In this edition
Dear Families
It was fabulous to see so many families at our Book Week parade last week. The excitement and joy was tangible as the children arrived in their costumes and saw their friends and educators dressed up too. We had a large array of costumes with many books represented. This was a wonderful opportunity to come together as a community and celebrate our favourite book characters. It was also delightful to have Ms Skewes and Ms Haddy read to the children in the ELC. Ms Skewes’ witch costume was definitely a highlight!
Book Week is the perfect time to remind ourselves about the importance of supporting children to develop a love for reading and we encourage you to make a time each day to read to your child. Books bring a richness to our lives because they educate and expand our imaginations. Reading and sharing literature supports our curiosity, helps us develop problem solving and thinking skills, and lays the foundation for emerging reading and writing development. While you’re reading to your child, help them build their comprehension skills by discussing the pictures, characters and storyline and making predictions about what might happen next. During your discussions, support your child to make connections between what they are reading and their experience of the world. Most importantly, have fun and develop a bank of favourite books that you can revisit many times.
This week, we are looking forward to our Father’s and Treasured Friends’ Afternoon Tea. It will be wonderful to welcome special people to the ELC, to celebrate how important they are and thank them for the contribution they make to our lives.
Liz Schembri
Director of ELC
Important Dates
Friday September 1: Father’s and Treasured Friends’ Afternoon Tea, 2pm
Tuesday 19 September, Wednesday 20 September & Monday 25 September: ELC Parent-Teacher Conversations
Monday 2 October: Public Holiday (ELC closed)
Tuesday 3 October – Friday 13 October: Vacation Care
2023 REAIE Conference, Landscapes of Curiosity and Creativity: In Dialogue with the 100 Languages
At St Peter’s Girls’ ELC, we partake in various learning and professional development activities and events. In the July school holidays, Caterina, Annabelle and Laura attended the REAIE Landscapes of Curiosity and Creativity conference in Melbourne.
This opportunity allowed us to share in current thinking from Reggio Emilia, encouraging us to reflect on how we embed these themes into our daily practice.
Presenters from across Australia and Reggio Emilia shared stories from their contexts, giving us insight into how opportunities for children to express creativity are woven throughout each part of their day.
These presentations further developed our understanding of how promoting creativity goes beyond providing a range of creative materials.
We recognise that children will express themselves creatively when provided with experiences that inspire curiosity and encourage problem-solving.
Educators need to extend the longevity of projects to allow time to revisit experiences, hold conversations and participate in the joy of imagination and creativity.
News from Learning Community 1
‘No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced’ – David Attenborough
As we delve into our current inquiry ‘Our Actions Can Impact Our World’, we have discovered that this lends itself to working with a scientific lens. During our regular visits to Ferguson Park, the children have been encouraged to work scientifically, using all our senses to engage and explore the environment. What can you hear? See? Smell? Feel?
The children have noticed the creatures that live in Ferguson Park: the bees, ants, millipedes, magpies, lorikeets, and kookaburras. They have used their knowledge of Kaurna culture and language to share stories and label plants and trees. They have observed the seasonal changes in the environment as the wattle and flowers begin to bloom.
The children have been invited to collect small specimens of plants to take back to the ELC. This provides them with further opportunities for observation and research and allows them to document their findings through drawing, painting, photography, and clay work.
Creating connections with our surrounding environment has allowed us to further explore how we can protect and care for the environment. We have created links between our sustainable practices and our Acknowledgement of Country, where we promise to ‘look after everything on the land, the people and the animals.’ The children are developing their understanding that their actions can impact their world, both now and in the future.
Nell Tierney, Annabelle Redmond and Jess Catt
Learning Community 1
News from Learning Community 2
Storytelling and Sustainability
This term across our Learning Community, we have been focusing on exploring and unpacking our ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ with the children. As we move through the weeks, we have now developed a clear path forward and have filled our learning spaces with provocations and experiences that engage and connect children to our inquiry.
Our educator intention has been to build the children’s understanding of sustainability and the importance of:
‘Looking after everything on the land, the people and the animals.”
A tool that we often use is storytelling. When the children can hear and see the impact they can have, it helps solidify these larger concepts. They have also been given the opportunity to retell these stories through play and have been provided with the resources to engage in their own storytelling.
As these stories become part of our everyday landscape of learning and supporting the children to deepen their understanding and knowledge, we are also embedding a range of actions that we can take to become more sustainable. It is important when teaching children concepts such as sustainability and responsibility that they feel empowered to have an action they can use to make a difference.
These have included:
- Putting our rubbish in the bin
- Taking care of our resources in our learning spaces
- Reusing a wide range of materials that would have ended up in landfill
Our goal is for the children to understand the impact they have on the world and that their actions always have an impact.
Chloe Skoss and Laura Reiters
Learning Community 2
News from Pathway to School
Our educator intention this term is to support the children to understand that sustainability is about the small changes that we can make to help look after the planet. Making these changes helps protect animals, plants, and our natural resources so that we, and future generations, will be able to enjoy them. Our strategy to help the Pathway to School children understand this intention is through practical, hands-on experiences.
The children have been working in the ELC Community Garden and we asked kindly for our own garden bed to care for, protect and sustain. We created a project plan and as this developed, the children shared their desire to create a scarecrow to protect the seedlings from the birds. During the last couple of weeks, we have delved more deeply into understanding what a scarecrow is and how we can make one for our garden bed.
The children have:
- Challenged each other’s thinking through rigorous discussion and debate
- Developed their language skills through describing, explaining and storytelling
- Developed their imaginative skills
- Enhanced our group function
- Worked together towards a shared goal
- Developed cognitive thinking skills
- Explored mathematical concepts such as measurement, number and data
We look forward to our next steps in our scarecrow project. The children suggested that we needed to consider making two scarecrows and are working together to design, agree upon and decide upon its features. We explained to the children that we didn’t want to buy new clothing or many materials but rather repurpose and reuse items that we already have. Some children may come home asking for spare clothes or hats for our scarecrow and we would love any donations that we can use.
Kirsty Porplycia and Kathy McCabe
Learning Community 2 (Pathway)
Staff Spotlight: Valentina Fernandes
My name is Valentina Fernandes and I am a Co-Educator and Vacation Care Leader in Learning Community 1 at St Peter’s Girls’ Early Learning Centre.
I have a Diploma in Early Childhood Education and have been working at St Peter’s Girls’ ELC since 2021.
I believe a child’s early years set the foundation for their future development and early childhood education provides the necessary tools in developing a holistic approach to a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs. Working and learning alongside children gives me unconditional joy. And it makes me proud to be a part of an institution that is driven by the Reggio Emilia approach, providing quality learning experiences for our children.
I love being a part of the early morning team as it gives me the opportunity to welcome our children and families to the ELC. I believe that having a consistent welcoming ritual every morning is important. The children see familiar faces as they arrive, we play calming music and reset the room. This helps make the transition from home to ELC seamless and it creates a sense of belonging.
As well as being an Educator, I am also a professional baker and I love combining both my passions in the ELC. Working alongside the teachers in LC1, I incorporate cooking experiences in line with the unit of inquiry. We emphasise the importance of ‘garden to plate’ and the Hallett Community Garden provides us with bountiful produce to cook with. Cooking also teaches children social skills, numeracy, literacy, naming ingredients and how to work as a team. I love how a cooking experience starts with two children and finishes with 10 children participating. There is so much joy on their faces when they see their finished product and taste it. It’s priceless! I am very blessed to provide this opportunity to them.
Vacation Care – Term 3 Holidays
Vacation Care will run from Tuesday 3 – Friday 13 October.
Please note: Monday 2 October is a public holiday and the ELC will be closed.
Families must book the days they would like their child to attend Vacation Care.
To access our online booking form, click here
Alternatively, you can contact Wolita Harding via ELCVacationCare@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
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 typical ELC days, children will need to bring their own packed lunch, hat, water bottle and a change of clothes. 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.
If you need to make changes to your booking, please email ELCVacationCare@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Please note: As Vacation Care is staffed based on bookings, please make your Vacation Care bookings by Friday 29 September (Week 10). Due to limited spaces during vacation care, please book early. Any bookings made after this date will incur a late booking fee of $5 added on top of the daily rate per child.
Parent-Teacher Conversations
ELC Parent-Teacher Conversations bookings will open on Tuesday 5 September. Below are the dates to note:
Hallett and Ferguson Rooms:
Tuesday 19 – Wednesday 20 September
Bell Yett, Stonyfell and Pathway Rooms:
Tuesday 19, Wednesday 20 and Monday 25 September
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.
Information on how to book will be communicated with you in the coming week.
Tomorrow: Fathers and Treasured Friends’ Afternoon Tea
Tomorrow: Friday 1 September, 2pm in the ELC
We invite you to our Father’s and Treasured Friends’ Afternoon Tea. We will be celebrating Father’s Day and the inspirational men in the children’s lives including fathers, grandfathers and uncles. We hope to see you there!
来自ELC园长：
亲爱的家长朋友们，
在上周的图书周游行中， 我们很高兴看到这么多家庭的到来。孩子们穿着书中人物的服装来到学校，看到他们的朋友和老师们也扮演各种人物出席，现场充满了令人激动喜悦时刻。我们看到了许多书中人物的装扮。这是一个很好的机会，让我们作为一个社区聚集在一起，庆祝我们最喜欢的书中人物。我们也很高兴看到校长Skewes女士和Haddy女士为ELC的孩子们朗读。Skewes女士的女巫服装绝对是一个亮点!
图书周的活动是我们支持孩子培养对阅读的热爱，是十分重要的。我们鼓励家长朋友们每天抽出时间给你的孩子读书。书籍丰富了我们的生活，因为书籍有着教育的意义以及扩展了我们的想象力。阅读和分享文学作品满足了我们的好奇心，帮助我们培养解决问题和提高思考的能力，为新兴的阅读和写作发展奠定了基础。当你给孩子读书时，通过讨论图片、人物和故事情节，并预测接下来可能发生的事情，帮助他们建立理解能力。在你的讨论互动中，帮助孩子们通过阅读与世界建立联系。最重要的是，孩子们的快乐学习，并建立一个丰富的书籍库，孩子们可以随时浏览探索。
本周，我们期待着父亲和孩子们“重要朋友”的到来， 一起共享下午茶。欢迎他们生活中“特别的人”来到ELC，庆祝他们对孩子的重要意义，感谢他们对我们生活的贡献，这将是一件十分美好的事情。
园长
Liz Schembri
Emma Huang works in Learning Community 1 on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:30am – 4:30pm.
Car Parking Notice
A reminder to parents to be extra vigilant when parking their car on Hallett Road, Stonyfell Road and the School car park during drop-off and pick-up times. The health and safety of our community is our highest priority, and we ask parents to park their vehicle in a safe and designated parking space on these roads and neighbouring streets. With a constant flow of traffic on the main roads surrounding our School, and families and children present in this vicinity, it is crucial for all drivers to move in and out of parking spaces with caution.
Please supervise children closely when getting into and out of the car. Families are reminded to use the pedestrian crossing to safely cross Hallett Road and Stonyfell Road and model appropriate road safety behaviour. Please do not leave siblings or other children in the car when dropping off or collecting your child.
Ladies’ Night Out
Date: Wednesday 20 September, Week 9
Venue: Regal Theatre, 275 Kensington Road, Kensington Park
Time: Foyer opens at 6.30pm (movie starts 7.30pm)
Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
Cost: $25 per person
Raffle tickets: $5 for 1 ticket, $10 for 3 tickets
Grab your girlfriends, mothers and sisters and get ready for a fabulous night celebrating the power of family and laughter at our ‘Ladies’ Night Out’ with the highly anticipated My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.
You’ll be welcomed onboard with a complimentary glass of bubbles and chocolate bar, ready to transport you to Greece with the hilarious Portokalos family as they embark on another antic-filled adventure.
Raffle tickets are available to purchase online with your tickets. Prizes include tickets to Choral Night 2024 and this year’s Carols in the Cathedral – waltz past the queues straight to your reserved seats with the VIP guests! We also have 4 x one month OSX Outdoor Group Fitness Training vouchers (each voucher is for one person and valued at $160 each) kindly donated by Susanna Parkinson (current Year 9 parent).
This wonderful community event is hosted by The Friends of The Arts group with all
proceeds going directly to support the many wonderful Arts programs Saints Girls enjoy.
Join us for an evening to remember.
To book tickets – click here
Late Fee Reminder
A reminder to all families that a late fee is applied for any pickups after 6pm, Monday to Friday in the ELC.
The fee is as follows: $15 per every 15 minutes after 6pm.
We ask all parents to remember to sign their children in and out when arriving and departing from the Centre. This helps to ensure that we have an accurate record of all children who are present at any given time.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our ELC Enrolments and Finance Officer Sarah Elliott via selliott@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Thank you for your understanding.
Sun Smart Practices in the ELC
Following Cancer Council advice, our Centre has strong guidelines for sun protection, mainly on days the UV is 3 and above. Recently, the UV has been high for small parts of the day; therefore, it is important for families to be aware of the following.
We ask all families to please return your child’s hat to the ELC, so our Centre can be prepared for warmer days throughout the term as well as Term 4.
It’s important that children access the outdoor spaces and Ferguson Conservation Park, which requires children to wear their hats depending on the weather. Please ensure your child’s hat is labelled clearly with their name.
Thank you for supporting our sun safe practices.
For more information, please visit the Cancer Council website.
School Health Centre Notices
Minimise the spread!
To minimise the spread of illness please keep your child at home if they have:
- received Panadol or Nurofen in the morning
- a fever of 38 or above – children can return to the Centre 24 hours after their last elevated temperature
- swollen glands
- a continuous runny nose
- a sore throat
- a consistent cough without a doctor’s clearance
- been unusually tired or lethargic
- been vomiting or have diarrhoea. Children should be kept home until the these symptoms have been absent for at least 24 hours.
- an undiagnosed rash
We look forward to your child returning once their symptoms are cleared so they can be happy and engaged in learning.
Remember to cover coughs and sneezes with your elbow and wash hands regularly for at least 20 seconds.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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
-
- Stonyfell – 8155 5778
- Bell Yett – 8155 5780
- Ferguson – 8155 5776
- Hallett – 8155 5775
- Pathway – 8334 2250