From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families

It is wonderful to be part of such a vibrant work environment where, as the term progresses, the Centre is gathering momentum! The inquiry across the rooms is rich and connected. Ferguson Park is being utilised on a daily basis as a valuable place for collaborative learning. In particular, there have been strong links made to our connection to the land and this is being extended as we approach Reconciliation Week.

The pathway has been another example of evidence where the children’s excitement and engagement has deepened. Christine has now completed sandblasting the images onto the slate and they have been positioned into the path ready for the final cementing. The children have been actively involved in the sequence of symbols according to the plan. They have also been engaged in the narrative of meaning behind each symbol, their relationships to each other and significance of choice from Ferguson Park to our path. It is important that the children feel they have been listened to and their images have been valued. It is, after all, their path – we, the adults, are just the co-constructors, alongside the artist and the children.

This buzz and increased momentum has brought more excitement and connection to each room across the Centre. We encourage you to engage your child in dialogue about their learning, to find time to pop in and see the path being constructed or to find out more about how we are sharing the Reconciliation Story in the Centre.

Kind regards

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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Save the Date

28 May: Reconciliation Week
4 June: ELC New Parent Welcome Evening 7pm
4 June: Mid-Year Reception Transition Visits Commence
25 June: ELC Hat Ceremony
2 July: Vacation Care Commences

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Introducing our new ELC Staff Member

It is with delight that we welcome Liam Blanden to the ELC. He has commenced his studies in a Certificate 3 in Early Childhood and is working once a week in the Hallett Room this term. We are so excited to have Liam in our Centre; he is already a valued friend to the ELC through his role in Property Services. Liam highlights the strength of the St Peter’s Girls’ community.

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Mother’s Day Celebrations at ELC

We recently enjoyed a beautiful Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea to celebrate the important mothers, grandmothers and special friends in our lives.

The children loved sharing this occasion, eating delicious scones and creating herb pot plans with their visitors. They proudly showcased their special ELC!

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A Message from Mrs Yu

亲爱的家长朋友们，

我希望你们度过一个愉快的周末。在此，非常感谢大家参与母亲节下午茶活动！非常的高兴能再次见到各位开心的面庞。在学习方面，本学期与上一学期带着很强的连贯性。例如，在Ferguson班，通过各种与Ferguson自然保护区的互动，小朋友们会继续培养他们的生态认知及定位。 换句话说，我们希望小朋友们逐步建立他们的同理心及成为这片土地的积极参与者。通过倾听他人的故事及对事物的解读，小朋友们会加深自己的见解。我们非常感谢您成为我们学习旅途的一员，也非常欢迎您的参与。

我的邮箱：syu@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

Mrs Sophie Yu

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Learning and Working Together

Over the past few weeks of Term 2, the children have been involved in many experiences which are supporting them to build their social skills as well as developing problem-solving skills.

One of these experiences has been making our own orange juice. This provides many challenges for our children. The process itself requires physical strength, persistence and hand-eye coordination. The children have been presented daily with hand juicers, cut oranges and cups. We are supporting the children to have a go juicing the orange and pouring their juice into their cup.

Some children have declared that they cannot juice an orange and they seek help. These requests for support have put us in an interesting position as the adults. If we help the children and don’t offer them the opportunity to persist, they cannot build on their skills and knowledge. So rather than taking over the experience, we have been supporting the children to ask each other for assistance. We want the children to know that their peers can offer support too.

Over the week, we have seen many of our children look to each other for support. We have seen children persist and develop new problem-solving skills. We have seen many children grow their skills and master this experience as well as build their social connections and relationships with each other.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

“I can see green grass, last time there was dirt and bark.” – Rupert

Almost every day, the children in the Bell Yett Room are visiting Ferguson Park. We have several intentions for our visits which include:
• For the children to predict what they might see
• For the children to become aware of the changes in the park
• The use of photography to record our observations

Back in the Bell Yett Room, we are using the children’s photographs to develop:
• Their ability to observe carefully, noticing form, structure, similarities and differences
• Their graphic representations as they use a photograph model as support
• Their communication skills as they convey their observations and theories, both verbally and through mark-making, and listen to the ideas of others to construct new meanings

Many of the children have been particularly interested in the changes in the park. As Rupert captured above, it is certainly a different park from last term. The children have been sharing their knowledge and theories of why these changes have occurred and have come to a shared understanding that the rain has changed the park. However, their thinking continues . . .
“Here there is no grass. The tree was here and the rain can’t come here.” – Lucie
“There is a lot of grass there. There are no trees there. This is a flower grass, this is not grass.” – Sophie

The children have noticed patches of familiar grass growing alongside masses of soursob weeds. But they are puzzled, is this grass too? Using the children’s photographs as a reference, we have compared the two plants. Through opportunities to create their own graphic representations, we have begun to develop a shared understanding of the differences between the two and a theory as to what the second plant might be.

“It’s green. Green grass. It’s lots of grass. It lives here.” – Erica
“It’s like a flower because it’s round.” – Angela
“It’s long.” – Emily
“It’s not grass, it has leaves.” Eva
“They are both green.” – Tamara
“Grass is long and spikey. This isn’t.” – Rupert
“It looks like a star.” – Audrey B
“It’s a flower.” – Lana
“It is grass. It is flower grass.” – Aubrey
“Is it a weed?” – Thomas

We invite you to follow our learning as we construct this shared narrative of the park. You can find out more on our Bell Yett Canvas page.

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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News from the Ferguson Room

“The only thing that is constant is change.” – Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher, 500 B.C.

This term, the Ferguson children are investigating the concept of transformation. This concept is so broad that we can find many opportunities which offer the children experiences to support their growing awareness that change is part of our daily lives.

For example, our beautiful Ferguson Park is a different place to what it was at the end of Term 1. As autumn is now upon us, the change in the weather has become more distinct. The children are aware that conditions are different and that this affects the inner life of the park:

“All of the world of Ferguson Park is different.” – Florence
“It’s different – the grass has grown, and the weeds.” – Victoria
“The rain made the grass.” – Elijah
“There are no birds because it’s windy. When it’s windy they can’t fly.” – Eric
“The path is wet and muddy now but before it was too dusty.” – Lucy

We encourage the children to express their hypotheses and theories in our small group work. Children love to be listened to and have their ideas considered and valued. Creating the conditions for these kinds of conversations is part of our responsibility – to support the children in collaborating and listening to one another, and to maintaining an open mind. These are the skills needed by children and adults alike in order to function successfully in all areas of life.

We have also provided opportunities for children to explore transformation through working with recycled materials. Simple items such as a tissue box or a plastic lid from a yogurt pouch have been given new life:
“I have transformed this into a bag.” – Ella H.
“I have changed this into a building.” – Jonathan
“I have made a cat toy for my cat.” – Elise

Yet another transformation that is happening before our very eyes is the installation of our new path in the ELC. Images of Ferguson Park, drawn by the children and offered to local artist Christine Cholewa, have been transferred onto pieces of slate and laid in the ground by our wonderful Property Services staff Liam, Dom and Ned. The children have been captivated by the changes they see each day and have had many questions about this process.

It is exciting to be the ones who are creating this chapter in the history of the ELC and to leave our footprint on this place long after the children have transformed into school students, taking with them the memories of this precious time in their young lives.

Mel Angel

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News from the Hallett Room

Over the past three weeks, the children in the Hallett Room have begun choosing the different ways we can share the Reconciliation Story with others. They’ve organised themselves into groups: the dance group, the movie-making group, those who would like to draw the story and the group who would like to use Tamaru’s family for our re-telling of the story. The ideas for these groups were formed by the children and they all now have their section to work on, and we invite you to see which group your child is in by looking at the documentation on the wall in the Hallett Room.

As we begin the task of creating the story, educators take detailed observations in order to form our next possibilities for the inquiry. It was during this process that we took particular notice of many of the drawings of the Kaurna and white people. With Miss Caterina’s assistance, we were able to reflect on the need to intentionally scaffold the techniques for drawing people in detail.

We have then begun the Hallett Room Human Figure Project that Miss Caterina will work on throughout the term. It is through this project that we aim to see a growth in children’s abilities to draw the human figure, where we can enhance their observation skills and the way they translate this onto paper. By scaffolding the children throughout this process, they will be encouraged to:
– Self-assess their own work and that of their peers
– Increase their perseverance skills and take time to improve their own work
– Develop their resilience skills when things don’t go to plan.

We look forward to sharing this progress with you. Please keep an eye out in the Atelier where you will start to see some documentation of the drawings.

Pam Reid

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From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families

Welcome to Term 2 , an exciting term for us as we experience the sense of belonging to our Centre, enabling us to be involved in deep learning. Term 2 offers us a sense of stability and establishment for the children. Stability in the sense that we are no longer new, our rituals are established and faces are familiar. Establishment is meant in the sense of deeply establishing the culture of learning and provocation as we reap the benefits of stability. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Recognition of a Journey

Last week, we were honoured with two international visitors from Reggio Children: experienced Reggio Pedagogista, Paola, and the President of Reggio Children, Claudia, who came from Italy to view our ELC and make recommendations on how we can further enhance our program to benefit the children.

These visits don’t just happen – they are a result of our strong position in leading teaching and learning based on the Reggio Emilia principles. We were recipients of a significant grant and are now one of a few selected South Australian schools in a special initiative, Project Quattro, which is part of the South Australian Collaborative Childhood Project sponsored by the State Government. The aim is to engage in ongoing research into how childhood can inspire cultural, educational, philosophical and economic change for South Australia, and challenge current perceptions of childhood.

It seems timely that at this point we highlight the importance of the Reggio Emilia influence on our ELC. I began here in 2006, bringing with me the desire to learn more about the progression of early years practice. Reggio Emilia was introduced to me as a place of deep research; one that has had ongoing impact on worldwide learning. Who would have believed the town in northern Italy would or could change our lives so significantly. I was indeed a pioneer of this thinking in our School, and with this desire have grown the ELC to be a place of research, a place where the child is viewed as a citizen, and that learning could be so sustained – so intentional but also so creative – embedded with strong ethical and global values.

Unlike other visits where we show people around our Centre, these visits were ones of deep discussion and offered us the chance to have our work critiqued and shared provocations discussed. We have at least a year’s work moving forwards from what was shared in these two days, and feel a sense of motivation and inspiration to begin unpacking everything that was discussed.

I am extremely proud of our journey and the fact that our Centre is so highly recognised. The serenity of the ELC, the deep learning, the rich history and the high quality staff were all things that captured the attention of our visitors. The environment was also extremely appealing, with Paola saying she would love to pick up our Centre and put it in the middle of Reggio Emilia.

It is important for me to give our community visibility into our work, our journey and our future. We must not just assume that this is who we are; we must reflect on a strong message of belief, passion and determination, for these ingredients allow us to make a dream become a reality. It is wonderful to be able to share it with you all and for the children to bring life and joy to our lives every day.

For a quick recap of the visit, please watch the video below.

Kind regards

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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Golden Opportunity to Support our ELC!

The wonderful Drakes Community Dollars program is now supporting our ELC.

Recently, you should have received a special keytag to present every time you shop at Drakes. We will be credited 1c for every $2 spent by our community members at any Drakes Supermarket in SA. All funds raised will go directly back to our ELC. We will inform our community about the total money raised at the end of the year.

Extra keytags are available in the foyer if you wish to pass them on to other family members or friends who regularly shop at Drakes.

So please get behind this important push to support our ELC!

The Friends of the ELC

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Mother’s Day Tea Party

This Friday 11 May, we are celebrating all mums with an afternoon tea in the ELC gardens from 2pm. Mothers and grandmothers are welcome to join us for tea and delicious scones.

We hope you can be part of this special event!

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A Message from Mrs Yu

亲爱的家长朋友们，

欢迎回来我们本年的第二学期！ 母亲节快到了。在此，我们诚邀您参加本周五的母亲节下午茶，从下午的两点开始。我们非常期待各位的到来！

母亲节下午茶：11/05/18 下午2点开始。

我的邮箱：syu@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

Sophie Yu

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Celebrating a New Term of Playgroup!

As we begin a new term we also welcome new friends to our Playgroup. On Tuesday some of our Playgroup friends enjoyed an Autumn walk, and of particular interest was a big, beautiful tree.

The children enjoyed playing around the tree and making discoveries in nature.

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Exploring the language of mark making in the Stonyfell Room

Over the course of the term break, the Stonyfell educators have been working on developing and introducing a particular creative language to our children. We decided on the language of mark making (drawing). The role that mark making has in our children’s development is pivotal. It supports children in developing their future writing skills as well as building on their fine motor skills.

Behind this creative expression there is a direct link to our children’s emerging cognitive function. Mark making allows children to creatively express their internal ideas as well as their internal narrative.

The children have been offered a wide range of materials and resources to begin their explorations. The educators have been working closely to observe the children during these early encounters and have been focusing on the items that they have selected to work with. Materials such as pens, textas and oil pastels have all been chosen specifically, as well as the paper and card that is on offer. The children have also been offered paper and card in many sizes and various thicknesses. We are curious to see if, over the course of the term, these qualities will impact the children’s work as well as their intentions.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

The children and educators have had a very enjoyable start to Term 2. During the week, they excitedly returned to the Bell Yett Room, eager to meet with their friends and explore the learning invitations available. They discovered an intimate area in the room where small groups of children and educators could meet to share their thinking. On Monday, during our first meeting, we had a surprise visit from Tamaru. He shared with us the Kaurna name for such a place, and we are now lucky to have a Palti Circle in the Bell Yett Room.

During our meetings in the Palti Circle we have been remembering Ferguson Park and wondering what we might see this term. Will it be the ‘pom pom flowers’, the golden honey or something else? The children came up with many ideas, so we thought we would visit the park and put their theories to the test.

While the children are researching the park, we are researching how the children learn. This term, we are offering the children a new tool to support their learning; equipped with iPads, we entered the park with the ability to capture our observations through photographs.

The educators are wondering, will the use of photography:

• enrich the children’s observations
• enhance the children’s graphic representations, and
• support the development of the skills needed to work in a group?

We are looking forward to learning alongside your children and sharing these adventures with you. You can see some of our first photographs on our Bell Yett Canvas page.

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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News from the Ferguson Room

Welcome back to Term 2. It has been a fantastic experience to see the children returning with confidence and a strong sense of belonging to the community and to the Ferguson Room. This has enabled us to begin our inquiry immediately. We have begun with the question, “Do you think Ferguson Park will be the same or different as it was last term?” The children had time to express their theories. Some of them believed it would be exactly the same, while others predicted it had changed. All of the children expressed huge excitement when they noticed the transformation of the landscape.

“It looks different. There is some green grass!” – Imogen

“Long wavy grass.” – Madison

“There are flowers as well now.” – Parker

“How did Ferguson Park change?” – Poppy

Of particular interest was that grass has grown on top of the hay bales in the park. The children formed a theory that someone must have stuck it there, using glue. It was an amazing revelation when Grace shouted, “The grass is real! When you pull it up, it is real!” This discovery has many possibilities for future investigation.

Given the opportunity, children are capable of making discoveries that will inform their understanding of the world around them, and the many joys there are to be had from noticing even the tiniest things that are happening on the earth. We can use many disciplines to explore further including science, art, dance, mathematics and language. How very fortunate we are to have this beautiful outdoor classroom in which to live and learn together.

Mel Angel

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News from the Hallett Room

On the first day of Term 2, the children were welcomed back to the ELC with a visit from Tamaru. They were thrilled to see him and were eager to engage in conversation and talk about his pet snake. Tamaru has played a significant role in the children’s connection to the land through their time spent together in Ferguson Park. Tamaru has shared stories about his culture, family and ancestors. These stories have captured the attention of the children and encouraged them to ask questions to seek further understandings. The visit from Tamaru sparked conversation about Reconciliation Week which is in Week 5 of this term. When this was explained to the children, they were eager to share their ideas of what we could do during that week, together as a group.

The communication of ideas in a meeting format began this collaborative process. Children are starting to recognise the obstacles that can arise when making decisions as a group. As ideas are presented, some are listened to and some are challenged – something that can be a new experience for some children!

This focus enhances the spirit of community in the same process, as well as creating a connection with the Aboriginal people and their history. The children have recognised the need to share the Reconciliation Story with others:

“It’s important for everyone to know the story. It’s important for the Kaurna people. It’s their story, they were here first”. – Poppy

Pam Reid

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