Multicultural Festivals
Artefact 1
Annotation
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This artefact is the programme of our annual multicultural school community wide, Moon Festival. Why: Multicultural celebrations played a significant part of students’ global education. Our two main cultural celebrations are the Moon festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. Through these festivals, students learn about and recognise the diversity within and between the countries people come from in our wider school community. What: Our annual Moon Festival involves the whole school community, from students, teachers, parents, to the local community including businesses and cultural groups. Parents and students from our school set up stalls on the night including show bags, lanterns, second hand books, fairy floss, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, sausage sizzle and a variety of multicultural food stalls. A range of entertainment such as Lion dance, Kungfu demonstration and other multicultural dances and a variety of shows also take place on the night. How: The P&C works closely with our EAL/D and LOTE Assistant Principal to coordinate the event. Over 60 teachers and 80 parents volunteer each year in coordinating and running stalls, participating in performances and raising donation within and outside school. When used? Since the festival has started in Chatswood Public School, it has successfully fostered positive and respectful relationships across the school community which underpin a productive and meaningful learning environment as well as consistently supported students’ development of strong identities as 21st century learners and global citizens.
The Significant Impact
Moon festival is a prime example of how CPS creates Real World Connections, which is one of the strategic priorities of our school. It facilitates the whole school community to embed a positive culture within the school and to promote diverse cultures by celebrating the diversity of our community and equip our students to be world class active, respectful and informed citizens. As Community Languages programs (Mandarin and Korean) are delivered throughout K-6 in addition to the Korean bilingual classes, Moon festival also brings their classroom language and cultural learning in their classroom alive by providing authentic learning opportunities for students by immersion and real life experience.
Analysis
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In our self-assessment process the leadership team analysed a range of evidence to support our judgement.
SEF Connections
Learning Element
Wellbeing - Sustaining and Growing
There is an evident commitment within the school community to ensure an inclusive, positive and respectful environment for our students’ collective wellbeing. Acknowledgement of students’ background and fostering their connection to their culture develops through their experiences. Our school community strives to create a strong sense of their own cultural history and traditions help children build a positive cultural identity for themselves as well as supporting children’s sense of belonging and self-esteem.
Teaching Element
Collaborative Practice - Sustaining and Growing
All staff in CPS works collaboratively to improve teaching and learning of multiculturalism. We identifies expertise within our staff; different multicultural backgrounds of our staff has been a particular strength in organising Moon Festival. Chinese dance, Korean dance, Indian dance groups perform at the festival under supervision of our staff members, as well as running a variety of stalls in collaboration with volunteer parents.
Leading Element
School Resources - Sustaining and Growing
Moon festival seeks to raise fund for our P&C to provide a quality education environments by means such as promotes a positive learning and social environment, acts as a liaison between the school and parents, raises funds to provide services, facilities and equipment for the school, provides support and advice to the Principal and Executive team and represents parents. In 2016, approximately $26,000 were raised through the event. It indirectly supports the school to gain efficiencies and to maximise resources available to implement the school plan. The use of parent volunteer and local community members in the festival also optimise human resources to best meet the needs of students and the local community.
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Please check the link below re: School Excellence Framework