Tingha assistant principal Shauna Lennon said the planning for the day filled with activities had been long in the making. The result was islands of games, colouring, and projects to encourage the messages of teamwork, helping and friendship.

She said the day was important, because due to their isolation, each school’s students usually only mixed with each other.

“Meeting other children, mixing with different personalities, learning rules and how to be team members, all of that is very, very important,” she said.

She said the day was also valuable for their older students who had the chance to meet other seniors they would be joining in high school. She also felt it was a good chance to listen to new teachers, and good for teachers themselves to see what activities each school had prepared.

For some at the school, like Tingha and Gilgai general assistant and teacher’s aide, Rob Aitken, the day started at 6.30am. Rob was on site to begin the cleaning up process wreaked by the violent storm cell that dropped limbs and trees over the school grounds and crushed one of the school fences.

Despite the piles of natural debris, there was more than enough space for all the students from the two schools to run and play. Teams were made up from both schools, and students had to work with each other to get jobs done.

Gilgai principal Deborah Halliday said the day was a celebration of multicultural Australia and chance for the young people to practice the social skills of getting along and meeting other people. She felt it was a very good age to instil habits of acceptance and resilience.

“These children are going to need this for the rest of their lives, coming from small communities, they don’t often have the opportunities to mix outside their comfort zone, and their own peer group,” she said.

“And being able to introduce themselves, to children that they’ve not met before, then work out a way to play a game, play by the roles, to the satisfaction of all, is really important.”