Our Commitment to a Sustainable Future
Dear Families
Including sustainable practice in our ELC Strategic Direction was vital to ensure we remain committed to embedding this in everyday life. With a focus on waste, garden-to-plate and resourcefulness, we are continually building our sustainable practices within our learning context. These areas assist children to develop both an ethical and ecological understanding of their world.
Early in 2020, we identified that we needed a unified Centre approach to waste, so we brought in an expert. Charlie Aykroyd, General Manager of Australia Green Clean and a St Peter’s Girls’ Old Scholar, has become an ongoing resource for us, working alongside staff and children. We have been empowered with a deeper understanding about the ‘why’ and have implemented sustainable practices into our daily rituals. Some of these include gathering organic waste, recycling using our bin system, and taking responsibility around the use of plastics.
In Charlie’s recent work with us, she was able to provide us with feedback on our progress. Charlie can see that the children have become change agents both at home and in the ELC. She sees it as a priority to work with this generation of children and states the importance of empowering them beyond their life at ELC. She quite rightly believes that if we don’t take action now, our world will not be any different in the years to come. Working in partnerships with businesses has mutual benefits and is key in all areas of learning from ELC to Year 12.
In addition, Charlie was very impressed with our ELC Community Garden, observing how we are utilising our own developed worm farm and compost. The children can articulate the processes involved in growing our own food, from preparing the soil and planting, to harvesting and using the produce in recipes. Our recent cooking of broccoli pasta made from scratch is an example of the type of experiences shared between educators and children.
To determine our progress, we have been reflecting on how far we have come since the beginning of the year. We are now successfully composting, recycling and utilising a unified bin system across the Centre. The children are the driving force behind our garden-to-plate experiences as they lead us with genuine interest in the garden and specific questions about seasonal produce.
Most importantly though, we can see that the children are now so mindful about what they use, thoughtful in their lunch packaging and organics bin, and resourceful in their use of materials. Families are engaged in our dialogue and continually tell us about the impacts of this learning on their home life.
The connection and respect our children and staff have with our Earth is further enhanced through our Kaurna connections to culture. We are on a journey far beyond occasional or isolated learning experiences; rather, we are developing a way of life that will empower our youngest citizens. Our advocacy in this area is something to be proud of and will continue to drive us into the future.
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning
Important Dates
Thursday 20 August: EAL/D Session for Families
Monday 14 – Tuesday 22 September: Parent-Teacher Conversations
Have You Returned Your Portfolio?
We hope you have enjoyed reviewing your child’s portfolio with documentation of their learning throughout Semester 1. Sharing your child’s learning journey is pivotal to us at the ELC. Therefore, we ask that you please return your child’s portfolio so we can continue utilising this as a tracking tool throughout Semester 2.
We invite you to provide us with feedback on the portfolio, as always, appreciating our shared partnership.
Contact Us
We are enjoying the conversations we are having with families and encourage you to utilise our email system if you don’t get the chance to speak with us upon arrival or departure.
Please see our key teachers’ availability and contact details below:
Kate Mount (Director of Early Learning):
Monday – Friday kmount@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Annabelle Redmond (Learning Community 1):
Monday – Friday aredmond@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Mel Angel (Learning Community 1):
Monday – Friday mangel@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Kirsty Porplycia (Learning Community 2):
Monday – Thursday kporplycia@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Nell Tierney (Learning Community 2):
Wednesday – Friday ntierney@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Laura Reiters (Learning Community 2):
Monday – Friday lreiters@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Igniting an Early Love for The Arts
One of our School’s emerging Signature Programs is the Symphony of Languages (SOL), operating within the ELC. Caterina Pennestri and Eva Simitsis constitute this wonderful team. They work across all rooms alongside the teachers to create expressive opportunities for extending the learning through the hundred languages.
Intentional experiences are offered in the Atelier spaces. The combination of skill sets with Eva’s dance background and Caterina’s visual arts and education background provide leading pedagogy from the SOL team at our ELC. Together, they ensure a genuine passion for artistic languages, and technique is promoted from the earliest of stages.
St Peter’s Girls’ P&F Family Day
Join us on Sunday 18 October for an afternoon of fun and community at the St Peter’s Girls’ P&F Family Day.
Tickets include pasta, pizza and a glass of wine or soft drink; additional drinks and gelato will be available for purchase.
The afternoon will feature kids’ activities and roving entertainment; BYO chairs, tables and/or picnic rug.
Ticket Prices: Adult – $20; Child – $15; Family of Four – $50
Book via: www.trybooking.com/BKUAL
来自黄老师的信息
我们的承诺：一个可持续发展的未来
我们将可持续实践纳入到我们ELC的战略方向，这也是我们坚持致力于将此融入到日常学习生活的重点。在我们的学习环境中，我们关注生活中的浪费、从菜园直接到餐盘的理念，以及积极创意决策，来不断建立和发展我们的可持续实践。这些实践帮助我们的孩子们发展对他们对世界的伦理和生态的理解。
早在2020年初，我们就意识到我们中心需要一个统一的垃圾处理方式，所以我们请来了一位专家。查莉·艾克罗伊德女士是澳大利亚绿色清洁协会的总经理，也曾是圣彼得女校的老校友。她同员工和孩子们一起工作学习，为我们长期提供了学习资源。我们对“为什么要可持续”有了更深的理解，并在日常学习生活中实施了可持续的实践。其中包括有：收集有机垃圾，利用我们的垃圾桶系统进行回收，在使用塑料时谨慎负责。
在查莉最近和我们的工作中，她为我们所做的实践提供了积极的反馈。我们的孩子们在这个过程中成为了最好的推动者，无论是在ELC还是在家里。同这代孩子们共同学习是她的重中之重，她强调了为这些孩子赋能，其影响会超越其在ELC的生活。 她坚信如果我们现在不采取行动，我们的世界在未来几年就不会发生变化。 从ELC到12年级，同企业的合作，会互惠互利，在各个领域的学习中都至关重要。
此外，查莉对我们的社区花园印象深刻，她看到我们如何利用自己开发的蚯蚓农场和制作堆肥。孩子们能清楚地说出种植食物的过程，从准备土壤和种植，到收获和在食谱中使用食材。我们最近用花园里收获了西兰花，从头开始制作西兰花意大利面，这是是老师和孩子们分享经验的一个最好例子。
然而，最重要的是，我们可以看到孩子们通过学习，现在非常注意他们使用的午餐包装以及把什么放进我们的有机垃圾桶，思考如何使用我们的资源和材料。通过和家长们的对话，我们了解到这种学习对他们家庭生活的影响。
孩子和老师们与地球环境的联系和尊重同样加强了我们对于土著文化的关联。我们踏上的学习之路，远远不是偶尔或者孤立的体验。我现在所发展的生活方式也深刻的影响着我们“最年轻的公民”他们未来的生活方式。我们在此所倡导的理念是值得我们骄傲的，并将继续推动我们走向未来。
Kate Mount
早教中心主任
Emma works in Learning Community 2 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9am – 5pm.
Sustainability in the ELC
Each day, we are witnessing children take active responsibility for their environment.
These daily rituals include collecting food waste for the worm farm, feeding the plants with worm juice, harvesting vegetables from the ELC Community Garden to cook for late snacks and working alongside Charlie Aykroyd, General Manager of Australian Green Clean, to empower the children to successfully navigate their journey of sustainability.
By embedding these daily rituals, we intend for the children to understand that sustainable eating is about choosing foods that are healthful to our environment, and that we need to take responsibility to make a difference in positive waste management.
Green and Clean Question of the Day: What can we feed worms?
Staff Spotlight
Nell Tierney is one of our Learning Community 2 teachers. Nell came to us with a strong background in early childhood and is an advocate for the outdoors. She leads groups in Ferguson Conservation Park, recognising the importance of educating children in the outdoor spaces. She has been pivotal in the establishment of our Community Garden and loves to cook with our produce. Nell is an asset to our teaching group.
What is your teaching background?
I have a Bachelor of Teaching (Junior Primary) and a Diploma of Early Childhood. I am also currently studying Mental Health and Wellbeing in Early Childhood at Flinders University. I began my teaching career in London where I worked for seven years as an early years teacher. After relocating back to Adelaide and having two children of my own, I taught at Wendy’s Nursery School for 12 years before moving to St Peter’s Girls’ ELC where I have been for five years.
What is your favourite part of working in the St Peter’s Girls’ ELC?
Walking into Learning Community 2 and being greeted with huge smiles and a joyous welcome is the icing on the cake that starts my day. I am privileged to work and research alongside extremely passionate and committed educators who actively advocate for early childhood education every day. St Peter’s Girls’ School is a unique community that is inclusive, based on relationships, mutual trust and respect.
Children grow, learn and thrive when families and educators work together in partnership. This requires educators to acknowledge and utilise parents’ expert knowledge about their children, and promote open communication, collaboration and shared decision-making.
Why are you passionate about working with children?
As children are citizens from birth, they have the right to learn, experience and thrive from birth. As an early childhood educator, I get to share in these magical moments with children, scaffolding them to develop positive dispositions, encouraging them to ask questions, solve problems and engage in critical thinking.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Engaging in anything outdoors and going on regular holidays with family and friends are my ideal happy moments. I spend a lot of time running and hiking in the Adelaide Hills, swimming in Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot in the summer and experimenting with new recipes.
Find Out What Happens Throughout
the Day at ELC
The ELC Learning Community Home Page is a dynamic online sharing space that invites you to participate in the communities’ learning as it happens. We use this tool to communicate important information with families and provide a window into the children’s life at the ELC, as educators share documentation of teaching, specialist lessons and spontaneous moments.
Accessing myLink for the first time:
- Visit https://mylink.stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
- To set your password, click the link located below the sign in section
- Your user name was emailed to you upon your child’s commencement (see Helpdesk contact details below if you cannot source your user name)
- Enter your unique user name, click ‘Next’
- Enter the security code sent to your mobile
- Enter the password you would like to use and press submit
- Return to the login screen at https://mylink.stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au to access myLink
- Several instructional videos are available via the Welcome page if you click on the ‘HELP’ menu tab.
Accessing the Learning Community Home Page through myLink:
- Access myLink as per the above instructions
- Click on the ‘MYLINK HOME’ tab
- Click on your child’s name tab
- Under ‘Class Contacts’, click on the ELC room name (you may need to enter your user name and password again)
If you have any issues accessing or navigating myLink, please contact the IT Helpdesk via helpdesk@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au or 8334 2227.
ELC’s Online Etiquette Policy:
Please note that the ELC Learning Community Home Page and ELC News contain images and videos of other children. We therefore ask that you do not copy or share images or videos, especially on social media, if they contain other children.
News from Learning Community 1
We are engaged in an ongoing learning journey of developing a sustainable mindset in our youngest learners. It is our intention that through daily practice and conversation, our children begin to develop a deep respect for the natural world, through which they feel a responsibility to care for it. As educators, we believe we have a responsibility to foster this.
What does sustainable practice look like in the life of a two or three year old? Each day in Learning Community 1, we engage in a number of practices that encourage caring for our natural world:
- We have been learning about how to dispose of our waste correctly, identifying opportunities to recycle and reuse different materials and to minimise our waste going to landfill.
- We divide our food scraps after each morning and afternoon tea, determining which can go into the worm farms and eventually back into the ground, rather than all into the bin.
- We are mindful with our water usage, developing the understanding that it is a finite resource.
- We care for the plants growing both indoors and outdoors, helping to water them and ensure they get sunlight.
- In the ELC Community Garden, we have been caring for the produce growing and developing an understanding that we can grow food to share in our community rather than having to buy everything at the shops.
When we embed these sustainable practices into our every day, they become natural habits that our children will take into the future. We are mindful to always discuss the ‘why’ behind an action. When our children understand the purpose behind their action, they begin to take responsibility.
The care we show for our natural world is enhanced by our ongoing learning of the Kaurna culture. Our Kaurna elder Tamaru shared with us that the Kaurna people consider the land to be their mother. The land can provide for you and look after you. We must do the same in return.
Mel Angel and Annabelle Redmond
Learning Community 1
News from Learning Community 2
“A symbol is a picture that means something.” — Ferguson Room Friend
Our inquiry this term, ‘Symbols and pictures can convey messages’, has a strong connection to our work last term, which had an emphasis on creativity, imagination, storytelling and book-making. This has fed our journey into understanding that pictures and symbols can convey a message.
We offered the children the initial provocation of Tamaru’s t-shirt.
- What can we see on his shirt?
- Do you know what these images mean?
The children were invited to share their understandings and we focused in on the two lizards. Some children could articulate the meaning of the lizards based on a story they had heard from Tamaru. Some identified familiar Kaurna symbols, while others used the images on his shirt to tell a story.
The teachers realised that not all children had heard Tamaru’s story about his t-shirt. After consulting with Tamaru and capturing him on video, we learnt that the lizards are called ‘barking geckos’. The gecko at the front is his brother, and the other is Tamaru. He told us he is always chasing his brother. The geckos have significant symbolism for him.
As we began to create a collaborative narrative, a friend added the ELC logo to her drawing. She was giving us an invitation to think about representing the ELC in the form of a lizard.
“It’s an ELC lizard. We can make an ELC lizard”
This provocation from one child was then offered across the community. If we had an ELC gecko/lizard, what pictures or symbols could we add that represent the ELC? Why do you love the ELC? When you think of the ELC, what comes to mind? What is important to you at ELC?
These representations have been gathered and placed on a larger image of a gecko in both classrooms. The children are now thinking about how they can refine their ideas and continue to deepen their understanding of symbols and how they convey meaning.
Kirsty Porplycia, Nell Tierney and Laura Reiters
Learning Community 2
Absences in the ELC
Student Absences
Please notify the School via one of the following methods for late arrivals/early departures and absences, ensuring a reason for the absence is included.
Text: 0428 601 957 (save to phone contacts as SPGS)
Email: attendance@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Phone: 8334 2200 or phone the relevant room as per the contact list below.
Please include the relevant room teacher when sending via email.
ELC Room Contacts:
Bell Yett – 8155 5777
Ferguson – 8155 5776
Hallett – 8155 5775
Stonyfell – 8155 5778
ELC Immunisation Policy
Under the Government’s No Jab No Play policy, families must meet immunisation requirements to attend the ELC and receive the Child Care Subsidy. Families are required to provide all approved immunisation records to the ELC. Further information is available by clicking here.
Children who are suffering from illnesses such as those listed below must be excluded from ELC in line with our Exclusion Policy.
Influenza
Chicken Pox
Conjunctivitis
Diarrhoea
Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease
High Temperature
Infectious Hepatitis
Measles
Meningitis
Mumps
Rubella (German Measles)
Scabies
Scarlet Fever
School Sores (Impetigo)
Upper Respiratory Tract Infection
Vomiting
Whooping Cough