Take a small school of 136 students, add an Italian teacher brimming with enthusiasm, and a group of enthusiastic colleagues, and you have the recipe for a perfect primary school Italian Day.

Even before passing through the front doors of St Augustine's Catholic Primary School in Yarraville, the preparation work that has been done in the run-up to the celebration of Italian Day, on September 15, is evident.

The school is completely decked out in streamers, chains and tricolour balloons; music resounds through the walls of the houses and the nearby church and, standing in front of DJ Frankie C's desk, Natalina Paglianiti gives dance instructions to the first group of children.

It starts with the tarantella: to the rhythm of the music, the children dance in groups or in pairs, and, needing little encouragement, headmaster Matthew Stead, dressed as a Roman emperor, also joins in the fun.

From the tarantella to Il ballo del qua qua, to the twist of Tintarella di luna, students dance to an array of classics from the Italian musical tradition.

In addition to these lively dance workshops, throughout the day, the students take part in a series of initiatives designed specifically for them, moving around classrooms and the schoolyard.

Between the Pinocchios, Mario and Luigi, footballers, Ninja Turtles, chefs and pizza makers, the children are all dressed up and ready to get involved in the activities organised by the teachers.

While one group reads a story set in Venice, another decorates a map of the Peninsula with tricolour pasta.

The older children of Years 5 and 6 reproduce some of the most iconic monuments of the Bel Paese with markers and pencils; others decorate Carnevale masks with feathers, stones and glitter, in true Venetian style.

Going out into the courtyard, one finds oneself in the middle of a soccer match and a bocce tournament; upon entering the gymnasium, the children can be seen trying to build the Tower of Pisa out of wooden blocks and Lego.

Towards mid-morning, the surprise that teacher Paglianiti has promised her boys arrives. She opens the gate to let in one of the most coveted cars of all time: a flame red Ferrari F355. The roar of its engine makes all of the students, and even some parents who are in the vicinity, come running.

Italian teacher Natalina Paglianiti with a Pinocchio puppet (left) and one of the students disguised as Mario posing with a reproduction of the Tower of Pisa (right).

The children compete to be the first to take a photo in front of the motorised myth.

Then comes a lunch of pizza, which the children eat accompanied by the musical stylings of the ever-popular Toto Cutugno; the ambience is similar to that of a traditional Italian village festival.

With the children’s bellies full, the activities begin again, including ‘Pin the moustache on Nonno Libero’, with reference to the actor Lino Banfi in the series Un medico in famiglia. At the end of the day Natalina Paglianiti looks tired, but she’s still smiling and having fun with her pupils, keeping rhythm with the tambourine and giving dance instructions over the microphone.

A colleague recounts how busy the Italian teacher had been in the previous weeks organising the event, so much so that even during her lunch breaks, Paglianiti was trying to teach the other teachers a few words in Italian.

The day ended with the sweet treat of an ice cream cone for all, and a group dance performed by the whole school.