St Anthony’s Primary School in Noble Park, an outer south-east suburb of Melbourne, is a very special and unique school. Its 300 students encompass 43 different cultural groups, with 93 percent of its cohort learning English as an Additional Language (EAL).
“It does bring some challenges,” the passionate educator admits.
“…but we really look at it as such a positive atmosphere and community. It’s our strength, our diversity, and we celebrate it often, and in terms of teaching, good teaching is good teaching for everyone, no matter their background.”
It was very soon after COVID and Nagel says there’d been numerous negative stereotypes in the news and throughout the media that had started to impact families, students, and even her teachers.
With occasional incidents in the playground, Nagel says she and her staff determined a concerted shift on the negative stereotypes was required.
“Like I said, we’re very proud of our diversity and … we wanted to ensure that that was celebrated by everybody within our community.”
With funding provided by Together For Humanity’s Intercultural Community Program, an award-winning action plan was hatched by a crack team that included herself; Stephanie Webb, Religious Education Leader and Leader of Learning and Teaching; Christelle Lim, the school’s Student, Family and Community Engagement leader; and Lisa Occhietti, Community Hub Leader.
“We’ve always worked together to ensure that community partnerships are fostered and developed, and that things in that space are happening,” Nagel shares.
To facilitate better understanding between students and people of different backgrounds and religions, a plan was devised to implement three key priorities.
“The first was to increase the school’s understanding of our community including their beliefs, faith and culture through professional learning for staff and community conversations with parents,” Nagel shares.
“The second was to celebrate and build awareness of diversity through school-based celebrations such as faith-based and cultural celebrations; and the third was to increase students’ awareness of their own culture, enable them to have an understanding of other students’ culture and traditions and to promote respect for diversity including diverse cultural/religious/racial and ethnic groups.”
Not long after, Nagel contacted the City of Greater Dandenong for locations and contact details for places of worship, then liaised with faith leaders and later mapped out an excursion for her staff.
“We hired a bus and visited a mosque, and then a sikh temple and later an orthodox church,” she says.
“The whole thing was really well received by both the staff and by the places of worship.
“The faith leaders were proud to share their faith, their culture and their beliefs with us … and we were able to further develop our own faith understanding by looking at the things that are similar and things that are different as well.”
St Anthony’s Primary School’s 300 students encompass 43 different cultural groups. “We’re such a unique community and our goal has always been for every person to flourish and be known within our community,” principal Erin Nagel says.
Following the teacher’s excursion, Year 5 and 6 students retraced their path.
“…some of the responses from the students were really moving,” Nagel says.
“They filled out a survey following the visits and shared how going on the excursion made them feel more calm, particularly that the school was acknowledging their faith and their beliefs.”
To further staff professional learning, parents were invited in to share their cultural stories, such as how their family arrived in Australia and their faiths and beliefs.
“They were more than happy to share their story, and, importantly, they were really proud that the school had taken the time to acknowledge that they have a story and that it’s a big part of their life.”
Another transformative focus, Nagel reports, has been looking into trauma training, specifically the Berry Street program.
“I’ve been working with Berry Street again this year to ensure that our practices are trauma-informed,” Nagel says.
“Trauma is not just felt by the individual involved in an event or events.
“There are different levels of trauma involving these families, one by the family members that have experienced it, but then there’s a secondary sort of level from the children whose parents have experienced it.
“So the children might not have been there themselves or been part of the trauma, however, it’s passed on through the experiences of their parents and grandparents.”
Interfaith understanding is a vital part of any caring and successful society, especially in such a culturally diverse country as Australia, and particularly in a small school with kids from 43 different backgrounds.
“…we’ve seen the way we’ve been able to break down some of those negative stereotypes within our community and it just gives people a greater understanding and respect,” Nagel explains.
“…at St Anthony’s, our high expectations are all based on respect – respect ourselves, respect others and respect our school.
“So that intercultural understanding enables our students, our staff and our families to be able to fulfil those expectations of respect.”
As they say, the proof is in the pudding – in the past three years, in response to the question ‘How well does the school consider your family’s cultural background’, parental responses have gone from 65 per cent in 2022, to 73 per cent in 2023, and to 93 per cent in 2024.
In recognition of the action team’s efforts, St Anthony’s was one of nine recipients in the School Team Award category of the Together For Humanity (TFH) National Awards for Intercultural Excellence, presented in September by Australian Human Rights Commission Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman and Special Envoy for Social Cohesion, Peter Khalil MP.
The school’s award recognised teachers or school teams who facilitated curriculum enhancement, interschool initiatives, community engagement and whole-school approaches.
To be honoured in this way is yet more evidence that the school is not only on the right track, but is excelling.
“…we’re such a unique community and our goal has always been for every person to flourish and be known within our community,” Nagel concludes.
“Having this award, not only does it celebrate the work that we’re doing, but it really emphasises that we’re reaching and achieving our goal.”
