{"id":44468,"date":"2026-03-20T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/?post_type=article&#038;p=44468"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:56:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:56:03","slug":"harmony-week-in-the-junior-school","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/article\/harmony-week-in-the-junior-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmony Week in the Junior School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Harmony Week <strong>(Monday 16 March\u00a0 &#8211; Sunday 22 March 2026<\/strong>) is for all Australians and is a time to reflect on and celebrate the cultural diversity of our society. Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world and Harmony Day (<strong>Saturday 21 March 2026<\/strong>) reminds us of the importance of being inclusive, respectful and accepting of all backgrounds and cultures.<\/p>\n<p>Harmony Week is important because it sends the message that <strong><u>everyone belongs<\/u><\/strong>. We all come from different cultural backgrounds and have different experiences and cultures.<\/p>\n<p>Harmony Week encourages us to live harmoniously with one another and to ensure that all Australian are treated fairly, respectfully and inclusively. It is also a call to action to make it clear that there is no place in our society for racism, intolerance or discrimination.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did you now that over half of all Australians were born overseas or have a parent who was?<\/li>\n<li>Did you know that over the past 70 years more than 7.5 million people have made Australia home?<\/li>\n<li>Did you know that Australians identify with around 300 ancestries?<\/li>\n<li>Did you know that the most common languages spoken at our school, other than English, are: Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Orange is the official colour for Harmony Week. It was chosen because it represents meaningful communication, the freedom of ideas and the encouragement of mutual respect. On Monday the JSSC gave every student from PreK to Year 5 an orange ribbon to wear. It was great to see many girls wearing the ribbon each day! We also decorated the Junior School with the 29 different languages spoken by our School families.<\/p>\n<p>The JSSC also organised some lunchtime activities to raise awareness and acceptance of all the wonderful things differing cultures bring to our school and community, such as bracelet making, Guess the Country competition, name a country for each letter of the alphabet and a Scavenger Hunt.<\/p>\n<p>We were really happy with how much fun was had and we hope that respect and inclusivity of all, no matter our differences, continues to flourish in our School community.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"mailto:jsharpe@mlcsyd.nsw.edu.au\">&#8211; Joanne Sharpe<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em>Deputy Head of Junior School &#8211; Wellbeing<\/p>\n<p><em>Click on gallery to view full images<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-44468 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-medium'>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0347.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0347-640x480.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0348.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0348-640x480.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0349.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0349-640x480.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0350.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2026\/03\/IMG_0350-640x480.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harmony Week (Monday 16 March\u00a0 &#8211; Sunday 22 March 2026) is for all Australians and is a time to reflect on and celebrate the cultural diversity of our society. Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world and Harmony Day (Saturday 21 March 2026) reminds us of the importance of being inclusive, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","article_category":[5],"article_tag":[],"class_list":["post-44468","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_category-junior-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/44468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_category?post=44468"},{"taxonomy":"article_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_tag?post=44468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}