Every language we learn and speak influences who we become. This year’s World Languages Week was held from the 23-27 of July and celebrated the theme “Language = Identity”. This theme was chosen as a reminder to us all that Australia has always been a multilingual country and that we should be proud of all of the languages studied and spoken here at Newington. After all, language is the lens through which we see and understand the world, language is what connects us to each other. Celebrating our linguistic diversity strengthens who we are as a community.

To celebrate languages week, we were fortunate to have local Gadigal elder Uncle Ray Davison perform a welcome to country at a special languages week assembly. Also at Assembly, we watched a video showcasing just some of our students speaking in their language and heard from these students what speaking their language means to them. During the week, students took part in a languages scavenger hunt, a selfie competition and enjoyed food from different countries in our cafeteria. There were also many in-class activities including cooking, music, dance and games. Our biggest event of the week was our annual Poetry Competition and Languages Showcase. Approximately 300 parents, students and staff were treated to poetry performances in Chinese, French, Italian, Latin, Modern Greek and Spanish. The standard was particularly high this year and all participants should be proud of their efforts.

Marnie Foster
Head of Languages