By Dongyun Kwon
Grade 1 and 2 students from Yarra Glen Primary School won a national school competition called ‘Sticking Together’, part of the popular Aussie of the Month primary school program, younger sibling to the Australian of the Year Awards.
“Their entry captured a wonderful sense of friendship and love of their school community,” National Australia Day Council CEO Mark Fraser AO CVO said.
The competition invited students to share how they stick together in their classrooms, school and community through words or photographs that reflect the Australian values of ‘Fair go’, ‘Mateship’, ‘Respect’ and ‘Inclusion’.
Yarra Glen Primary School Prep to Grade 2 team leader Caitlin Whiting said she was proud of her students who worked collaboratively and upheld their school’s values.
“They didn’t actually know initially that I’d entered the competition because it happened in the holidays,” she said.
“So, when they found out about the competition and that we subsequently won the competition, they were obviously overjoyed.”
As a prize, Yarra Glen Primary School received $1000 worth of stationery including erasable gel pens, refillable whiteboard markers, refills, erasable highlighters and Sellotape safety dispensers donated by Pilot Pen Australia, which has supported the Aussie of the Month program for almost 20 years.
“A lot of it [the prize] was distributed to our art room and the rest of it was distributed around the school,” Ms Whiting said.
Ms Whiting started working for Yarra Glen Primary School in term 2 this year and she said she was struck by a tight-knit community of the school.
“It [Sticking Together] was something that I knew straight away would be right for the class,” Ms Whiting said.
“My class has worked really hard this year. Although I came in Term 2 and they’ve had a previous teacher before me, they showed great resilience to get through everything all together.”
Ms Whiting submitted a photo with a short paragraph describing the students’ experience of the Hoop Time program.
Hoop Time is run by Basketball Victoria, offering Victorian students a chance to participate in single-day round-robin basketball tournaments held at local stadiums.
Yarra Glen Primary School’s Grade 1 and 2 students participated in mixed ability groups where they played for fun, not competition, practised inclusivity letting everyone join in including those who had never played before.
“What really struck me was the way they stuck together while they were in their teams, the way they supported each other was beautiful and everyone had a really good day,” Ms Whiting said.
“As a whole class on that day, they definitely embody our school’s PERRI values ‘Persistence, Empathy, Respect, Resilience and Inclusiveness’.
“It’s really nice for the kids to be acknowledged for what they’ve done and it was a good way to tell them their positive behaviour and the way they treated each other have been noticed.”
