2025,Term 2, Edition 7 - Chaplain - Casey Grammar School

Reconciliation Week at Casey Grammar School

Last week was a very important week in our school’s calendar as we celebrated Reconciliation Week together. There were many different activities that took place around the school.

Marking Sorry Day

Year 6 students joined together with our newly appointed RAP Representatives and other members of the CGS community to mark 26 May, National Sorry Day, by holding a flag-lowering ceremony at the front of the school. The RAP Representatives laid flowers, and we remembered those who were taken from their families and those who still feel the pain of these policies to this day.

A Beautiful Addition to Our School

We were absolutely delighted to officially unveil our arbour last week. The Year 11 Woodworking class collaborated to design a beautiful structure for the school to hold our House artwork. Created under the guidance of dedicated teacher, Mr Young, the arbour has enhanced the space around the oval and tram area, and provides a new space to sit during recess or lunch.

The artwork was created by local artist Sam Richards (Connecting Two Worlds), who worked with the Year 6 and Year 12 Captains to develop meaningful designs using Aboriginal symbolism. Our Year 5 students also helped to sand wood for the seats - so it’s been a huge team effort from across the school!

We were delighted to have the Year 4 Choir sing ‘Solid Rock’ as part of the Voices for Reconciliation Choir program as part of the unveiling ceremony. A huge thanks to everyone involved for making this a reality.

Let’s Get Cooking!

Throughout Reconciliation Week, we love running cooking classes that expose students to native ingredients and offer a deeper understanding of the types of foods traditionally used by Aboriginal people. We’ve made everything from a native flavours cob loaf, lemon myrtle slice and cake, special spreads for crumpets, and salsa verde using some of our very own, homegrown warrigal greens! It’s been great to see the students being brave enough to try something new - and enjoy it!

Learning Dance and Art

We were very privileged to have Djarrin and Suri visit our Junior School students last week. The Foundation to Year 2 students learned dance from Suri, who is originally from Western Australia.

By the end of the session, the students had performed an entire dance together, which was beautiful to watch. Our Years 3 - 6 students learned art from Djarrin and some also had the pleasure of hearing him play the yidaki and pat the kangaroo and possum skins.

Aboriginal people used to place their babies in a coolamon and then line it with possum skins to create a soft mattress for their little ones. We loved learning from Djarrin and Suri.

Amazing Assemblies

Both the Junior and Senior School held wonderful Reconciliation Week assemblies. 5H taught us about Tiddalik the frog and Bunjil the eagle. Mrs Williams and Lokavya, our Senior School Social Justice Captain, were also delighted to present our Years 3 - 6 RAP Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Representatives with their badges.

In the Senior School, the Year 11 Music class treated us to their performance of ‘Black Fella, White Fella’ by Warumpi Band. We also unveiled the new House artworks at both assemblies..

Reconciliation in the Classroom

Across the school, we had a wide range of wonderful activities for students to engage with Reconciliation Week.

Our Foundation and Year 5 buddies made bracelets, and Junior School students enjoyed a scavenger hunt. In classes, they read Our Flag, Our Story, and created their own Torres Strait Islander flags as well as creating bridge art to celebrate the theme ‘Bridging Now to Next’.