From the Director of Early Learning
Dear Families,
As we commence our eight week term, we stop to consider how far we have travelled during 2017. When the year began, we were filled with aspiration about what we hoped to achieve and I am pleased to say we are well on track. We have conceptualised an exciting new planning model that allows the children to be pivotal in the direction of their learning. The teachers have called this model ‘Planning for the Possible’. Bravely, we are ready to deliver this to an international audience in two weeks’ time at the Re-Imagining Childhood Conference. It will be a chance for us to articulate our practice to an audience who will offer us some reflective points, which is always beneficial for professional growth.
On a practical level, the teaching team have trialled this model over the past three terms and feel confident that it embraces both the Primary Years focus and the Early Years Learning Framework. It is a consistent model used throughout each playroom and provides collaboration opportunities from staff teams and a depth of inquiry that truly listens to the child’s voice, theories and understandings. Being innovative in our approach brings some uncertainty as we wonder if what we have developed will hold strong and true – we are about to find out!
I ask that you read the newsletter articles from your child’s room as the term progresses, as these will keep you closely connected to our inquiry and involve you in your child’s learning. I look forward to a term that brings together our learning, demonstrating that each child completes their year with an elaborated skill set, a sense of ownership of their learning and decision-making, and a feeling of belonging to their learning community that the educators have worked so hard at establishing and maintaining.
Kind regards,
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning
New Website
St Peter’s Girls’ School has kicked off Term 4 by launching a new-look website. Following the successful introduction of the myLink Parent Portal for internal communications, the public site now focuses on showcasing all aspects of our wonderful School, giving the wider community a window into life at Saints Girls. Be sure to check it out, simply click this link.
Here’s a snippet from the ELC:
ELC Collection Time
We would like to remind families that the ELC closes at 6pm
Children are to be collected prior to this time. We are not able to have children in our Centre beyond 6pm.
The collection time written on your child’s sign-in must be accurate. We staff according to this information. If your circumstances alter during the day, please remember to phone on the following numbers:
Hallett Room: 8155 5775
Stonyfell Room: 8155 5778
These are the rooms used for the late end of the day.
ELC Christmas Celebration on Chiverton Lawns
Important Date: put it in your diary!
Who: ELC children and families
When: Friday 24 November
Time: From 5pm, with a performance commencing at 5.45pm
Come and enjoy a beautiful evening with our community, picnic-style!
A Letter from Ms Qian
尊敬的家长：
新的学期，欢迎大家回来！
本学期是本学年最后一个学期，随着天气逐渐炎热，uv也会逐渐升高，请大家给孩子带好帽子，ELC会提供防晒霜，但如果您的孩子有自己专门的防晒霜，请记得上学时带来学校并告诉老师；另外，夏季由于气温升高，ELC会有很多戏水活动，请多带几套更换的衣服，谢谢配合！
最后，天气转热，注意防暑哦！
Ms Qian
We’re Fundraising with ELC Tea Towels!
Please don’t forget to place your order
Our limited-edition tea towel design is made up of self-portraits and hand prints created by all of our children. The pictures and names have been arranged all together as a commemorative design for the whole St Peter’s Girls’ ELC and has been screen printed onto 100% white cotton tea towels. Don’t forget to order a few extras for family members and your keepsake box. Tea towels can be ordered by completing the form which each child has received either via their pocket in the hallway or in their school bag. Extra forms are located in the ELC foyer and each room. Please complete the form with payment and place in a clearly marked envelope marked ‘TEA TOWEL ORDER’, and give to your child’s class teacher or drop it in the letter box in the foyer.
News from the Stonyfell Room
Developing our observational skills
Welcome to Term 4. This term we are continuing to deepen our work investigating and exploring Ferguson Park. It provokes us, inviting us to use all of our senses, it asks us to slow down and look. The park also allows us to ask questions and discover more about the world around us.
Following on from the work that took place during vacation care, several new threads of investigation have developed and we have been working alongside the children to share this interest to continue to develop the children’s observational skills and ability to document their own learning.
For many of our children, their interest has been captured by the living creatures in the park. This interest allows us to support the children to maintain their desire to explore this space, deepen their thinking and extend their ability to capture what they see.
We have been taking paper and pencils into the park to encourage the children to document what they can see. The children have also been working in collaboration to share their findings.
Over the week, we have been fortunate to have had several opportunities to observe first-hand the wildlife that inhabits this space. We observed two lizards during the week and were able to spend time watching these creatures. We also have been noticing and hearing the expansive birdlife in the park. The children have been encouraged to share their findings with us and with their peers. We have been able to deepen this curiosity by observing the two finches that are currently in the Ferguson Room.
By providing the children with many different opportunities, we are able to support them to expand their skills. We have been excited by many of the children’s advancing documentation skills and their ability to capture and record their own learning. This focus will continue over the coming weeks and we are excited to see what else the park will provide us with.
Laura Reiters
News from the Bell Yett Room
The children have settled into the new term with ease and are already enthusiastically engaging with our inquiry, ‘People can express their thinking in different ways’.
Our aim is to build upon our Ferguson Park investigations from Term 3 by inviting the children to share their ecological thinking through a variety of expressive languages. We are focussing on the children continuing to develop their observational skills while fostering their thinking skills, in particular the ability to be creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
We have used an illustration from the book ‘One Thousand Trees’ as a provocation for the children to communicate their current thoughts about Ferguson Park and the best friend tree. The children have been drawn to this illustration and have enjoyed using both water colours and oil pastels to represent their ideas. The opportunity to express themselves through mark-making gives the children’s thoughts and theories a voice.
We are supporting the children to extend their thinking by asking them:
• “What do you see?”
• “What do you think?”
• “What do you wonder?”
I’m drawing my best friend tree. I can play in it with Hannah. – Amelie
Can we go to Ferguson Park today? I want to climb the best friend tree. I think there are 500 trees in Ferguson Park. – Hannah
Would you like to come and play in my tree with me? I can make a rainbow best friend tree. – Imogen
I think about a girl and she’s playing with the leaves and it’s all the leaves from Ferguson Park. They all have leaves like the best friend tree. – Amina
I can see lots of leaves. They are in her mouth. She is eating them. – Eliana
She is pretending to be a baby koala. – Parker
The wind is blowing them in her face. – Holly
This is only a snapshot of the children’s work so far. We are continuing to document and share their inquiries on our Bell Yett Canvas Page. Please log on to the myLink Parent Portal to find out more.
Leanne, Nell and the Bell Yett Team
News from the Ferguson Room
This term the Ferguson children are exploring the PYP theme, ‘How we express ourselves’. Our central idea for Term 4 is, ‘People can express their thinking in different ways’. The teaching team has chosen the central idea very carefully in order for the children to continue their passionate investigation of life in Ferguson Park which developed during Term 3. This inquiry is also highly compatible with our view of children, influenced by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, that children are capable, competent, and have more than 100 languages with which to express themselves.
Our role is to support the children to develop their thinking skills and feel confident in the application of their knowledge. As we are so fortunate to have Ferguson Park as an outdoor classroom, we are very keen to continue using this resource. Now that the children have so much knowledge about the creatures that live in native bushland and have become accustomed to looking closely at features of the landscape for evidence of this, they can apply this knowledge to the study of birds. We have several provocations in our room to help them ‘tune in’ to this topic. We have two zebra finches that have been delighting us all with their beautiful colours and sounds. We also have a preserved rainbow lorikeet and the children have produced some beautiful ‘still life’ drawings and paintings of both species.
The process of graphic representation is an expression of children’s thinking and helps to shape their understanding. We have also been researching the species through reference books. This supports the children to understand that there are many types of birds, and they can tell the difference between them if they notice their markings, colours and shapes of their features, such as their beaks.
As educators we are very focused on the process itself. It is not necessarily the birds, the bees or the ants that are important to learn about, although of course knowledge about any other life form is incredibly fascinating and enriching. It is knowing how to gather the information, to research, to process, to think about and reflect upon, that empowers children to be capable, successful learners throughout their lives.
Mel Angel
News from the Hallett Room
Spring has sprung in the Hallett Room. The children and educators have welcomed the new term with enthusiasm and excitement (with even a little hint of Christmas in the air as we reminisced on last year’s Christmas Concert). We have enjoyed our time outdoors, making the most of the beautiful weather with picnics, walks in Ferguson Park and creations of different water play experiences.
Our ideas from last term’s inquiry are still bubbling under the surface, as we hear the children expressing their strong feelings about how we look after the living creatures in our world. They are still challenging each other on the responsibilities that we all have and what is important to remember as we share our resources.
This has led us to our next step on our journey for our inquiry as we aim to show the children that we can all share our ideas in different ways, but that it is important to reflect and act with integrity when those ideas are shared. At the moment, educators are putting together an updated Essential Agreement for the Hallett Room, helping to identify some of our strong ideas about our role in the world. The educators’ intentions are to combine these ideas with our Acknowledgement that we say every day in the Hallett Room. We believe that by connecting the children’s understandings about their roles and responsibilities with our Acknowledgement, we can deepen the children’s connection to their land and country.
Please look out for the Acknowledgment on Canvas, which was originally written by the Ferguson children in 2015. For some children, these words said every day have an impact on some of their interactions with their environment. We have discovered already that our focus on both the Essential Agreement and Acknowledgement have raised questions for some of the children. Please see the question wall for some examples of these questions.
Pam Reid