Harmony game pack for Aussie schools

Football will be used to promote cultural understanding in primary schools across Australia with the Harmony Game Pack being rolled out ahead of the World Cup.

Football will be used to promote cultural understanding in primary schools across Australia with the Harmony Game Pack being rolled out ahead of the World Cup in Brazil.

Schools can now register their interest for The 2014 Harmony Game Schools Pack at www.sbs.com.au/harmonygame

To mark Harmony Day, Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews today launched the roll-out 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.

The 2014 Harmony Game was developed by Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and is a partnership between SBS, Football Federation Australia (FFA) and the Australian Government.

Its ambassador is SBS football commentator and former Socceroo Craig Foster.

It enables schools to harnesses 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.

The pack 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 pitch 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 2014 Harmony Game Schools Pack will arrive in primary schools in time for the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup which kicks off in Brazil in June, with 32 nations to complete in the event and over 700 million people expected to watch the broadcast worldwide.

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.”

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 diverse backgrounds to understand the importance of diversity.”

Football fever will sweep the country when the month long FIFA World Cup kicks off in June in Brazil with 32 nations to complete in the event and over 700 million people expected to watch the broadcast worldwide.

Foster added: “There is no doubt that football changes the lives of kids everyday 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.”

More information is at www.sbs.com.au/harmonygame