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Last Friday, Tenison Woods College held “Italian Day” throughout the Junior School. This marked the College’s first Italian Day since 2016 and the return of the ‘Palio di Tenison’ after nearly 10 years! Students came to school dressed in Italian colours such as red, white and green and even the colours of their favourite soccer teams.

Throughout the morning students were involved in various activities within their year levels. With help from a member of our Italian community – Frank Eramo - our Year 2 students taught our Reception students how to play Bocce. Bocce is an Italian ball game similar to lawn bowls. Our Year 1 students learnt the story of Pinocchio, the puppet, made by the Italian woodcarver Geppetto, who came alive! Students then made their own Pinocchio figures. Year 3 students drew inspiration from Italian items to create their own mosaic art works. Mosaic art was very popular during the Ancient Roman times and can be seen today in many different buildings all across Italy. Our Year 5 students drew inspiration from various Italian artists and used this inspiration to create their own art works. They particularly focussed on trying to sculpt like Michelangelo by sculpting cakes of soap and turning these into various different things. They also created fruit face art works in the style of 16th century Italian artist Arcimboldo.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was created by the College’s Year 4 students. After learning about the “Palio di Siena” in their Italian lessons, students recreated the event here at the College. The Palio di Siena is the most famous Italian horse race in which the ‘Contrade’ of the town of Siena are represented and race against each other for the coveted Palio prize. Our Year 4 students firstly participated in a ‘Corteo Storico’ in which they paraded around the race track in their teams showing the horses they had created, banners, colours and team names to the entirety of the Junior School. They then participated in their own relay races involving hurdles and metre ruler horses. The entire Junior School cheered loudly throughout the afternoon and enjoyed being spectators of what was an excellent event. Perhaps the loudest cheer of all came for Professor Vecchiarelli and his Year 9 class who had also come down to watch the Palio. Once the Year 4’s had finished racing the Year 9’s and Professor Vecchiarelli were let loose in a race of their own.

The day culminated in an Italian themed Junior School Assembly in which the students were able to show what they had been working on during the day and the winners of the Palio were presented.

Ben Paparella | Junior and Middle School Italian Teacher Year 8E Home group and Pastoral Care Teacher