In this edition
Dear Families
Naa Marni (hello everyone) and welcome to Week 4.
St Peter’s Girls’ ELC acknowledges that we are situated on Kaurna land, and we pay our respects to Kaurna Elders past, present and emerging.
As Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June) fast approaches, we wanted to take this week’s newsletter as an opportunity to highlight all the wonderful moments, experiences and events that are happening in our ELC community.
The children have been thoroughly enjoying heading out to Ferguson Park almost every day this term in small groups, where on our walks, we have been noticing the changes happening in our natural environment. To the children, Ferguson Park can act as a laboratory; a place where we can scientifically observe nature, experience wonder, and ask all the questions it brings. It can also act as a cultural space; a place for storytelling and theatre where we connect with First Nations’ cultures and perspectives.
Today we welcomed Kaurna Elder and friend Tamaru into Ferguson Park with us, to hear him share his stories of the land and continue to teach us about the native Australian flora and fauna in our ELC’s backyard. We are so fortunate to have these incredible connections to wider community members who can share with us their knowledge and culture such as Tamaru does with Kaurna culture.
This is just one small piece in the giant puzzle that is our ongoing commitment to reconciliation. To us, Reconciliation Week is not a stand-alone week where we bring out different resources and materials to share. It is not a sectioned-off timeframe within our year where we highlight the importance of welcoming and embracing First Nations’ cultures and perspectives.
To us, this is a week where we can make visible our lifelong journey of reconciliation, celebrating our daily actions which are continued right throughout our year, to acknowledge our ongoing commitment to this space, and be humbled by the ripple effect we are having on our wider community. This is a week where we can press pause, look around and see the difference we are making, not only in the lives and understandings of our youngest learners and citizens, but also those of our educators, of our families and of the wider community members we have partnered with to make this possible.
Each year, Reconciliation Australia creates a theme for Reconciliation Week, to support us in taking action together. The theme for 2022 is ‘Be brave, Make change’. We encourage families to embrace this social transformation with us and with the children, to do your own research into reconciliation and what it means, and think about how you can make a difference.
We invite you all to be brave and participate with us on Saturday 4 June when we will mark the end of 2022 Reconciliation Week with our ELC Community Event , ‘Do You Want to Build a Wodli?‘ With the support of Kaurna Elder Tamaru, we will be shown how to build a Wodli, which are traditional shelters made from sticks and leaves. Through the power of storytelling and knowledge sharing, we hope to strengthen the relationship between our ELC, our wider community, and the land on which we work and play.
If you are seeking more opportunities to get involved and connect with the wider South Australian Reconciliation Community, we encourage you to look at these upcoming events for the week ahead.
Ngaitalya (respect) and kind regards
Henrietta Balnaves
ELC Manager
Important Dates
31 May – 3 June: Reconciliation Week in the ELC
Saturday 4 June: ELC Community Event: ‘Do You Want to Build a Wodli?’
Wednesday 8 June: Mid-Year Reception Transition Visits Commence
Monday 13 June: Public Holiday (ELC closed)
Tuesday 14 June: New Family Welcome Evening
Do You Want to Build a Wodli?
Please join us for our special ELC Community Event on Saturday 4 June from 9 – 11am in Ferguson Conservation Park as we build Wodlis together to celebrate Reconciliation Week. The ELC will provide a coffee van, and families are encouraged to bring their own picnic rug and snacks. Toilets will be accessible but the ELC will be closed.
St Peter’s Girls’ ELC values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures as a proud part of a shared national identity, and strives towards building and sharing reconciliation.
Important COVID-19 Information
Parents are now permitted into our learning spaces to pick up and drop off their children, however must wear a mask, maintain social distancing and use the hand sanitiser provided.
If your child tests positive to COVID-19, notify us immediately. Please also advise the type of test (RAT/PCR), the date your child’s test was taken and the date symptoms started (if no symptoms, note ‘asymptomatic’).
Please notify us via email or text:
Email: attendance@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Text: 0428 601 957 (save to phone contacts as SPGS)
If you need to notify us over the phone, please call the Front Office on 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
If children do develop COVID symptoms, they need to be tested for COVID-19 and require a PCR test with receipt of a negative result and resolution of symptoms before return to ELC can be considered. Children who have previously tested positive and have completed isolation in the past 12 weeks do not need to undertake testing.
Under updated SA Health advice, asymptomatic close contacts no longer need to quarantine. Therefore, children can attend ELC despite being a close contact, provided they undertake 5 RATs over the subsequent 7 days and receive negative results.
Sustainability in the ELC
While observing the changes in our ELC Community Garden, the children in Learning Community 2 have noticed the sprouts beginning to grow.
To represent these changes in the garden and in their surrounding environment, the children have been responding through movement to music, growing their bodies as the music gradually gets louder, similar to the sprouting vegetables.
This has allowed the children to use the Creative Arts to express their ideas and make meaning of the lifecycle of plants.
We are looking forward to noticing the other changes occurring in our ELC Community Garden over the next few weeks.
Georgia Lyng
Learning Community 2
You’re Invited to Our Starry Night Gala Ball
We are counting down to our Starry Night Gala Ball on Saturday 18 June to celebrate and support our fundraising efforts for a new Gym.
Don’t miss out on this amazing evening with our Saints Girls’ community.
7pm, Saturday 18 June
Adelaide Convention Centre
Tickets: $200 per person
Includes three-course meal, beverages and live entertainment
Can You Lend a Helping Hand in the ELC?
If you have an afternoon or morning spare, we would love more volunteers to join us as we explore Ferguson Conservation Park. We try to get out to Ferguson Park as much as possible to provide the children with rich learning experiences; however, this is deemed an excursion and requires higher ratios of adults to children.
Volunteering at the ELC is a fantastic opportunity to connect with the ELC community, and our treasured walks in Ferguson Park allow the children to deepen their relationship with their natural environment.
To be an ELC volunteer, we require a copy of a Working with Children Check (which can be processed free of charge through the School) and proof of COVID-19 vaccinations. If you would like to get involved, or have any other queries, please email me via hbalnaves@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
We look forward to seeing you at the ELC!
Henrietta Balnaves
ELC Manager
来自黄老师的信息
大家好！
转眼间，我们已经迎来了第4周。
圣彼得女校早教中心承认我们生活在嘎纳人的土地上，我们尊重嗄纳先民的过去、现在和将来。
随着“和解周”（5 月 27 日至 6 月 3 日）的临近，我们希望借本周的简讯来着重介绍一下我们早教中心正在发生的所有精彩的瞬间、珍贵的经历，以及重要的活动。
这个学期，孩子们几乎每天都以小组的形式前往Ferguson公园，去尽情拥抱大自然。在林中漫步时，我们观察到了自然环境发生的一些变化。对孩子们来说，Ferguson公园是一个天然的实验室；一个可以让我们从科学的角度去欣赏自然之美、体验自然之妙，探索自然之谜的地方。它也是一个文化空间；一个可以让我们通过故事和戏剧来了解原住民文化，并与之建立联系的地方。
今天，我们邀请到了嘎纳原住民朋友Tamaru叔叔和我们一起走进Ferguson公园，听他讲述有关这片土地的故事，传授澳大利亚本土动植物的相关知识。对于我们早教中心来说，能与更大的社会共同体建立联系是一件非常荣幸的事情。就像Tamaru叔叔与我们分享嘎纳文化一样，大社会共同体的成员可以跟我们分享很多知识，拓展我们的文化视野。
和原住民和谐共处是我们共同的心愿，我们也在不断地为之付出努力。对早教中心和我们来说，“和解周”并不是单独的一周，也不是一年之中一个特定的时间框架，我们在这方面的努力是长年累月、持之以恒的，并不局限于某一个时间段。在“和解周”这个星期，我们主要通过资源和材料的分享来强调一下我们欢迎和接受原住民文化和观点的重要性。对我们来说，这个星期具有特别的象征意义。在这个星期，我们为创建和谐社会所付出的毕生努力可以得到充分展示。在这个星期，我们共同庆祝一年到头一直在坚持的日常行动，我们对赖以生活的大环境做出郑重承诺，我们对赖以生活的大社会抱以敬畏。在这个星期，我们按下暂停键，环顾四周，看看我们正在做出的改变。我们的生活，以及我们对文化和社会的理解都产生了一些变化。这些改变得益于我们早教中心的孩子、我们的老师、我们的家庭，以及与我们合作的大社会共同体成员们的共同努力。
每年，澳大利亚和解组织都会为“和解周”设立一个主题，以支持我们共同采取行动。2022年的主题是“勇敢一点，做出改变”。
我们希望家长们能和早教中心的师生们一起拥抱这种社会变革，对“和解”及其背后的意义做一些自己的研究，并思考如何做出一些积极的改变。
我们希望人人都能做积极、勇敢的参与者。在此诚挚地邀请您于6月4日星期六与我们一起参加庆祝活动。为庆祝2022年“和解周”的结束，我们早教中心将举办一个特别的活动，活动名称为“你想搭建一个Wodli吗？”。在嘎纳原住民Tamaru的指导和帮助下，我们将学习如何搭建一个传统的Wodli。Wodli是由嘎纳人使用树枝和树叶搭建的一种庇护所。我们希望，通过讲故事和知识分享等活动，我们的早教中心能与大社会共同体，以及我们赖以工作和玩耍的土地建立更紧密的联系。
如果您希望有更多机会参与南澳大利亚和谐社会共同体并与之建立联系，我们欢迎您踊跃参与未来一周内即将举行的精彩活动：
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/d/australia–adelaide/reconciliation-week/?q=reconciliation+week&lc=1
致敬！
早教中心主任
Emma Huang works in Learning Community 2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9am – 5pm.
News from Learning Community 1
This year’s theme for the Reconciliation Week is ‘Be brave, Make change’. As we get ourselves ready to join our community in next week’s celebrations, we are continuing to promote the Kaurna culture, reflecting on our role in reconciliation as active citizens.
We understand that change and transformation take time. For this reason, the Kaurna culture is embedded in our rituals every day at the ELC:
- We incorporate Kaurna language during our morning meeting, that we respectfully call ‘Banbanbalya’, and we use Kaurna symbols to record our presence around the Palti Circle (Kaurna meeting place). Expressing their presence with symbols and counting the people around the circle are learning opportunities for the children to develop literacy and mathematical knowledge. We also name body parts; for example, saying ‘washing our maras’ (hands)
- We use some of the Kaurna symbols to identify and record the daily weather.
- We explore Ferguson Park to connect with its history, flora and fauna.
We have been visiting Ferguson Park and photographing the Kaurna Yarta (Kaurna land) to document the transformations that are occurring in the environment. The children have been investigating the trees, looking at their different sizes, appearance and textures. They have also visited the Wodli, exploring the area to find sticks they could add to the Kaurna shelter. We are looking forward to having Kaurna Elder Tamaru in Ferguson Park again to share his knowledge and stories with us.
Jessica Guimaraes and Jess Catt
Learning Community 1
News from Learning Community 2
One of our most treasured values is for our children to understand that they are citizens of our community and our country. Here at St Peter’s Girls’ ELC, we are committed to understanding and actioning reconciliation with the First Peoples of Australia. We live among the traditional owners of this land, the Kaurna people, and we ensure that we are knowledgeable and respectful of Kaurna people, culture and practices, every day.
We are very fortunate to have a strong working relationship with Kaurna Elder Tamaru who supports us to learn his language, stories and traditions. We have embedded Kaurna language and rituals in our everyday life, and so along with Mandarin and Japanese, our children also learn Kaurna language. Tamaru has said that being greeted in his native language, hearing the children make an Acknowledgement of Country, is incredibly significant and is evidence that we have an authentic and ongoing program for learning which also includes:
- Weekly walks in Ferguson Park, sharing stories taught to us by Tamaru about sustainability, Kaurna culture and language
- Sharing of Acknowledgement in Kaurna and English every day
- Immersed knowledge and understanding of Kaurna symbols in our everyday Literacy and Numeracy program
- Sharing stories from Aboriginal authors and dreamtime stories told from all over Australia
- Embedding literacy skills as we unpack the reconciliation story, observing the structures that create a narrative including content and format
We hope that you can all join us in celebrating as a community during our Wodli building day in Ferguson Park on Saturday 4 June. It will be a wonderful chance for the children to share their knowledge and understanding with you.
Nell Tierney, Kathy McCabe and Laura Reiters
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:
Each parent has an individual username to access our myLink parent portal.
Your username is {ID+}@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
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)
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
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