Happy Harmony Week!

Harmony Week continues to evolve every year, and it is a week that I always look forward to. Here are some of the many highlights of our week celebrating diversity and CGS’s value of inclusion.

We were delighted to have a range of different lunchtime events, from special lunch deliveries (huge thanks to Bazil’s Mobile Catering for supplying these) to the competitive and highly anticipated Senior School Staff vs Student Cricket match, Mrs Kyne’s Iconic Dance class, Mrs Williams’ famous shortbread class and Tara’s Irish dancing class. Thank you to everyone involved in the lunchtime activities, as well as the many students who participated in them.

The Performances of students in both Junior and Senior School is an absolute highlight of this week. We had 34 Junior School students recorded performing songs, dances and playing traditional instruments. These were shown to all Junior School students through the course of the week. Senior School were treated to performances by 16 students on Thursday lunchtime, with representatives of Romanian, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Australian music and dance. A huge thanks to all who practiced to perform for us.

A highlight for the Junior School students was the incursions at the end of the week. Our F-2 students had energetic Zumba classes whilst our Year 3-6 students enjoyed the rhythm of the African drumming class.

Of course, one of the highlights of Harmony Week is the activities that happen on a class by class basis. From Senior School students creating displays about where their families come from, to Year 4 students creating ‘recipes’ for Harmony to the creation of our collaborative chalk art drawings around the school.

Our school had a particularly celebratory vibe on Thursday with everyone in their orange and cultural clothing. Part of the cultural clothing day was the F-2 Parade where we saw more fantastic performances by students in Year 1, 2, 6 and Senior School. It was very special for our F-2 students to see these live performances.

All were invited to donate to a cause close to the ideals of Harmony Week. We are delighted to have our Harmony Week donations supporting Frontyard Youth Services and the Asylum Seeker Resource Center.

A huge thanks to all the staff and students involved in our special week, particularly Mr Hall whose technical expertise has assisted with so many different events. His work, and that of so many others is greatly appreciated, and makes the whole week possible.

Every blessing to you all as you commence the Easter Holidays. Our Junior School and Senior School Easter Chapel services will both take place on the final Thursday of the term and I look forward to sharing these with you in our next edition.

Monique Riviere-Pendle

Chaplain