Harmony Game Schools Pack for every primary school in Australia
Thursday 20 March, 2014
News Release
A resource kit using the world game of football to promote cultural understanding will be rolled-out to primary schools across Australia as the nation gears up for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
To mark Harmony Day, Senator the Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells today announced Australian Government sponsorship of The 2014 Harmony Game Schools Pack, a resource for primary school teachers to teach young people about the value of cultural diversity to Australian society.
“Involvement in sport, as a player or spectator, unites people of all ages, cultures and religions. That is why the Australian Government in partnership with SBS has made a one off investment of $180,000 to deliver a program which uses sport to foster harmony and respect on and off the soccer pitch,” said Senator Fierravanti-Wells, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services with special responsibility for Multicultural Affairs & Settlement Services.
The 2014 Harmony Game was developed by Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and is a partnership with Football Federation Australia (FFA). Its ambassador is SBS football commentator and former Socceroo Craig Foster.
The Schools Pack enables schools to harness the power of the world’s most widely viewed sporting event in order to teach students more about the cultural diversity of their local, national and global communities. It provides teachers with a fun, stimulating and engaging classroom kit to equip them with all they need to teach their students about Australia’s multicultural society.
By taking lessons from the field to the classroom and focusing on cultural appreciation, inclusion and respect, the pack is designed as a complete cross-curricula unit of study for Years 3-8. It includes information, ideas, lesson plans, quizzes, learning games, maps, homework assignments, further research and pathways to a range of additional resources. Teachers can tailor the activities to suit syllabus requirements and set the tasks as individual student or as classroom group activities.
With more than 250 million registered players globally, football, or soccer, has a connection to more cultures, languages and ethnicities than any other sport globally and is also the most widely played game in the world.
The Australian Government will fund the roll-out of The 2014 Harmony Game Schools Pack to every primary school in Australia. It will arrive in primary schools in time for the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil in June.
SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid said: “SBS has always championed the sports which contribute to building strong communities. We are proud to be driving this great initiative which will provide a year-round resource to help teachers use the game to inspire our younger generations of Australians from all backgrounds to understand the importance of diversity.”
FFA CEO David Gallop said: “Football is the face of Australia and is a sport that truly reflects the cultural diversity of our nation. As Australia’s most inclusive and accessible sport, with 1.7 million participants, football bridges gender, age, linguistic, ethnic and religious divides.”
Football fever will sweep the country when the month long FIFA World Cup kicks off in June in Brazil, with 32 nations to compete in the event and over 700 million people expected to watch the broadcast worldwide.
The 2014 Harmony Game ambassador Craig Foster said: “There is no doubt that football changes the lives of kids every day both in Australia and around the world. Through football, we come to know different ways of life and this understanding breeds tolerance and respect. That’s what the game gives us all: experiences, friends, memories and new perspectives.”
Schools can now register their interest for The 2014 Harmony Game Schools Pack at
www.sbs.com.au/harmonygame
ENDS