From the Director of Early Learning
Dear Families
On Saturday I had the privilege of spending the day listening to Tiziana Fillipini from Reggio Emilia present on Participation. Tiziana is a pedagogista from Reggio Emilia, she has spent her career working with teachers across several schools. The model of collaboration is one which we admire so deeply as we have witnessed their work become known as the world’s best practice in early Childhood.
As I listened to her talk about Participation as a value and a strategy I felt extremely proud of our partnerships with families and our extended relationships with children, families, other adults and educators. I thought about our Friends of the ELC and how they collaborate with the educators to build community. I thought about the family participation with visits to the park and how we have been able to use this as a vehicle to connect families to our learning and the strong messages it gives the children when families are involved. I also reflected on relationships with adults in our community and, in particular, our new friend Tamaru. Tamaru has entered the lives of our children and educators and is now considered a friend. He has shared and continues to share his stories about the Kaurna people and their connection to land. The children can tell you in their own interpretation what this means and why it is significant. Another evolving relationship is with Christine, our public artist, who is working side by side with our children and educators on a shared project.
The benefits of true and authentic participation is that it takes our learning to a new place, the reciprocal relationships engage our thinking and give us strategies to move forward with our ideas. This is pivotal in the examples I have shared for without these encounters we would not be able to evolve our practice or our thinking. I wanted to highlight this as we move towards our festival. This will be a celebration of Participation between the children and the adults. I am excited about this celebration, an event that not only highlights our amazing children in a vibrant learning community but it celebrates our roles as adults in the children’s lives, all here to add depth and give meaning to their world and their understandings of themselves as citizens.
I look forward to sharing more with you in the upcoming weeks.
Kind regards
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning
ELC Festival
With just over two weeks to go, we are very busy preparing for the ELC Festival on 6 April. Please make sure this date is in your diary.
There will be many exciting experiences for children to engage in at the ELC Festival, including:
- Create your own plate
- Make a crown
- Print your own bag
Come and meet Christine Cholewa, Artist in Residence, who is working alongside the children and educators to create a special pathway in the ELC garden.
We look forward to seeing you there!
In the meantime, watch this short video to see the children’s fantastic progress on the path:
Parent-Teacher Conversations
Early next week you will receive an email regarding our upcoming Parent-Teacher Conversations. Families will be invited to make a booking with your teacher in the designated timeslots. The dates for these will be Monday 9 – Wednesday 11 April. Most of these meetings are conducted between 1 – 6pm.
ELC Photos
ELC photos will take place in the last week of term, Monday 9 – Wednesday 11 April. Letters and forms will be sent home with more detailed information.
One Storyteller Creating a Nation of Storykeepers
On Monday the ELC community was delighted to welcome back our special friend, Boori Monty Pryor. Boori is an Indigenous Australian author who travels extensively as a performer and public speaker for school students and adults both within Australia and overseas.
During his visit, Boori gifted us with several of his stories. As he engaged the children with Indigenous culture through storytelling, song, dance and playing the didgeridoo, he explained that his stories were now our stories and that together we could create a positive vision for the future for all Australians.
The importance of stories, dance, song, movement and painting lives within all cultures. Poetry through rhythm breathes life into the soul. When everybody dances and tells their stories together, they ignite the fire to inspire understanding. Within this circle of dance, song and painting is a nutritious cultural feast that feeds the soul, ignites the mind and helps us to not only talk in the same circle but also write on the same page.
Leanne Williams
A Very Special Visitor at the ELC
This week the ELC had a visit from Tiziana Fillipini. Tiziana is currently in Adelaide presenting a series of lecture/workshops to educators from across the country. I was first introduced to Tiziana in 2007 when I heard her speak at a Reggio Conference in Hobart. New to the ideas of Reggio and new to Saints Girls, I was deeply inspired by her thinking and began then my deeper inquiry into the principles of Reggio Emilia. The rest is history, a centre has been constructed around these principles with an entire community being involved. We are indeed fortunate to have Tiziana visit us and provoke our thinking and I am so appreciative of all the opportunities I have had to embrace this thinking.
A Letter from Ms Yu
亲爱的家长朋友们，
我希望你们度过一个愉快的周末。我们庆祝真挚的家庭社区参与。这种相互的参与和建立的友谊让我们的成长与思想能够去到新的领域。这正是我们接下来即将到来的ELC节日的意义。这将是一个孩子和大人之间的参与与合作。这个节日不仅庆祝我们的孩子们在这个学习社区的生活，而且是庆祝我们大人在孩子心中所扮演的种种角色。 这一切都将为孩子们的世界增加色彩及深度。孩子们会加深对自己社会公民身份的认识。我们期待各位家庭及朋友前来参与。需要任何帮助，请随时联系我们。
ELC节日：06/04/2018 下午4:30点
ELC家长－老师 一对一对话：09-11/04/2018 下午1-6点
ELC 照片日09-11/04/2018 下午1-6点
Sophie Yu
The Children’s Involvement in the Planning for the ELC Festival
In our last edition, Pam Reid wrote about how our intention as educators, throughout the preparation of the Festival, is to embed the understanding to the children that they are citizens. To empower them to know that this is their ELC, their community, and they are expected to be involved with the planning of something that is being created on their doorstep.
A small group of Hallett friends have been working with myself and Ms Becca Burton-Howard (EDGE Coordinator) to explore some of the finer details of the Festival. The friends raised their concern about the risk of children going missing at the Festival, and what we could put in place to ensure that they can be reunited with their family. The educators in the Hallett Room encourage the children to undertake their own risk assessments and communicate their concerns, so we were thrilled when they put this into practice. These children displayed great empathy for their friends and their siblings as they shared the emotions behind getting separated from a loved one.
The friends began throwing their ideas back and forth, challenging the ideas of others, and posing questions for further information. Becca has a unique way of asking questions that encourages the children to think outside the square. One idea that sparked momentum was the concept of a map with an X to alert children that if they were missing, this was a safe place to wait for their family member. We are currently in the process of researching the best way that this concept could be shared with our wider community on Festival day. The friends in this group have looked beyond the party food, exciting experiences and art work on display, and shown their empathy for their community. To ensure that the Festival keeps our community together, with their loved ones, so that no one gets lost in the crowd.
Kirsty Porplycia
News from the Stonyfell Room
Preparing for our ELC Festival: our park, our inspiration
As we move closer to our up and coming ELC Festival our excitement continues to grow around the preparation for this event. The Stonyfell children have been working during the term in collaboration to explore several key ideas that are part of our inspiration for this event.
The Stonyfell children have been engaging in a range of small group experiences over the past weeks that have been supporting them to explore, discover and to create with the natural world. We have built on this developing idea with our work alongside Miss Caterina. Our emerging connection to the natural world has inspired our collaborative art piece. This piece of art and the process and theory behind it will be on display as part of our art installation at the Festival.
Throughout this term we have been observing the children’s interactions with Ferguson Park in multiple ways. The park has been a space for the children to engage with freely and through this we have begun transforming the park into a space that enables them to understand their world through the natural elements.
In addition, we have seen the children using resources in creative and imaginative ways for example a stick has transformed into a flag, a log is now a bus for us to ride in, and we have built a fire and cooked sausages with a stick and rocks have even been a boat to London! We have been inspired to bring some of the park back into the ELC and have been able to provide the children with various materials that they can use and explore in the ELC.
In preparation for the Festival, the children have been creating an art piece in the park surrounded and inspired by the natural world. We hope that you are feeling just as excited as we are about the Festival and we hope that we will see you there on 6 April.
Laura Reiters
News from the Bell Yett Room
“To feel happy about yourself, you must feel happy about the place you live in.
To feel happy about the place you live in, you must get to know that place.
To get to know that place, you must ask the people who have lived there the longest, the Aboriginal people. We have the key that can open the door to the treasures of this land.” – Boori Monty Pryor
As shared in our last newsletter, we follow a certain ritual as we enter Ferguson Park. The children are deepening their knowledge of our Indigenous history and culture as we discuss respecting and caring for the land of the Kaurna people, the traditional custodians. The children are learning the ELC Acknowledgement to Country that we share in our Morning Meeting and have begun connecting this to our visits to Ferguson Park.
On Friday we had a visit from Tamaru, an Aboriginal elder who has formed a very special connection with the ELC. He shared with us a traditional ritual that is used by the Kaurna people to bring girls and boys together. Using clap sticks, they are tapped together three times chanting “Wominjeka Wurundjeri” (welcome). The children showed much joy and awe in learning this new ritual and took turns in tapping the clap sticks.
“Tap 3 times Mrs Tierney” – Erica
“I like the music” – Christopher
“Its loud, like thunder” – Florence
On Monday we were very lucky to welcome Boori Monty Pryor back to the ELC. Boori is an Indigenous author who shares his stories with us through storytelling, dance and didgeridoo playing. He captivated us all at his last visit and left us with lasting memories and inspiration for the future.
As we prepare for our inaugural ELC Festival there is great excitement in the Bell Yett Room. The children are excited to share with you their stories of Ferguson Park told through the Hundred Languages. Through our connections to Ferguson Park, the memories of the pom pom flowers and our curiosities about the ‘honey’ in the trees we are creating a new narrative. The children are engaged in the process and the action. We are creating understandings that will stay with the children for life.
You would all now have received your special invitation so please put 4.30pm, 6 April in your diaries.
Nell Tierney and Leanne Williams
News from the Ferguson Room
“All the participants in the educational process are changing and evolving, all gaining some new ideas and understanding. There is a transformation occurring in both the children and the adults.” – Tiziana Filipini, Collaborator with Reggio Children, Reggio Emilia
At St Peter’s Girls’ ELC, the principles of Reggio Emilia Infant Toddler Centres and Schools in Italy have an enormous influence on our thinking and practice. In the Ferguson Room, we greatly value the principle of participation: the participation in the educational process not only of the children and their teachers, but of the families as well. We have experienced and been witness to the many rewards there are to be had from this three-way relationship. So, what is Participation and what can it look like? What can it lead to, and what can it accomplish?
To begin with, Participation can form a bridge between home and school. When families enter into our landscape of teaching and learning, they become a part of the dialogue that takes place between school and at home. For the children, this is evidence that the two significant worlds they inhabit, that of home and school, are deeply connected. It is evidence that their family trusts, believes in and enjoys their teachers and their learning environment. This gives them confidence to belong and to learn.
Currently, our passion for developing our connection with our land, and for building an understanding of the need for sustainable practices, is driving our planning and our pedagogy. Our connection to Ferguson Park is also our connection to nature, to the Earth, and to our cultural, national and global identity. Already this year we have been able to share this magnificent bush classroom with many of our families. Our hope is that all of our families may be able to share in this special place. If you are not able to come with us into the Park during the week, (and we invite you to suggest your own time in the day that would suit you) perhaps your family can visit it on the weekend, or in the holiday period. It is always open, and free of charge! Your child will be your guide. Will it be the path, the listening logs, the rainbow lorikeets or the ant hills that they will take you to? Perhaps the ‘genie in a bottle’, the bridge, or the best friend tree? Let them be the expert and take the lead.
On 6 April, our ELC Festival will showcase the children’s engagement with their learning in and about Ferguson Park. The Ferguson children have been exploring the sounds of the Park and have been assisted in this by Ella Zappia’s mother, Lesley, who is a composer and musician. Lesley has shared her expertise to support the learning in Ferguson Park by bringing in her recording equipment and capturing the children’s observations and knowledge of the soundscape. The result of this collaboration between children, teachers and parents will be offered for all to share at the Festival. The children will be very excited to bring you to our Sounds of Ferguson Park tent! Attending and enjoying this event created by our ELC community – children and adults – is an act of Participation that we look forward to sharing with you.
Mel Angel
News from the Hallett Room
There are moments in the term that stand out for us and the children. This week was one of those moments! Our plan to merge the ideas of respect for the land with sustainability has come to light, with the addition of some knowledge of landfill. The children have become so strong in their thinking about reusing materials. They have shown their desire to ensure our scrap food is going to the worms, recycling cardboard boxes for construction and making smoothies with the leftover fruit…..but we were missing the reason for not filling the rubbish bins with waste. Mrs Tierney from the Bell Yett Room has been working hard at getting us some compost bins from the council to promote sustainable practice in the ELC. She came to visit us in the Hallett Room and told the children about ways to avoid landfill.
“Is there rubbish all over the landfill? Is it a little or a lot? Oh no!” Harper
“What if landfill gets bigger and gets to Australia!” – Poppy
“We don’t want it near our school!” – Harper
“It could get really big” – Hannah
“It could crowd us at ELC” – Teddy
“A giant bin!” – Matilda
“It will be so smelly” – Colette
“A duck might eat it!” – Ava
“All the animals!” – Everyone
“The fish and the animals will eat it” – Layla
“What if it blocks the door of our house? What about the plants?” – Macie
“What about our pets? What about if the whole world will get covered?” – Matilda
“We can help the land by not putting so much rubbish in our lunch boxes. To make landfill smaller, not too big” – Colette
“We sometimes have too much food in our lunch boxes” – Layla
“We have to save the animals!” – Harper
“We can be superheroes and save the stuff” – Teddy
“We can be ninjas!” – Matilda
“We need to save the day!” – Colette
“I’m going to tell my mum and dad” – Poppy
“Our family” – Macie
“We have to stop landfill!” – Colette
‘Landfill’ is perhaps not a conversation that occurs often, but a vital one for us to have. The children’s reaction and discussions since hearing the information demonstrates the importance for them to know they can invite action. We don’t want children feeling disheartened about a serious topic, but rather how they can action change that can impact the future. We have ensured our steps to this point highlight to the children the powerful impact that they can have on their environment. We are moving into this week with the headset of finding out more information about landfill and sharing our findings and developing our research and communication skills. We appreciate your support and feedback into this topic and know the children will value this support in their learning.
As we move closer to finalising some of our plans for the festival, we know the messages about looking after our land will impact on what the children want to share on the path with their community. Their love for Ferguson Park has been what has enhanced their desire for action. The International Baccalaureate aims to develop ‘inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect’ (Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education, 2007). Through this inquiry, we are seeing evidence that we are laying the foundation for the children to gain an understanding of these global concepts.
Pam Reid
Creating a new architectural feature for our ELC is not just a matter for adults and teachers. The children have been actively involved in the design process since the actual creation of the path. The path will express the children’s connection with Ferguson Park, the landscape of our everyday, the scenario of our inquiries.
