This week, our Primary School celebrated our very first World Kangaroo Day, a special day dedicated to learning about Australia’s unique kangaroos and raising awareness of the need to protect them and their habitats.*
For our Year 3 and 4 students, our own Ms Tanja, a dedicated volunteer with Wildlife Rescuers Inc. and a local wildlife shelter, gave an inspiring talk. She highlighted the gentle, family-oriented nature of kangaroos, who live in close-knit family groups, or mobs. Her talk also raised students’ awareness of the challenges kangaroos face, including hunting, habitat loss, and climate change.
Ms Tanja shared two impactful ways to help protect kangaroos. First, she encouraged students to speak with their parents about avoiding pet foods that contain kangaroo meat, explaining that the kangaroo meat industry is both unethical and cruel. She also stressed the importance of reporting injured or deceased wildlife to local rescue organisations like Wildlife Rescuers Inc. (0417 506 941) or Wildlife Victoria (8400 7300), as a single call could save a joey’s life. The sessions resonated with both students and staff, who used her presentation as a foundation for meaningful follow-up discussions in the classroom.
Our lower Primary students in Foundation to Year 2 also had a hopping good time celebrating World Kangaroo Day. Ms Tanja surprised them by dressing up as a kangaroo to read Marsupial Sue by John Lithgow, a heartwarming story about a young kangaroo’s journey to self-acceptance. After storytime, students transformed into little joeys, hopping along in potato sacks turned into “kangaroo pouches,” filling the morning with laughter and joy.
Our inaugural World Kangaroo Day was a memorable opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of kangaroos and to feel inspired to protect local wildlife. Through Ms. Tanja’s talk and the days' activities, students took away simple but meaningful ways to care for these remarkable native animals and their natural habitats.