26 March 2025

Last week, students from St Mary’s School, Dandenong, celebrated Harmony Week, enjoying activities both in the classroom and at ‘twilight school’ in the evening. ‘Celebrating Harmony Week teaches us to embrace each other’s differences and celebrate together’, said Shayne in Year 5.

From an Indonesian puppet show to a parade, paraliturgy, family picnic and dancing, the school community was brought together to share and celebrate their many different cultures. Awkol, mother of three children at St Mary’s School said, ‘As a family, Harmony Week is a time for us to learn about cultures different from our own and to appreciate the beauty in diversity’.

Harmony Week is also about creating a sense of belonging for everyone, which is what Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) schools do so well. Addressing parent members of School Advisory Councils last week, MACS Executive Director Dr Edward Simons said that ‘our commitment to excellence, our promise of equity, our embrace of belonging, and the culture of warmth and respect for human dignity’ set our schools apart.

At St Mary’s School, the important themes of Harmony Week are not just taught and promoted for one week of the year. Over the past few months, the school has partnered with Together For Humanity: ‘an inclusive educational organisation that works with school communities to foster intercultural understanding and help students learn how to deal with differences’.

The school identified intercultural challenges through its student survey data and worked with Together For Humanity to run a series of workshops for students and staff to address: self-esteem and identity, cultural validation, empathy and understanding, inspiration and aspiration, and social isolation.

Facilitators ran a program for Year 3 and 4 students using music, dance and traditions to discover joy and embrace different cultures. The Year 5 and 6 students took part in a powerful Migration Stories workshop, which sparked their curiosity and empathy. Afterwards, Achol in Year 6 created his own migration story presentation about his family’s experience leaving South Sudan, staying at a refugee camp in Kenya and arriving in Australia.

With the work of intercultural understanding well underway at St Mary’s School, Harmony Week was all the more successful in celebrating the diverse community and fostering inclusion. ‘It’s incredible to see how Harmony Week inspires our community to come together, celebrating our differences and standing united’, said Principal Terry Gardiner.