Community
29 May, 2025
Students unite to celebrate cultures
TERANG College students embraced their differences in a celebration of the “incredible” diversity the student cohort boasts.
Last Thursday students with an international family background welcomed their families into the school’s kitchens to cook up a feast of traditional cuisines from around the world.
The multicultural celebration was held as part of Education Week as the theme for 2025 is ‘Celebration of Cultures’.
Terang College’s celebration saw students with a family background from the Philippines, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Fiji, Turkey, Kenya, Italy, Zimbabwe and Colombia all represented.
The students and their families not only prepared traditional foods for all students to enjoy but also laid out information detailing how their family was connected to the other cultures, its traditions, attire and fun facts.
Terang College principal Kath Tanner said it was a proud moment for students to unite behind a message of understanding and acceptance.
“Education Week this year is about celebrating different cultures, and at Terang College we have lots of different cultures in our student cohort,” she said.
“We contacted all our families and asked if they would like to be involved, and they were all so generous in giving their time to bring along food for us to try and to share more about their cultures.
“The whole idea is we hope our students will be able to share, to understand and learn more about each other.
“We don’t often have such an opportunity to involve everyone and make them feel connected, so I think this is a way for them to understand how we are connected despite our differences.”
Mrs Tanner said it was “incredible” for a town as small as Terang to boast so many people with a background in so many different cultures, which she attributed to diversity in the agricultural industry and a shared fondness for rural living.
“I think it comes down to the fact we have a lot of people who are working on farms and embracing country living,” she said.
“Celebrating their cultures is important – it gives all of us an opportunity to show them that they belong here.”
Mrs Tanner said acceptance of everyone was important not only for the school community but for those living in a close-knit town, where who you are matters far more than what you look like.
“We’ve got to teach our kids to be tolerant and that starts with understanding more about each other, rather than seeing a point of difference,” she said.
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