Catherine McAuley bringing Japanese culture to Westmead

Catherine McAuley Japanese students with three of the students from St Paul the Apostle Primary, Winston Hills

Primary school students got a taste of Japan on Friday 30 July when Year 10 students at Catherine McAuley Westmead hosted a Japanese Cultural Day.

The Catherine McAuley students were dressed in kimonos and treated the younger visitors to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, sushi making classes, an origami hands-on workshop and the chance to play some traditional and contemporary Japanese games.

‘Our Japanese Cultural Day is always a popular event with our visiting primary schools students and offers our Year 10 Japanese students the opportunity to put their leadership skills into practice as the day is entirely run by the students,’ said principal Margery Jackman. ‘At Catherine McAuley we encourage our young women to be leaders and seek to provide frequent opportunities for them to develop their confidence and leadership skills.’

‘The Japanese Day gives the students this opportunity while allowing our visitors to have a taste of Japanese culture and the use of the language in context,’ she said. ‘It is also wonderful to see the interaction between the primary school students and secondary ones with lots of smiling faces.’

The school has a strong Japanese language program and the LOTE (languages other than English) team at the school aims to provide many opportunities for students to extend their experience of the language they are studying with cultural activities and overseas travel opportunities.

The day provided the visiting primary school students with the chance to experience the language and culture of Japan, as well as interact with secondary school students.

Primary schools who had students attend the Japanese Cultural Day were St Paul the Apostle Primary, Winston Hills; St Anthony’s Primary, Girraween; St Oliver’s Primary, Harris Park; St Monica’s Primary, North Parramatta; Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary, Greystanes; Our Lady of Mt Carmel Primary, Wentworthville; and Sacred Heart Primary, Westmead.

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