St Joseph’s, Weipa recently celebrated the annual Under 8’s Day – and there was plenty to smile about!
Under 8’s Day is a day to celebrate all of the things that are important for children under the age of eight. The theme was celebrating the diversity of languages within the home, culture and community.
“This year St Joseph’s held the event as a way of involving many local schools, preschools, kindys, daycare centres and providers as well as many community groups such as Queensland Ambulance, Queensland Police and our Weipa Town Authority Library,” said Amanda Saunders, APRE at St Joseph’s School, Weipa.
“Children up to eight years of age are involved in a morning of fun and learning as they participate in a variety of interactive activities.”
The event included sensory, gross motor and fine motor activities which were met with plenty of smiling little faces.
“I believe the most popular were the sensory play area and our police and ambulance. The children were able to step inside both an ambulance and police car. The tattoos the police service were placing onto students also seemed popular. Other stalls that did well were the fruit kebabs and badge stalls. Face painting also proved popular.”
With more than 400 people in attendance from Western Cape College, Cape Kids Daycare, Napranum Preschool and Kindy, Pebbles Playgroup, Family Day care providers and other community organisations such as RIO Tinto and a special visit from the Minister of Environment and the Arts Mrs Leeanne Enoch, the day was certainly a success.
There was great feedback from parents and one of the memorable moments was seeing the joy on the children’s faces as they saw their friends from other places come to our school.
“There has been a lot of verbal feedback from parents, community members and a parent told me how wonderful it was as her daughter was still talking about it a week later!”
The picnic lunch at the closing of the morning was a special way for everyone to all join together and celebrate who we all are in the lives of our students every day.
“This event is held annually and last year a discussion took place for both ourselves and Western Cape College to share the event as a collaborative event and conduct alternate years. So next year we will go back to Western Cape to celebrate.”
