EALD News (English as an Additional Language / Dialect)
What a wonderful term it has been!
With a busy start identifying eligible students for our EALD school census data, we’ve all settled in well to support sessions. Eligible students receive either in-class support, monitoring or small focus groups being withdrawn depending on need and ability, and with discussion with the classroom teacher. Students constantly work hard to improve their Standard Australian English (SAE) skills and confidence.
There has been lots to celebrate in our CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) community this term with Lunar New Year, Losar, Holi, Ramadan, and International Mother Language Day to name a few. Most recently, we celebrated Harmony Week. In Western Australia, Harmony Week is always celebrated from the 15-21 March. Nationally, Harmony Week dates change to the calendar week that includes the 21 March. The 21st March (formerly called Harmony Day) still holds great significance as it is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. As this day became a day for reflection, Harmony Day evolved into Harmony Week. After a colourful collaboration last year with our beautiful Harmony Flowers canvas which you can see in the front office, this year students completed a “Peg Your Pledge” activity. This activity linked to our PBS Kindness focus where students created a pledge to create harmony at our school and in our community. It was wonderful to hear students discuss cultural diversity, acceptance, inclusion, belonging, racism and respect. Discussion points and sentence starters for pledges were modified depending on year level and class focus. What’s your pledge to make our world a more harmonious place?
Mrs Sasha Key