Olympic spirit

TERANG College celebrated its multicultural school community this week by embracing the Olympic spirit.

Gold: Terang College students celebrated their differences this week with their own version of the Olympic games, which paid homage to the international diversity among the school community.

With the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in full swing, and the event on everyone’s mind after Camperdown’s Grace Brown secured Australia its first gold medal of the games, the timing could not have been better for students to enjoy their own Olympic games on Tuesday.

Terang College Year 5-6 teacher Emily Beauglehall said the special event provided an opportunity for students to connect with both the Olympic Games and with each other.

“Given the 2024 Olympics are happening right now we wanted a way to celebrate that in a fun and engaging way,” she said.

“We thought the best way to do that was to celebrate some of the nationalities we have at Terang College by putting together a mini-Olympics.
“Each country we’ve picked is based on our EAL (English as an Additional Language) students, and designed around that with the students with a heritage in those respective countries chosen as the flag bearers.”

The nations represented were Australia, Columbia, Philippines, Turkey, United States, Zimbabwe, France, Mexico, Nepal and New Zealand.

Students were more than happy to switch their allegiances for the day, representing a new nation in solidarity with their classmates and their respective culture.

Ms Beauglehall said embracing different backgrounds and nationalities had been a primary focus.

Students began the day creating a banner for each respective nation before marching through their own opening ceremony.

The national teams then battled it out in novelty events such as egg and spoon races, hurdles, sandcastle building and a soccer dribbling skills challenge.

“Having only a smaller number of competitors at one time really allowed the students to get around those competing,” Ms Beauglehall said.

“Not everyone has a role to play as an event is happening so it’s very rewarding to see the sportsmanship and support for each other.”

Parents went to great efforts to support their kids with homemade outfits themed around their respective nation, face painting and flags.

“They have done a fantastic job coming to school in their country colours, getting creative to draw flags or getting bits of clothing with colours,” Ms Beauglehall said.

“They created their own national banners, working together with just 20 minutes to create the banner, but what they came up with was fantastic and the way they paraded it around was even better.”