickeeta and father Richard Walley were at Burrendah earlier in the year to perform the Welcome to Country Ceremony at the Taste of Harmony evening in March. We are fortunate to have this connection with the Walley family and were delighted that Alton was available to come back to share his picture book with our students.

The beautifully illustrated story is about a young boy called Chunyart and a cheeky Twenty-eight parrot. It follows their journey through Wadjuk Country in the early days. Our students learned some Nyoongar words for different plants and animals. They also learned about how the bark of paper bark trees was used as bandages and Marri sap used to disinfect wounds. Through the story the children understood the roles in a traditional Nyoongar family. The book was a perfect introduction to the Year 3 HASS curriculum on Aboriginal language and culture. It contains a glossary of Nyoongar words which really enhanced the children’s knowledge of the Nyoongar language.  Chunyart and the Cheeky Parrot is a Kings Park publication and can be purchased at Aspects of Kings Park.

Language Week

There are 240 languages and dialects spoken in Western Australian homes today. At Burrendah, we have 40 languages spoken by our students and their families. Languages Week was a great opportunity to celebrate this linguistic diversity in our school community as well as encourage our students from Years 3-6 who are learning Italian as a foreign language.

Our Italian language students made badges with Italian greetings plus another language with the help of our visiting “assistente”, Signorina Camilla.  Please come into the school hall to see the wonderful work of our students. You will be impressed!

We had a large number of our parents make badges during our EAL/D Network meetings and at home so that they could share their language greetings with teachers, admin staff and the staff of Gilbert’s Fresh.

Gilbert’s Fresh staff wore the greeting badges in Hindi, Bengali, Mandarin, and Assamese with enthusiasm and promoted even Languages Week through their Facebook page.

A hand full of parents volunteered to read a picture book in a foreign language in their child’s class which was very well received by both the students and teachers.

We put together a little video to be shown in the class of our students saying hello in a range of languages which was edited with the help of our two WSHS students on work experience. 

Languages Week finishes on August 11 but we will continue to encourage our students to keep strengthening their linguistic skills in their home language and to put considerable effort during Italian lessons as this is a fabulous learning opportunity which should not be taken for granted.

Culture Club - Pakistan

Culture Club will begin on August 23rd, after Swimming Lessons.