Pupils at St Paul's Primary gave diversity a practical meaning this morning when they transformed their classes into 14 mini-countries and the school's hall into a food-tasting experience of delicacies from the 24 countries they come from, including Malta.

PSD teacher Catherine Micallef told timesofmalta.com that the school, together with PSD teachers, decided to go practical on the issue of diversity, a subject in the PSD curriculum, especially since more than 100 of the school's 800 students came from 24 different countries.

So the 14 Year 4, 5 and 6 classes were each given a country to work upon and they had to transform their classroom into that country with posters, colours, presentations and power points. They even had to prepare dance and celebrations to perform to their school colleagues.

This morning they had to turn up at school in the costume or colours of "their" country and tell their colleagues all about the country's traditions, uniqueness and culture.

The parents of the foreign students were also invited to celebrate unity in diversity and all welcomed the opportunity to cook their country's dishes and present them for tasting in the school corridor.

Some mothers were at school to start the cooking from as early as 4 a.m.

Ms Micallef said the initiative was very well received and the school would like to hold the activity again next year even extending it to the younger classes.