Education News

Harmony Week

Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. On Friday 19th March students are invited to wear something of cultural significance or orange. Orange is the color chosen to represent Harmony Week. Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect. During the week students will be celebrating their learning about culture in Australia. Each sub school have been exploring culture throughout the term. The week will culminate in Bullying No Way day - see further information on the School Wide Positive Behaviour page in this edition.

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

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.

These facts are taken from ABS 2016 Census Data. Check out the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

BIG Write samples

Through the Doorway

Oliver O 2a

Once upon a time there was a little boy and his name was Billi. He was working in the woods and he saw a door. He went in and saw the best place, it was a beautifulest place ever. I want to live here, it was a fairy forest. He went to find sticks to make a hut. He found a whole pile of sticks and the sticks were in a bucket. He started to build a hut. It started to get late and he was just in time. In the morning all of the fairies were playing a game and asked if I wanted to play. Before I saw yes there was a big bump and they all ran and my house fell down. It was a lava monster and I quickly grabbed a water gun. I filled it up and squirted him. He died and they all lived happily ever after.

Madalee 2b

One day I was walking down the street and I saw a door. It was open and I felt it, it is bumpy. Then I said hello and nobody answered. It was a very high door and there was shoes at the door. I wanted to go in so I went in, it led to the beach. I swam for a bit then I hopped out and then I got out of the door then went home. The next day we went back. We went in and it led to a play centre. We played forever and ever. We finally got out and we slept there. The next day this house made us happy. We stayed for our entire life. We told our mum we were teenagers.

The next BIG Write will be held next week. Most classes will hold this on Thursday. The narrative topic was chosen by 4a. ( The Day It All Went Wrong)

Could all families please discuss their ideas with the students?

Start with who? what? where? when? why? and how? Use CSPS - Characters, Setting, Problem and Solution ideas. Use

VCOP stands for

V=Vocabulary, wow words
C=Connective, words that join ideas together
O=Openers, amazing ways to start a sentence. Words that end in ‘ly’ or ‘ing’ are power openers.
P=Punctuation