Swan Hill College celebrated Harmony Day on Tuesday with a diverse range of inclusive activities for Year 7 students to participate in.
Held on March 21 each year, Harmony Day aims to promote Australia’s culturally diverse and tolerant society.
Swan Hill College English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher Vickie Merritt has helped to organise the school’s Harmony Day activities for seven years.
Ms Merritt said the event was something the school always looked forward to.
“It gets bigger and bigger each year,” Ms Merritt said.
“This has been our biggest year yet and everyone has just been marvellous in helping us out. People are just so embracing of the day.”
The school held a range of different activities for the Year 7s to try out, with groups rotating each period.
A selected group of volunteers decorated wooden homes in the art rooms for this year’s Harmony Day community project, Home.
“We also had multicultural cricket and soccer which was run by our EAL boys,” she said.
Students helped create a huge chalk mural, inspired by Keith Haring, at the quadrangle and in the Indonesian room students played with shadow puppets and costumes.
In the Koori room, students had cooking lessons where they made kangaroo stir-fry and learnt about Aboriginal culture.
Ms Merritt said Harmony Day was a great chance to showcase the school’s inclusiveness to the new Year 7 students.
“So many of the Year 7s were just so excited for Harmony Day,” she said.
“Harmony Day is great because it introduces the Year 7s to how embracing our school is of multiculturalism.
“It also gives the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) and EAL students a chance to be involved in leadership roles.”
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