25th March 2022
Principal’s Message
By Mrs Simone Cooke
“Their lives may be different from yours, and their words may be different from yours. But inside, their hearts are just like yours.” Whoever you are by Mem Fox Dear Parents,
This week our children celebrated Harmony Week at Reddam St Leonards. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore with the children the idea of diversity, differences and belonging to a multicultural society. We are very fortunate to live in Australia which is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and be proud of the diverse cultural backgrounds which form the rich fabric of our school community here at Reddam. The focus of Harmony Week is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural differences. The colour orange is used as a symbol of Harmony week as orange traditionally signifies ‘social communication and meaningful conversations”. It also represents freedom of ideas and mutual respect for others. This week the children embraced everything “orange” and joined in conversations on how we can respect both ourselves and others and live in harmony with others. The children enjoyed a wide range of celebrations from face painting, enjoying a cultural music festival of diverse cultural songs and dances, to making orange handprints, multicultural paper chain dolls and playing a range of games from all over the world. Of course, the orange balloons that we gave to one another was a big hit with everyone! Our older preschool children discussed ways that people can be different from each other but discussed all the things that make us the same. They talked about family diversity and shared all the wonderful celebrations, lifestyles and traditions that they celebrate at home and discussed how at school we are also one big extended family. Offering our children an inclusive environment is intrinsic to everything we do. Our teachers are very mindful of always embedding multicultural resources into the chil1
REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER
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