St Patrick's Primary School, Lochinvar students win Harmony Day poster competition

The St Patrick's Primary School students, Ivy Chavez, Kaitlyn Babaran and Scarlett Whybrow, had their talent recognised in Sydney on June 20 at Parliament House, Sydney.

The girls' poster We are One - Living in Harmony was one of 4000 entries.

Kaitlyn said the poster represents the earth, stability and different people, and includes drawings of different skin colours, different famous landmarks and flags of different countries.

"In the centre of the picture there's the earth, which represents the world we currently live in, then you can see hands holding it, which represents power and stability, and you can also see there are a lot of different skin colours which represent different people," she said.

The trio, and their teacher Michelle Harvey caught up with Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison while they were in parliament.

They received a parliamentary mention from the speaker Greg Piper.

Ivy said it was exciting to be named the Northern NSW winner, especially because she worked on the picture with her friends.

Scarlett said during the drafting process they came up with a lot of copies that look very different, but ultimately they landed on the final design.

"Harmony Day shows that everyone lives in harmony together, no matter who it is or what it is," she said.

"It could be a tree that lives with us, so we've got to take care of that."

Ms Harvey has been running the Harmony Day competition at the school for a few years now, and every year it receives more entry.

The best poster in the school then enters the state competition. Kaitlyn, Ivy and Scarlett spent a week of their own time working on their entry.

Ms Harvey said she's very proud of the girls.

"They worked really hard on their poster, they each used the different skills they have to produce it to great effect," she said.

"They were really well behaved on the day and they did our school proud."

Also from the region, Shia Coates from St Paul's Primary School, Rutherford and Dawn Wanless from Holy Spirit Infants School, Abermain were highly commended in the Northern NSW category.