Darcy Rd Public School Wentworthville celebrates Hindi Divas

       

By Neena Badhwar

Darcy Road Public School in Wentworthville celebrated Hindi Divas on September 14. Whole school assembly had children, their parents and invited guests witness a colourful, informative and entertaining cultural program put together by Hindi teacher Kulwinder Kaur. Kulwinder worked on organising the event for the last few months while teaching her 80 students Hindi.

There is another   Hindi teacher employed by the school, Ekta Chanana who teaches beginner level Hindi to around 110 students. Ekta had her own little Hindi Divas celebration in her class room earlier in the week with her students reciting poems a session that was watched by other teachers as well as parents of the children.

Well 14th September proudly etched a mark on everyone as presentation in Hindi on the states of India namely – Punjab, Bengal, Rajasthan and Tamilnadu by the students dressed in colourful costumes impressed the audience. Dance items created a lot of excitement as the whole school watched performances – classical, bollywood as well as folk. Children eagerly participated with proud parents clapping away to encourage them. The item ‘dhola re’ was well received.

Beaming principal Trudy Hopkins with Consul General Vawna (top)

Volunteer mothers Laila and Dimple Mehra (bottom)

Teachers were all dressed in Indian clothes and donned in Indian jewellery with principal Trudy Hopkins in beautiful shalwar suit and a proud forehead tikka. She said to TIDU, “We have around 190 hindi speaking students but the school on the whole has students coming from various cultural background such as Tamil, Gujarati, Maltese and other countries.” She said Hindi being the largest group is why she was able to get departmental support to hire two Hindi teachers. Next step is, she said, that the Tamil parents want Tamil teachers to teach Tamil language.

Kulwinder Kaur (in blue) with Arunesh Seth at the function

Kulwinder was busy not only conducting the program but also she lovingly directed students on and off stage – one could see that there was excitement all over. We are sure that this kind of an event helps students to gain a lot of confidence in themselves and in their identity. Kulwinder was ably supported by a team of volunteer mothers who helped the kids prepare the items as well as dress them up for their respective items. One could observe a line of mothers, the silent working bees, who must have worked hard to help stage an event such as this. It was quite professionally conducted and the kids were at their best behaviour.

Its a matter of great pride to see children study in an environment of acceptance which is promoted by the school, its teachers as well as the principal. Just in a matter of a year the two teachers have brought with them skills, variety and learning which makes Darcy Rd Public School a model for other schools in the area where the cultural mix is changing due to new migrant families settling there.

Hindi Divas was attended by guests from Indian Consulate – Consul General Vanlal Vawna, Consul S K Verma, Durga Owen, Labor candidate from Seven Hills area representing MP Julie Owen, Parramatta Councillor Sameer Pandey, Board of Education Officer Sana Zareika who looks after 30 languages taught in various schools and Kirin Sirikonda of Centeri Publishing Group. They were fed by the mothers who had brought an array of dishes ranging from Punjab to Tamil Nadu to Bengal.

After the performance there was more in store in the school yard where over 100 students performed a flash mob with everyone watching kids enjoying themselves thoroughly. There were three beautifully decorated stalls with Indian handicrafts which mothers manning the stall said that all the items had been sourced from homes and that nothing came from the shops.

As one walked out one could see how two mothers carried two heavy bags of all what they had brought from home to give the school a colourful and rich look, a heritage and handicraft showcase which we can say with confidence that turned Darcy Rd Public School into a little India for a day which would have left a deep impression in the young minds of little children.

Well done Kulwinder Kaur and Ms. Hopkins for a colourful Hindi Divas !

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