Dear Families
It is hard to believe that we are already in the second half of Term 1. In the past couple of weeks, it has been exciting to watch the learning across the Centre and how this has evolved as a result of children’s interests, questions, curiosities and developmental needs. I am privileged to be working with a dedicated and committed team of professionals who are very intentional in the way they plan for and personalise learning.
At St Peter’s Girls’ ELC, the child is central to everything we do. Whether we are planning our daily rituals or learning intentions, we are focused on what is in the best interests of the children in our learning environment. Planning for learning is a personalised approach and the result of observing children’s interactions with their environment, their peers and their educators. Staff come together to discuss and interpret their observations and determine the next steps to support children’s holistic growth and development.
At St Peter’s Girls, we embed the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) in our planning, and we have a long history of connection with the Reggio Emilia Approach. In both the IB PYP and Reggio Emilia Approach, collaboration is central to everything we do. Valuing diversity of ideas and perspectives allows us to engage in constructive discussions, think more deeply about the work we do and be creative in the way we approach teaching and learning.
The collaborative planning process is driven by identifying needs in the learning environment, and this feeds directly into our planning documentation, which we call ‘Planning for the Possible’. Within this, teachers clearly articulate how they will set up the learning space, what opportunities they will provide, what provocations they will use, what learning points are being encouraged and the types of questions they will ask when engaging with children. The next time you are in your child’s learning environment, we invite you to take a close look at some of the vibrant educational opportunities provided.
Liz Schembri
Director of Early Learning
Important Dates
Monday 13 March: Public Holiday (ELC closed)
Friday 17 March: ELC Twilight Family Picnic, 5pm
28, 29 March & 3 April: Parent-Teacher Conversations
7 – 10 April: Easter (ELC closed)
11 – 24 April: Vacation Care
Tuesday 25 April: Public Holiday (ELC closed)
New Art Space in Our ELC
Creativity is one of our core values at St Peter’ Girls and a fundamental skill in approaching life with curiosity, courage and love for discovery. We believe that creativity is not only a gift but a quality of thinking that we can nourish daily.
We are designing a captivating new Atelier (Art Studio) where the children can explore thought-provoking materials and art techniques.
Supported by our ELC Atelierista (Art Educator) Caterina Pennestri, the children across the Centre are exposed to various artistic and expressive languages including painting, sculpture, dance, music, technology and multisensory experiences. The Atelierista carefully curates experiences in the Atelier to support our students in expressing their theories and documenting their creative thinking. Caterina is working alongside the teachers to ensure children’s interests, intentional learning and creativity are balanced.
The Atelier is also a space where we make visible the learning processes of the children through pedagogical documentation. The Atelier supports the communication between teachers, educators, Learning Communities, children and families. Open-ended learning experiences and a living environment become opportunities to support the image of children equipped with many expressive languages.
Inspired by the Reggio Emilia educational project, our Atelier will be a space where children can express themselves through their Hundred Languages which is a metaphor for the extraordinary potential of children’s creative processes involved in the construction of knowledge. The children have a hundred ways of thinking, expressing their theories and understanding the world around them. Encouraging many languages is pivotal in enriching children’s learning experiences.
Parent-Teacher Conversations – Book Now
ELC Parent-Teacher Conversations will take place on 28 and 29 March and 3 April, and bookings are now open.
This is an opportunity for parents to meet your child’s teacher and discuss their learning. From these discussions, future goals for your child may be created to ensure they reflect the perspectives of parents and educators.
Bookings can be made via myLink:
- Log in to the myLink Parent Portal with your username and password. The username is your ID number followed by @stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
- If you don’t know your password, use the link provided on the login page to reset it
- Once you have logged in and arrive on the Welcome page, click the ‘Community Portal’ tab in the top menu, then click the ‘Interviews’ tab and select the required cycle; you can log in and change your booking any time up until 5pm Thursday 23 March.
If you require myLink assistance, please contact the IT Hub via 08 8334 2227 or helpdesk@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.
Vacation Care – Book Now
Vacation Care will run from Tuesday 11 to Monday 24 April.
Families must book the days they would like their child to attend Vacation Care. To access our online booking form, click here
Vacation Care runs similar to a normal day within the ELC, led by Valentina Fernandes in Learning Community 1 and Alexandra Portus in Learning Community 2. Our days are filled with a range of creative, inquiry-based and hands-on experiences, using our indoor and outdoor spaces as well as our ELC Community Garden and the School lawns. Children will frequently participate in music, dance, picnics on the lawns, gross motor skills and cooking experiences.
Similar to a typical ELC day, children will need to bring their own packed lunch, hat, water bottle and a change of clothes each day. Due to allergies, we ask that you do not pack nuts. A healthy morning and afternoon tea and late snack will continue to be provided to children.
Due to limited spaces during Vacation Care, we kindly ask for you to book early.
Bookings will close Friday 24 March at 5pm. If you need to make changes to your booking, please email ELCVacationCare@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au. Please note: due to staffing requirements, cancellations made after the booking period ends will incur the full day’s fee.
ELC Twilight Family Picnic – Next Week!
The Twilight Family Picnic is an ELC community event that provides a wonderful opportunity to meet other families and chat with the ELC educators.
Friday 17 March
5 – 7pm
Chiverton Lawns
Bring a picnic basket and rug for this family-friendly gathering. BYO drinks – no glassware please.
A sausage sizzle will be available and families are encouraged to pre-order sausages as there will be limited availability for purchasing on the night. To pre-order, click here
We look forward to seeing you there!
New Catering in the ELC
We have partnered with Complete Hospitality and Catering Services (CHCS) to provide a fresh new approach to morning and afternoon tea at the ELC. CHCS has been in the food and catering industry for more than 40 years, believing food should be fresh, tasty, nutritious, accessible to all and adapted to the seasons.
The new menus will provide delicious food for the children that is age appropriate and nutritious. We love to see children eating and enjoying their food, and CHCS will continually evolve the offerings to keep food exciting and tasty as the seasons change.
End-of-Term Coffee Van
The coffee van is returning to the ELC. We invite parents and caregivers to stop by and enjoy a complimentary coffee and hot cross bun to celebrate a successful first term:
Thursday 6 April
From 7.30am
ELC Hallett Road Entrance
来自ELC园长：
亲爱的家长朋友们，
很难相信我们已经进入了第一学期的下半学期。在过去的几周里，我们很兴奋地看到整个早教中心孩子们的学习，以及这是如何随着孩子们的兴趣、疑问、好奇心和发展需求而得到了进一步的发展。我很荣幸能与一支敬业的专业团队一起工作，他们在设计和孩子们个性化学习方面非常用心。
在圣彼得女校ELC，孩子是我们教学的中心。无论我们是安排我们的日常仪式还是学习方向，我们都专注于在我们的学习环境中什么是孩子们的最大兴趣。学习的计划和安排是一种个性化的方法，是观察儿童与环境、同龄人和教育者互动的结果。教师们聚在一起讨论和分析他们的观察结果，并确定下一步计划，以支持孩子们的全面成长和发展。
在圣彼得女校，我们将国际文凭小学计划(IB PYP)嵌入到我们的规划和学习项目中。我们与雷焦艾米利亚（Reggio Emilia）教育方法有着悠久的联接。在IB PYP和Reggio Emilia方法中，合作是我们教学的核心。重视思想和观点的多样性使我们能够参与建设性的讨论，更深入地思考我们所做的工作，并在我们对教学和学习的方式上有所创新。
协作计划过程是通过识别学习环境中的需求来驱动的，这直接反馈到我们孩子的学习文档中，我们称之为“可能性的教学计划”。在这个过程中，教师清楚地阐明他们将如何布置学习空间，他们将提供什么机会，他们用什么方法来带动和鼓励孩子的学习，以及他们在与孩子接触时将问什么类型的问题。下次您来到孩子的学习环境中，我们有机会邀请您来近一步的看一看孩子们充满活力的学习氛围。
Liz Schembri
园长
Emma Huang works in Learning Community 1 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9am – 5pm.
News from Learning Community 1
Storytelling is a joyful experience shared with children from birth and one we value very highly at the ELC. Through story reading and storytelling, children begin to develop fundamental literacy skills including listening and comprehension, using their imagination, increasing vocabulary, enhancing their critical thinking skills, making connections between spoken and written text, and extending their verbal and non-verbal communication skills. We offer many opportunities to share stories through different languages such as loose parts, collage, exploration of light, natural materials, watercolour painting, mark making and drama-based movement to express understandings.
This term, we have introduced picture books including When We Go Walkabout, Wombat Stew and This is Our House. These stories have opened invitations for children to connect to dreamtime stories and culture, play and explore rhyme, rhythm and song while learning the animals native to Australia, and to experience exclusion in play, how that makes them feel and strategies that may assist them in conflict. All of these stories have been purposely chosen to teach children to transfer and adapt what they have learned and to use the processes of play, reflection and investigation to make sense of their world.
We have been going ‘walkabout’ in our garden, exploring our spaces in the ELC that are full of history, all with a memorable story attached. Isabelle was curious when she asked, ‘Why are the rocks coloured?’ This was a wonderful opportunity for us to delve deeply into the history of the Hallett Garden and the story of the Rainbow Serpent. The children have been hooked by the magic and wonder of this Aboriginal Dreaming story. It describes how the Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges, mountains, gorges, waterways and rainbow reflection from the sunlight.
We invite you to come into our classrooms and visit our Learning Community 1 Home Page to engage in your child’s learning and to support them in sharing their knowledge and understandings.
Nell Tierney, Henrietta Balnaves and Jess Catt
Learning Community 1
News from Learning Community 2
Children learn about themselves and construct their own identity within the context of their families and communities. This includes their relationships with people, places and things, and the actions and responses of others. Identity is not fixed. It is shaped by experiences. When children have positive experiences, they develop an understanding of themselves as significant and respected and feel a sense of belonging. Relationships are the foundations for the construction of identity – ‘Who I am’, ‘How I belong’ and ‘What is my influence?’
This term, our inquiry has been exploring Who We Are. The children have been engaging in a range of experiences to examine and share who they are, and what makes them unique. Many of these activities have had a creative focus including drawing, painting and making. The children have been working on various representations of themselves, some of which are on display in your child’s room and in their individual Portfolio. We will continue to build upon the children’s skills and knowledge of self-portraiture as every experience that is offered has been intentionally curated to do this.
Over the past week, we have introduced the topic of skin and skin colour. This has led to many discussions around why we have skin, the role it plays and why it comes in many beautiful and unique shades. This provocation has allowed us to explore the concept of inclusion, uniqueness and respect. The children have been using a range of art materials to match to their skin tone. They have played with colour mixing and many have been working at creating their own paint shade to reflect who they are. We have explored the map of the world and the importance of geographical location relating to skin colour.
This work is vital for our young children to be exposed too. We want to be in a world that is accepting and celebrates who we are, no matter how we look or what colour our skin is. When working with the children, we don’t draw on what makes us different; we use the word ‘unique’ and look at what makes us the same.
Chloe Skoss and Laura Reiters
Learning Community 2
News from Our Pathway Room
Our Pathway to School Home Page is an online sharing space that allows families to participate in their child’s learning. At St Peter’s Girls’ ELC, our aim is to share the process of learning, rather than just the end product. We post ongoing documentation of intentional teaching, group times and special or spontaneous moments.
The Pathway friends were delighted at seeing a video of themselves on our Home Page singing, ‘I Can Sing a Rainbow’ using Auslan. One friend shared this video and the learning online with his extended family members at dinner one night, and we were thrilled to hear many children also went home and encouraged their family to log in and watch.
The teachers have been regularly updating the page with educational concepts and experiences and we hope that some of these can be recreated at home to support continuous learning.
If you are having difficulty accessing our Home Page via myLink, please don’t hesitate to contact the Pathway to School teachers for assistance.
Kirsty Porplycia and Kathy McCabe
Pathway Room
Sun Safety in the ELC
We have a Sun Safe Policy to ensure that each child minimises any health risks due to sun exposure. We ask that you support this policy by:
- Providing your child with a named wide brimmed hat.
- Applying sunscreen before your child comes to the Centre
- Dressing your child in the ELC uniform to ensure that their skin is appropriately covered when outdoors.
Children not wearing a hat will be required to play in an area protected from the sun. If your child has any sensitivities to the SP50+ broad spectrum and water-resistant sunscreen provided by the Centre, we ask that you supply an alternative for us to use throughout the day.
Appropriate footwear is also required and we ask that children wear sneakers or sandals that have a backing to them. For visits into Ferguson Park, long pants and closed-toed shoes are required.
Important Allergy Information
Please remember allergy awareness when packing food for your child.
We kindly ask you to refrain from packing nuts or nut products in your child’s lunch box.
We have members of our community across the Centre with severe food allergies to the following:
- Nuts
- Dairy
- Sesame
- Fish and shellfish
- Egg
- Banana
Due to the severity of these allergies, we are asking that you be mindful of this when packing food for your child. Please ensure food is safely packaged and/or contained.
If you have any questions, please see your child’s Room Teacher. We appreciate your cooperation in keeping our community safe.
COVID-19 Information
Please find the latest guidance from SA Health:
- It is strongly recommended that students stay home if they have cold or flu-like symptoms, and test for COVID-19.
- Whether they receive a positive or negative result, they should stay home until symptoms subside (usually five to seven days).
- It is strongly recommended that parents/guardians inform the School if a student is a close contact. For further advice regarding close contacts, click here
If your child tests positive to COVID-19, please notify the School. Please also notify the School each day of absence, or provide the expected period of absence.
You can notify us via one of the following methods. Please include the name of the ELC Room. If emailing, feel free to ‘CC’ the teacher/s of the room as well.
Email: attendance@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Text: 0428 601 957 (save to phone contacts as SPGS)
Phone: 8334 2200
If children are displaying symptoms, it is mandatory that we send them home. SA Health guidelines advise that symptoms include:
- Fever (a temperature of 37.5˚C or higher) or chills
- Cough
- Loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Tiredness (fatigue)
- Runny or blocked nose
- Shortness of breath (difficulty breathing)
- Nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea
- Headache
- Muscle or joint pain
- Loss of appetite
For more SA Health information, click here
Please note that if your child is unwell, they should remain home until they have recovered, irrespective of the illness.
Find Out What Happens Throughout the Day at ELC
myLink is our School’s parent portal, where families have access to a range of resources including the ELC Home Page. Our ELC Home Page is a dynamic online sharing space that invites you to participate in our learning. We use this tool to house important information for families and provide a window into your child’s life at the ELC, with educators sharing documentation of teaching, specialist lessons and spontaneous moments.
This page can also be accessed through your smartphone, via the Canvas App.
Accessing myLink for the first time:
Each parent has an individual username to access our myLink Parent Portal. Please note that the username is your ID number followed by @stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au Your ID number has been provided to you in an email from the School If you have not accessed myLink before or have forgotten your password, please follow these steps:
- Visit https://mylink.stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
- Sign in with your parent username
- Click on ‘Forgot my password’
- Make sure the ‘email’ address is your parent username, type in the code, then click the blue ‘Next’ button
- Enter your mobile number registered with the School, with the area code (Australia is +61), dropping the 0 at the beginning (e.g. +61 400000000). Then select ‘Text’
- Enter the security code sent to your mobile number
- Enter the password you would like to use and click ‘Finish’
- Return to the login screen at https://mylink.stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au to access myLink
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)
Accessing the Canvas Parent App for the first time:
- Ensure you have previously logged in to myLink on a PC
- Download the Canvas Parent App from your App Store
- Click the ‘Find School’ button
- Look up: stpetersgirls
- Log in using your parent username and password
- Tap on ‘ELC 2023’
- Click on ‘Front Page’ on the top right-hand side
- Here, you can navigate the page through the app
Please note: we do not use the message feature on this app, and ask families to contact their child’s teacher via email rather than this message feature.
If you have any issues accessing or navigating myLink, please contact our IT Hub 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
If your child will not be attending ELC due to illness or otherwise, please notify the School via one of the following methods and include the name of the ELC Room.
If emailing, feel free to ‘CC’ the teacher/s of the room as well. Please also provide a reason for the absence as the School requires this for government reporting purposes.
Email: attendance@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Text: 0428 601 957 (save to phone contacts as SPGS)
Phone: 8334 2200
ELC Room Contacts
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- Stonyfell – 8155 5778
- Bell Yett – 8155 5780
- Ferguson – 8155 5776
- Hallett – 8155 5775
- Pathway – 8334 2250
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
As part of our approach to prioritising health and safety, we implement effective hygiene practices and work to prevent and effectively deal with any infectious disease in line with the Education and Care Services National Regulations and the advice of health experts. If your child has one of the following, chickenpox, measles, rubella, meningococcal or tuberculosis or any other vaccine preventable diseases we ask that you inform the Centre as soon as possible.