Dear Families
As we embark upon a very busy part of the term, I would like to share with you the significance of May 27 to June 3, Reconciliation Week in the ELC. In the next two editions of ELC News, we will be giving focus to the work we do every day in the ELC to build the foundation of understandings of Kaurna culture. This year’s theme is ‘More Than a Word – Reconciliation Takes Action’.
Our role in the ELC is to embed the history and culture of Indigenous Australians in our curriculum and daily life. We are committed to this, as our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) states, through the three pillars of Relationships, Respect and Opportunities. Our children are our future and they need to be equipped with the skills, knowledge and understandings of Kaurna culture. At the ELC, we actively work towards building our own understandings so that we can educate our children within our learning context in an informed manner.
You may have heard discussions at home about our Acknowledgement to Country. A favourite line is we look after everything on the land. Our children have been unpacking the meaning of this; it is a shared responsibility. Responsibility is the key concept in our inquiry this term so it fits perfectly as a guiding concept and action. This is one very current example of how we work alongside children and educators in a meaningful way, striving for actions to demonstrate understandings.
We are amazed at how our children can articulate their meanings of these special words. We seek an outcome whereby our children will understand that words mean so much more than being recited daily; they are asking us to act accordingly and agree to the agreements we have made together. Of course, this work has so much more meaning to us as we work so closely alongside our Kaurna elder Tamaru. Each morning, we recite our Acknowledgement to Country in each room at the ELC. The teachers say it in Kaurna every morning in their early meeting in the ELC. It is a treasured ritual.
Tamaru will be joining us next Tuesday June 1 in the ELC from 9am with a special smoking ceremony to acknowledge Reconciliation Week. We are inviting our families to be a part of this special ritual, joining the children to show our respect for our nation’s first people. Please know we would love to see you if you can stay for a little while after drop-off.
It is an honour to share our progressive work with the wider community. This morning, I represented the education sector of South Australia from ELC to Year 12 on the panel at the Reconciliation SA National Reconciliation Week Breakfast at the Convention Centre. Speaking to over 1600 people, I was able to advocate for the importance of having and living a RAP, and the amazing work we do in the ELC. This certainly is one of the proudest moments I have had as a leader of such an incredible ELC community. I thank our ELC community and Tamaru for empowering me to be able to speak so passionately about the work we share.
I’m also looking forward to sharing a delicious yum cha lunch with families on Sunday 6 June. If you haven’t booked your ticket yet, I encourage you to do so as this will be yet another fantastic opportunity for our wider community to come together and strengthen our connections.
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning
Important Dates
Monday 31 May: Mid-Year Reception Transition Visits commence
Tuesday 1 June: ELC Reconciliation Week Celebration
Sunday 6 June: Family Yum Cha Lunch
Monday 7 June: New Families Welcome Evening, 6.30pm
Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 June: ELC Student Photos
Join Our Reconciliation Acknowledgement
We are being visited by Tamaru on Tuesday 1 June, who will perform a special smoking ceremony to acknowledge Reconciliation Week. We would love families to join us and be a part of this special ritual, which will begin from 9am.
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning
Family Yum Cha Lunch – Don’t Miss Out!
You are invited to a family yum cha lunch hosted by the Friends of the ELC on Sunday 6 June from 10am – 12pm at Chef Dong, 3/103 Payneham Road, St Peters. Bookings are essential via www.trybooking.com/BQOXX as spots are limited.
We look forward to seeing you at this fantastic community event.
The Friends of the ELC
Vacation Care Bookings Open
In order to streamline bookings and make the process easier for our families, the ELC Vacation Care booking system is now online through TryBooking. Bookings will close on Tuesday 15 June, and can be accessed via www.trybooking.com/BRPZB
A booking instruction sheet has gone home with families. If you haven’t received it, you can download a copy here.
Henrietta Balnaves and Danniella Capaldo
Extended Hours Care Team
ELC Student Photos
Our ELC group and individual photos will be held on Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 June from 9am – 12 noon. Order forms have been distributed to families. The process for ordering photos is explained on the order form. Please read the instructions carefully as they outline the available packages and payment methods.
Please ensure your child is wearing their ELC uniform on each of these days as they will potentially appear in multiple class shots depending on the days they attend. Please also ensure your child’s hair is styled as neatly as possible.
Each day will commence with group photos followed by individual photos. Individual photos will only occur once for each child, regardless of the number of days they attend. Sibling photos will be taken from 10.10 – 10.30am, Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 June in the ELC.
If you wish for your children to have sibling photos taken, please fill out the additional sibling photo order form which has also been sent home to families. We ask that if your child’s sibling is in the School, that you please organise for your daughter to come to the ELC at the commencement of recess on the appropriate day.
If your child does not attend the ELC on these days and you would like them to have a photo taken, please arrange with your child’s teacher to bring them in to join in with their room’s group photo. We will organise for their individual photo to be taken at the same time.
Please return your order forms to your child’s teacher as soon as possible. At the latest, the order forms can be returned on the day of the photos. If you have any further enquiries, please contact Fiona McGregor via fmcgregor@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.
来自黄老师的信息
亲爱的家长朋友们，
当我们ELC慢慢进入我们这个学期最忙碌的时间，我们想和大家分享在5月27日至6月3日关于“和解周”的重要意义。在接下来两周的ELC简报中，我们将重点放在建立对土著文化基础理解的工作上来。今年的主题是“和解需要行动”。
我们在ELC的角色是将原住民的历史和文化嵌入到我们的日常的课程和生活中。我们致力于通过“关系”、“尊重”和“机会”这三个支柱实现这一目标。我们的孩子是我们的未来，他们需要具备对土著文化的知识和理解。在ELC我们积极致力于建立我们自己的理解，以便我们可以在学习环境中教育我们的孩子们。
你可能在家里听到过我们关于对我们这个国家所作的“承诺”，最喜欢的一句话是“我们会照顾土地上所有的一切”。我们的孩子一直在摸索这意味着什么，这是我们一个共同的责任。而“责任”这一词是本学期我们探究的关键概念，因此它完全可以用来解释作为引导我们行动的“概念”和“方式”。这也是一个例子，展示我们如何以一种有意义的方式与孩子们和教师们合作，努力用行动来表达我们的的理解。
我们惊讶于我们的孩子可以如此清楚地表达这些特殊词汇的含义。我们寻求一种结果，让我们的孩子明白，话语的意义远不止是每天背诵，他们要求采取相应的行动，遵循我们共同制定的协议。当然，这项工作对我们更有意义的是让我们如此密切地与我们的土著（Kaurna）长者Tamaru一起工作。每天早上，我们都会在ELC的每个房间背诵我们对国家的“承诺”。老师们每天早上在ELC的会议上用土著语言陈述这些话。这是一种十分宝贵的仪式。
Tamaru将在下周二（6月1日）早上9:00加入我们。在ELC举行一个特别的土著“点烟仪式”来感谢“和解周”。我们邀请我们的家长朋友们参加这个特殊的仪式，和孩子们一起表达我们对原住民的尊重。在你们送完孩子之后，我们期待在那里见到大家。
我们很荣幸能和我们的社区大家庭里分享我们不断进步的成果。今天，我的园长会去到会议中心的“和解周早餐会”上代表从ELC到12年级的南澳大利亚教育部发表演讲。在1600多人的演讲中，倡导实行RAP（和解行动计划）的重要性，以及我们在ELC所做的令人惊叹的工作。在这一刻，作为ELC社区的领导者，我们的园长，为我们所作的工作感到十分自豪。我们感谢ELC社区和Tamaru，让我们园长能够如此热情地谈论我们所从事的工作。
预祝大家周末愉快！
Emma Huang works in Learning Community 2 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9am – 5pm.
Staff Spotlight
Jade has been a valued member of the St Peter’s Girls’ ELC team since 2016, and recently completed her Kids Yoga Teacher Training earlier this year. She loves learning side-by-side with the children and being surrounded by our wonderful ELC community.
Why are you passionate about working with children?
I enjoy every moment to be with the children, play and laugh with them, help them learn, watch them grow. Working with children makes me a better person; every day they watch, listen and learn from me. I also understand every child is someone’s greatest treasure, they are our future; so, they desire the best education possible, then they will give back to the world. Therefore, as an educator, I have the responsibility to keep challenging my perspective and expand my understanding.
What makes St Peter’s Girls’ ELC special?
There are so many things that make our ELC special: the Learning Community model, Kaurna culture learning with Tamaru, Ferguson Park, Reggio Emilia principles, our Atelier and ELC Community Garden, as well as the strong sense of welcoming throughout the Centre.
What does a typical day look like in your Learning Community?
Seeing a wide range of learning experiences for the children to choose from. Learning side-by-side with the children. Listening to all the stories shared by the children. Running and playing around the ELC with the children, and so much more!
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Spending time with my family and friends. I love hiking, walking, going on holidays, exploring small towns, reading and music. One of my new hobbies is making videos to record my life. I am currently learning to film and edit professional videos with software.
Sustainability in the ELC
Leading up to Reconciliation Week, the children in Learning Community 2 have been further exploring what it actually means to ‘look after everything on the land’, a phrase that we say each morning in our Centre’s Acknowledgement to Country.
The ELC Community Garden is a wonderful place for children to be able to explore the concept of responsibility and understand what it takes to care for a space over time. With the different seasons inviting constant change and action, the children are able to witness first-hand how their actions in our garden are making a difference.
‘We need to look after everything on the land. Like our Acknowledgement.’ – Stella
A perfect example of care and responsibility shown by the children in the garden is how they interact with the worms in our worm farms. The children continuously demonstrate care, empathy, responsibility and respect as they look after these so called ‘pets’.
‘We have like thousands of pets in the garden… Our worms…’ – Ebi
‘We need to take care of them too because they’re alive. And they eat our food scraps. That’s a good thing.’ – Theo
‘They help our plants grow!’ – Pepper
‘He’s tickling me! This worm is cheeky.’ – Lucas
Henrietta Balnaves
News from Learning Community 1
As we continue to explore this term’s central idea, ‘Shared responsibilities can promote citizenship’, spaces across Learning Community 1 have transformed to reflect the children’s deep engagement with caring for the land and sea. Through explorations of responsible waste management, the children have demonstrated an ongoing curiosity of the effects of plastic in the sea and the consequences for sea life. We have explored this concept through a variety of experiences, guided by the children’s interests, abilities and learning styles as we recognise the need for differentiation across the Learning Community.
Through interactive storytelling experiences, the children are now confidently communicating their understandings of how ‘rubbish left on the ground can end up in the sea’ and that ‘rubbish must go into the bin and not be left on the ground’. The educators have started to observe the emergence of these concepts being explored in the children’s spontaneous play, representing a deep investment and grasp of this concept.
These observations have driven the educators to question:
- Where can we take this next?
- How can we now put this learning into action?
- Can our children start to take responsibility for themselves?
We have begun ‘small experiments’ across the Learning Community with the intention of inspiring our children to take action and responsibility for the land we live on. When visiting the School’s grounds, educators have secretly laid trails of rubbish, curious to see how the children would react. At first, the children responded to the rubbish with shock and would draw the attention of an educator to the litter on the ground. Now, a week into our experiment, every single piece of rubbish has been noticed and quietly picked up by a child and brought back to the bins in the ELC. This responsible practice has become a part of the children’s every day. We will continue our experiments in the coming weeks in Ferguson Park, a space where the children have a special connection to the natural environment.
How can you extend this learning at home?
When you visit the park or playground, does your child notice any rubbish on the ground? Can you locate the rubbish bins together? Is there more than one type of bin available? You can continue our learning at ELC by inviting your child to help you sort the rubbish between what goes in the landfill, recycling or organics bin and why.
Annabelle Redmond and Jess Catt
Learning Community 1
News from Learning Community 2
Being part of a community comes with responsibilities. Our central idea this term, ‘Shared responsibilities can promote citizenship’, has led us to discuss:
- What is the role of a citizen?
- What are our rights and responsibilities?
- What skills do we need to sustain this throughout our lifetime?
One of our statements in our Essential Agreement is we will listen to each other. Children do not acquire the ability to listen overnight; it is a skill that has to be practised and encouraged. As educators, we identify this as a vital skill for our young learners and that we need to teach and help the children see the value of good listening. As the children further develop their capacity to listen, so does their awareness of others.
This term, the children have been engaging in many experiences to develop and expand their capacity to take in information, respond to instructions, and the ability to share ideas, thoughts and opinions. Whilst joyfully playing ‘Simon Says’, ‘Follow the Leader’ and ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf?’, the children are listening and responding to instructions. This also opens opportunities to strengthen social skills in turn-taking, sharing and valuing collaboration with others.
The children have also shown great pleasure in listening to audio books. The narrators capture the children as they embellish their storytelling with silly voices and dramatic enhancements. They emphasise reading as a source of pleasure rather than a skill, making the children eager to ask questions to find out information, develop a sense of narrative structure, and understand and explore language.
Audio books enable children to grasp the rich and various ways in which language conveys meaning, and when listening with friends, the opportunity for playing creatively and acting out parts are endless.
Nell Tierney, Laura Reiters and Kirsty Porplycia
Learning Community 2
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.
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