From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

The recent Twilight Picnic gave us the opportunity to connect with so many of our families. It certainly highlights what a strong and vibrant community we are. With over half of our first term already gone, we reflect on the relationships we have been able to build in this short time. It is so rewarding to see that the children have formed trusting relationships with educators and that the educators are getting to know the adults in the children’s lives. This is where we can begin to build true partnerships with families for the benefit of everyone, especially the child.

In the last week, the teaching team reflected on the difference between family involvement and family participation. Family participation matters as it focuses on the reciprocal relationships between home and ELC.

Why is this so important?

• Knowing that there is mutual respect with the family strengthens a child’s identity and sense of belonging and enhances their learning
• Knowing children includes knowing the family and the cultural and community contexts of their lives
• Families bring insights that offer a richer picture about their child.

We know that it is so important to build trust between home and ELC. We encourage families to consider their perspective on partnerships between the education facility and home and how we can maximise this practice. We believe that our children are raised by a community and view this as complementary practice.

With our ongoing learning across the centre we are looking to ensure that we are hearing the educator, child and parent voices. The educators will be extending invitations to hear your voice and further build their working partnership with you. This may include your input into goal setting for your child.

Our upcoming Parent Teacher Conversations are a wonderful way to develop these partnerships between home and school. This is when we can truly make a difference to a child’s learning journey as we broaden our understandings about the child. We need to move beyond the simple conversations with the endeavour of expanding our understandings about the child. Educators must understand the values and expectations of each family in order to respond appropriately to the child.

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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Save the Date

• 3 – 5 April : ELC Photos in the mornings
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Parent Teacher Conversations
• 14 April : Easter and School holidays
• 18 – 28 April : Vacation Care Program

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Letter from Miss Qian

亲爱的家长：

转眼已经到第一学期第八周，我们希望在过去八周里，您的孩子在圣彼得女校ELC过得开心快乐并且学有所获！

圣彼得女校ELC非常重视中国家庭和中国文化，也非常希望我们中国家庭能够积极地参与到我们的各项活动中，这不但是我们互相了解的机会，也能促进孩子们更好地融入到我们ELC，增强他们的归属感。在各项社区活动中，我们也将不遗余力地满足中国家庭的需求，目前园长和ELC之友的成员们正在考虑计划一些专属于中国家庭的活动，如果您有什么好的建议，请您联系我们的中文老师Ms Qian或者园长Mrs Kate Mount。我们期待听到您的声音！

以下是她们的邮箱：
Mrs Kate Mount kmount@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Ms Qian qpu@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

最后，祝大家心情愉快，万事如意！

圣彼得女校ELC

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Parent Teacher Conversations

Our ELC Parent Teacher Conversations will take place between Monday April 3 and Wednesday 5 April. We strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher as it provides us with the opportunity to share your child’s learning journey and significant moments, as well as the documentation we have to support this. From these discussions, Term 2 goals for your child will be created to ensure they reflect both the parent and the educator’s perspectives.

These appointments are designated 15-minute timeslots per family to meet with your child’s teacher. Sign on sheets will be placed in each room for you to book your appointment. Times available for each teacher vary but most of the times are during the afternoons, from lunchtime until 6pm.

Sign on sheets will be available in the rooms from Wednesday 22 March. If you are unable to visit the centre to book your appointment, please email your teacher from this date to be allocated a time.

Stonyfell Room: Miss Laura Reiters lreiters@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Bell Yett Room: Mrs Leanne Williams lwilliams@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au or Mrs Nell Tierney ntierney@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Ferguson Room: Ms Mel Angel mangel@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Hallett Room: Mrs Pam Reid preid@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

Please note that where relevant Mrs Kirsty Porplycia will also attend these conversations. Kirsty can be contacted at kporplycia@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.

Please do not hesitate to contact me on 8334 2245 with any queries.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

尊敬的家长：

ELC一对一家长见面会将于4月3日（星期一）到4月5日（星期三）进行，每个家庭将会有15分钟的时间跟您孩子所在班级的负责教师进行一对一谈话，主要针对您孩子本学期的发展情况以及未来发展目标等进行沟通。每个班的签到处会有时间表，您可以根据自己的时间灵活安排您跟老师的会面时间，每个班的时间略有不同但大部分都集中在午餐时间到下午6点之间。

一对一家长会的意义在于帮助您更好的了解孩子在ELC的发展，也能促进老师更加了解您对ELC及对孩子教育的期待，从而在双方的共同探讨中一起为您的孩子制定第二学期发展目标。

时间表将于3月22日（星期三）开始填写，如果您不能亲自来填写及选择时间，您也可以发送邮件至您孩子的负责教师的邮箱：

Stonyfell Room：Miss Laura Reiters lreiters@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Bell Yett Room: Mrs Leanne Williams lwilliams@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au or Mrs Nell Tierney ntierney@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Ferguson Room: Ms Mel Angel mangel@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au
Hallet Room: Mrs Pam Reid preid@stpetersgiirls.sa.edu.au Hallet班级Mrs Kirsty Poplycia 也会根据需要参与到见面会中，她的邮箱是 kpoplycia@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

如果您有任何疑问，您也可以致电83342245 联系我，我将不遗余力为您解答。

园长
Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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ELC Photos

We would like to make you aware that ELC photos are fast approaching and shortly we will be sending home an order form and letter outlining the information about how these work in the ELC. ELC photos will be taken on Monday 3 April, Tuesday 4 April and Wednesday 5 April. Children need to be dressed in their ELC uniforms on each of these days as we take a group shot every day.

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Vacation Care

Our upcoming Vacation Care period is fast approaching. As our official term ends on Thursday, April 13 and does not recommence until Monday 1 May, the centre provides a Vacation Care Program for the school holiday period. Complete the booking form below to secure your child’s place. You will note there are half day and full day options available.

For our new families, please also note that your regular bookings during term time do not apply for Vacation Care. You can book as many sessions as you need during this time.

Our Vacation Care Coordinators are Miss Galia Kay and Miss Annabelle Redmond. We will place additional information and forms to support families in the front foyer as you enter from Hallett Road.

Note that the ELC will be closed on all public holidays.

Please address any queries to Miss Kay or Miss Redmond, their emails are available on the booking form.

Vacation Care Booking Form

Bookings close on Friday 7 April.

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Friends of ELC

Friends of ELC would like to thank everyone for attending and supporting our recent Twilight Picnic. It was a huge success, with families enjoying the lush gardens on Chiverton Lawns. This space really encapsulated community – with a beautiful atmosphere of new and old families, extended families, children playing and educators mingling.

The barbecue enabled families to come and have an early dinner and enjoy the opportunity to unwind before the long weekend. We were really pleased with the number of families who attended. The money raised from the raffle and food/wine sales will be going towards some new outdoor benches in the ELC gardens.

The most exciting aspect for all of us was seeing the joy on the faces of the children as they introduced their families to some of the other special people in their lives. Some had been anticipating this event for several weeks.

We look forward to continuing this strong sense of community and opportunities to bring everyone together as the year unfolds.

Friends of ELC

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ELC Twilight Picnic reflection

Sometimes children surprise us with the scope of their memories and how deeply they feel about certain experiences. At the beginning of the year, Mrs Mount was chatting with Kyan and asked him what he was most looking forward to doing at ELC this year. ‘The ELC Picnic’, he replied. The ELC Twilight Picnic is an annual event that makes a time for us all to deepen connections and celebrate what we have built together so far. For many, the relationships began in Playgroup with Mrs Mount before starting as a student in the Stonyfell Room. In 2017, this special occasion coincided with our Inquiry across the Centre into ‘Who we are’. We have focused on experiences that delve into our identity and the groups to which we belong; how we can shape different groups with what we bring to them, as well as how those groups shape us. The Picnic was a wonderful opportunity to bring those groups together. Prior to the evening, we discussed with the children what they were looking forward to:

Indyanna – I’m not coming, will you miss me?
Chace – And miss me?
Josh – Will you miss me on my holiday?
Crystal – I miss you
Eden – I miss Ava, are you coming Mrs Reid?
Eden – Are you bringing your family?
Pam – No, do you think I should?
Eden – Yes, I like them
Pam – But you havn’t met them
Eden – I want to
Crystal – I have, I like them. I met them in the Ferguson Room.

Yes, they should come.

This caused us as a team to reflect on why our families were not coming! It seemed obvious once the question was posed. Because our ELC community is more than just a place of work for us; the time we spend there in dialogue with one another, with the children and the families with whom we live and learn alongside every day means that it is a place where we too belong, not just as employees but as a whole person with significant others that must be part of significant events such as this.

The evening itself was nothing short of perfect. The beautiful setting of Chiverton Lawns coupled with a mild summery evening enabled everyone to relax on picnic rugs and mingle together. The children were excited to find one another, at first a little shyly, then chasing each other happily. They tugged at their parents to come and say hello to their teachers and it was clear they were so proud and excited to have this opportunity for the special people in their lives to meet. This was a timely event to add to our learning and understanding of who we are.

Mel Angel

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Deepening our connection to each other

As educators we are often asking ourselves how we can deepen our connections to our families and children? We are wanting to further enrich our lives at ELC and to foster our connection to each other.

Last week, as a community, we gathered together on the Chiverton Lawns and enjoyed our Twilight Picnic. We see this as a very special time when we are able to gather as a wider ELC community and are able to spend an evening eating, playing and sharing.

The Stonyfell Team have been provoked by this special event and wanted to explore its meaning in a deeper way. We have asked ourselves the following questions:

• How does an event such as the Twilight Picnic impact on our children and families?

• How do our community gatherings extend beyond the event and shape our identity?

• How do these gatherings make us (children, families and educators) feel?

With these questions in mind, the children and educators have been reliving the picnic through role play and photos. The children have delighted in setting up a space on the lawn with our picnic items and have been able to discuss and share their memories from this night. We encouraged the children to take turns and work together in collaboration to create a picnic. We observed the children during this time and many were keen to talk about being with their families. It became clear that they also valued having their teachers and families could together, this was very special for them. We want to keep this conversation going and would love to hear your perspectives about events such as the Twilight Picnic and how they impact your lives. If you would like to share your thoughts, feedback and feelings about this event or others you have attended then I invite you to email me at lreiters@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.

We are keen to include our parent voice and greatly value your perspectives, thoughts and feelings. Thank you in advance for your support.

Laura Reiters
Stonyfell Room

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News from the Bell Yett Room

Building A Community

You will often hear us talking about the importance of relationships. There are many different but equally important relationships within the ELC including those between children, children and educators, and educators and families.

We place great value on these relationships. Most recently, our Twilight Picnic, was an opportunity to enhance all of the above relationships and support the building of community. For those of you who were able to attend, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, and we look forward to our next opportunity to come together. We frequently refer to the Bell Yett Room as a community of learners. Through our inquiry we are investigating the idea that belonging to groups can enhance our identity. This has required the educators to be thoughtful about not only how we can create a community but what skills the children need to function as a group.

One of the many ways we are developing our community and the necessary skills is through our Morning Meeting. The singing of our Good Morning Bell Yett Friends song, is a signal to the children that our important time together is beginning. We greet each other and discover which of our special friends are here. We have then been using this time that we are all together to create our Essential Agreement. This has been a major catalyst in the development of numerous social and communication skills that enhance group function.

Our Morning Meeting is also a vital part of our day as it is when we discuss our plans for the day. We offer the children a provocation or invitation to explore. We move into small groups that provide the opportunity for further skill development while we engage in our inquiry learning. Our Morning Meeting not only sets the rhythm of the day but it is a vital part of building our community of learners. If it is possible, we encourage you to arrive at the ELC prior to 9.15am so your children can take part in this important part of our day.

Leanne, Nell and the Bell Yett Team

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News from the Ferguson Room

Why are young children so attracted to building with blocks? This term we have noticed that all of our children, both boys and girls, have devoted a considerable amount of time to constructing things with the large wooden blocks ranging from fire engines, aeroplanes, castles, and houses. There is no doubt that these open-ended wooden shapes invite imagination and creativity; when we ask the children they tell us what they are thinking of:

• A rocket – Jacob
• A tower – Darcy
• A castle – Lila
• A crocodile – Lily
• A fire engine – Harry
• A bridge – Winnie
• A princess – Molly
• A stage – Matilda
• Obstacle course – Hannah
• A rocket ship – Harrison
• A house – Emma

Yet it is not what the children construct but how they are doing it that we as their teachers are interested in observing. Building with blocks has become a metaphor for building relationships and knowledge of each other in the Ferguson Room. As Term 1 has progressed we are noticing a high level of group function and it is experiences such as the block building that have contributed to this. As they work on building the objects of their imagination, children must develop dispositions such as cooperation, persistence, the ability to negotiate, communicate and collaborate. It is interesting too that the large block area is one where very little conflict arises; the combination of purposeful work, being creative and having problems to solve engages children’s minds and bodies, provides a platform for agency, and is often in this area that they are the most content.

As part of our inquiry into who we are, some of our bi-lingual children have been teaching us their home language. They have been assisted by their families who have been a wonderful support to them and us, and we are very grateful. Recently, Jayden Jung’s mum, Heeyoung, sent us a link to a Korean song on Youtube that Jayden is very fond of. It is called Three Little Bears. Jayden and Ava Conn have been teaching us the words and we have been having so much fun with it. You may like to watch this at home and ask your child about the different ways they can say ‘Good Morning’.

Mel Angel
Ferguson Room

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News from the Hallett Room

Last week the Hallett Room were given a provocation. The provocation was abstract and encouraged the children to think differently about their identity and that of others. Miss Caterina and Mrs Reid presented their ‘self-portraits’ in an unconventional manner. The children were confused by this concept of a portrait being presented in the form of a handbag filled with personal possessions. The children discussed how they had drawn their portrait in the Atelier with Miss Caterina and that ‘this wasn’t a self-portrait’. Mrs Reid and Miss Caterina shared the special items that were in their bag and the children were captivated by their ‘stories’.

Recently, the educators have engaged in rich dialogue and discussion about ‘culture’ and ‘cultural identity’. An important aspect for us in the Hallett Room is to help develop the children’s understanding about identity – being more than just what a person looks like and rather who they are as a person. Culture is important for us to learn about and embrace, and as the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework states, it is children’s right to have their cultural identity, language and values respected – whether these values relate to the country in which the child is living or to the country from which the child may originate. It is therefore more about getting to know people, their interests, and their loves – their uniqueness, and this is what we want to inspire in our children.

Over the next couple of weeks, the children will be coming home with their own ‘Self-Portrait Bag’ which will be in the form of a paper bag for you to help your child collect some items that they can share with others, helping to show who they are. These items may include a couple of photographs, something that brings back memories of a favourite holiday, a piece of clothing, artefact or a favourite food. If your child insists on a special toy, we please encourage you to engage your child in a discussion about this item and if they are happy for it to remain at school for a period of time. Many children who have shared their interest in placing a toy in their bag have been encouraged to use technology and to capture a photograph to share.

Through this process, we hope to highlight to the children the depth of identity. Our aim is to help build the foundations for our children to be global citizens, who will show compassion and empathy to all around them.

Pam Reid
Hallett Room

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From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

As we enter the half way point of Term 1 it is timely to reflect on some of the key threads of our accomplishments and focus so far. All of these come under the key area of wellbeing.

As a centre, we are empowering our children to develop their independence throughout their day at the ELC. With the belief that children’s agency enhances wellbeing, we are providing and supporting opportunities for them to have a voice, to express their ideas and thoughts and to ensure we, the adults, are listening to them. In order to develop confidence to share their ideas in a group situation with their peers and educators, they need to develop the relationships and trust to do this.

You may have noticed across the centre that there has been a focus on the identity of an individual within a group. We believe that firstly the child must be clear about who they are in order to function in a group. This is why we love to share family photos, have parents/family members visit the rooms, creating such a strong connection between home and the ELC. We also love to share family traditions and special stories that enhance the child’s identity in their new peer group.

Some children have the ability to create their identity in their own way; they have confidence within the group, and skills in place to share who they are. There are a myriad of reasons for this. Others need us to facilitate the process, to ensure we are giving equal voice in our groups, to vary the size of the group to bring out the voices and to offer experiences of learning where the child can begin to develop confidence and expressions. At all times the educators are watching, waiting and anticipating what might happen. Equipped with the skills to notice and value, they document and share with their team so that moments are not lost, but rather built upon.

This leads to the development of agency in a child. If they are listened to and their opinion has value, then they begin to understand that they can make a difference. After all, we do not want everyone thinking in the same way and going about their learning in a prescribed manner. If we think about a group of adults in a professional sense, trying to find solutions in order to move forward, we need people who have the ability to think outside the square and strategies to promote their ideas. This skill set begins at birth – with problem solving, communicating, risk taking – all of which are life skills that must be built upon in our educational settings.

I do hope that this gives you some background to how we drive our teaching and learning program with such a strong emphasis on wellbeing. Many people associate wellbeing from a physical and emotional perspective, we are trying very hard to ensure we are identifying all of the areas of wellbeing and looking more deeply than just the obvious. I invite parents/family members to communicate with me what you are noticing about your child’s development since the start of this year. We are commencing parent focus groups and are looking for interested parties to join us on our journey of increasing awareness about wellbeing in the young child. We are curious to gain the parent perspective.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at this Friday’s Twilight Picnic.

Kind regards,
Kate Mount

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ELC Twilight Picnic

暮色野餐

3月10日 星期五下午5-7点，来Chiverton Lawns加入我们的野餐吧!

届时，现场会有Friends of ELC工作人员出售烤肠面包和饮料，您也可以自己带上零食，我们一起在Chiverton Lawns聊聊天，一起度过放松的夜幕时光！

 另：现场还有奖券出售哦！

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Letter from Miss Qian

暮光野餐

尊敬的家长，本周五（3月10日）下午5-7点，Friends of ELC （一个由学生家长组成的志愿者小组）为ELC的家庭组织了一场暮光野餐，现场会有Friends of ELC的工作人员出售烤肠面包和饮料，您也可以自己带上零食，饮料及野餐毯子等，和您的孩子一起在Chiverton Lawns一起度过一个愉快而放松的傍晚，现场还有奖券出售哦!

这是一个您和孩子跟ELC社区的其他家庭认识和了解的机会 — 结识更多的朋友，增加您和孩子的归属感，届时, ELC的老师们也会在现场，我们期待您和孩子的加入！

如果您有任何疑问或者需要任何帮助请联系ELC中文老师 Ms Qian (Stonyfell Room)或者发邮件至 qpu@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

时间：3月10日下午5-7点
地点：Chiverton Lawns

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Adelaide Network Reggio Group

St Peter’s Girls’ Early Learners’ Centre staff are actively involved in the Adelaide Network of the Reggio Group. This involves being members of the national group of REAIE , attending professional learning and sharing our practice with interested participants. Every term interested members meet at a site to share their understandings and practice.

Last week we hosted the network gathering and we had an overwhelming number of people attend. There was a range of teachers, principals and lecturers representing sites from multiple sectors. Our centre was complimented highly on its presentation but also on our team, the collaboration and engagement in dialogue across the centre. This provided a wonderful welcome to our visitors and was an excellent opportunity for our team to share their pedagogy.

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A special guest – Boori Monty Pryor

Our city of Adelaide has come alive with the buzz of the Fringe Festival, Writers Week and Clipsal – many exciting events that you may have visited with your children. This week our very own ELC community came alive as we were visited by storyteller, writer and performer, Boori Monty Pryor.

Boori was born in Townsville in 1950. His father is of the Birri-gubba people and his mother is Kunggandji. Boori is a multi-talented performer and an accomplished didgeridoo player, having played with the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra at the Melbourne Wurundjeri Welcome to Michael Jackson, and in Sydney for the Pope. Boori is in great demand as a public speaker and storyteller, and travels extensively throughout Australia and overseas year-round to perform for school students and professional adult groups.

We were thrilled to have Boori spend time with us at our ELC. He was able to instantly create a strong connection with the children through the act of storytelling. Boori is certainly a master of his craft, immersing and engaging his audience in the story, and the educators have all learnt and been inspired by him. We invite you to see evidence of this engagement through the photos displayed in our rooms.

We will be building on this visit by inviting the children to deepen their ideas on identity – our individual identity, our ELC community identity and our identity as Australians – through storytelling. Boori’s visit has challenged us to share our stories through telling, singing, dancing and creating to form meaningful and lasting connections.

Leanne Williams
ELC Educator

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Save the Date

• 10 March : ELC Twilight Picnic from 5pm on the lawns
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Photos in the mornings
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Parent Teacher Conversations
• 14 April : Easter and School holidays
• 18 – 28 April : Vacation Care Program

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Making our learning visible

We often get asked by our families:

“What did my child do today?”
“What did they learn today?”

I know that many of you wish that you could be a fly on the wall just to see what your child gets up to during our days together. We don’t want our days to be a mystery and we invite you to engage with us and your children in conversation. However, we know that often our children are unable to communicate what they did during the day or that they might only be able to tell you part of what they did. We are also very aware that your days can be busy and you don’t always have the time to stop and look in the learning spaces or to engage in a conversation.

The staff at the ELC work very hard to provide multiple ways to communicate what happens in our days to make our learning visible. For us in the Stonyfell Room, our days are very much based around our routine and our routine moments. These moments for us are about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. We value every moment and look deeply for the opportunities to deepen relationships, nurture independence and foster our social skills.

Some of the ways that we give visibility to our day is by:

• Documentation displayed in the learning spaces
• Newsletter
• ePortfolios
• Parent Teacher Conversations
• Daily conversations
• Email correspondence
• Slideshows on the screens around the centre

We are constantly working collaboratively to think about how we can make our days more visible for our families. We invite you to ask us when you collect your child for some information which might become a conversation starter for you when you are at home sharing a quiet moment with your child.

The educators have been working behind the scenes on further improving and developing their own skills in ICT to hopefully provide you with the information and images you are wanting in a user-friendly, technology-driven way. Please feel free to share your suggestions and ideas with us as we are constantly wanting to improve our practice to reflect the child, the parent and the educator’s voices.

Laura Reiters
Stonyfell Room

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News from the Bell Yett Room

Who am I? What is my identity? What is my impact?
Who are we? What is a group? How do I belong in this group?

These are some of the questions we have been exploring in the Bell Yett Room as the children and educators research together.

Through our observations of the children and conversations with families, we know that the children are still very interested in creating and sharing representations of their hand. We have begun to recognise the hand as a symbol, an unspoken invitation that has reached out to the children. It invites them to create a trace of themselves and share this mark as evidence of their identity and their belonging to our group, our community of learners.

Through the provocations that we are offering to the children, we have been interested to see the children’s theories moving between expressing their unique identity and also their identity within the group. This is supporting the children to recognise not only the importance and benefits of being part of a community of learners, but the responsibilities that come with this.

We have introduced the children to the concept of an Essential Agreement which stems from our Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum. The PYP states that it . . . ‘prepares students to become active, caring, lifelong learners who demonstrate respect for themselves and others and have the capacity to participate in the world around them.’ The creation of an Essential Agreement supports the children in developing these important attitudes and attributes. In the Bell Yett Room we are introducing our Essential Agreement in terms of very important things that we agree, or promise, to do. These currently include a focus on what we need to do when we come together as a group:

• Keeping our legs crossed or tucked in close so we don’t hurt others
• Keeping our hands on our bodies so we don’t disturb others
• Sitting so everyone can see (usually in a circle or on our flat bottoms)
• Staying with the group
• Listening with your ears and your eyes

We would be interested to know if your children have shared any aspect of our Essential Agreement with you. You might want to talk with your children about some of the ‘Essential Agreements’ you have in your home or communities. We encourage you to share your children’s understandings, questions and theories with us as valuable evidence that supports our Planning for the Possible.

Leanne, Nell and the Bell Yett Team

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News from the Ferguson Room

In the Ferguson Room the children, the educators and the families all have much to learn from one another. In the past few weeks we have been privileged to have rich sharing of language and culture as we continue our research into identity and ‘Who we are’ as a group.

It began with Hannah, who showed courage and leadership in teaching us how to say ‘Good Morning’ in Mandarin, following our inquiry into the traditions of Chinese New Year. Amy shared a Chinese song, and Bea taught us to say ‘Kamusta’ in Filipino. Inspired by our class’s appreciation and excitement of this new knowledge, Bea asked her parents if they could come in and teach us a traditional Filipino song. Bea and her Mummy, Jo Anne, spent two mornings in our classroom. They brought in some red balloons to complement the song, called ‘Ako ay may lobo’ (I have a balloon). Such experiences are not simply a one–way street but a reciprocal act whereby everybody is a learner. When parents and grandparents and other members of the community come into the classroom, they often express how much they also benefit from the experience. Jo Anne shared her thoughts with us in an email, and I would like to share this excerpt with all of you:

One of our goals as parents is that Bea is able to appreciate her own Filipino heritage, and we are happy that there is a connection between our conversations at home with Bea about this and in the ELC. I was also amazed at the enthusiasm of the Ferguson friends in learning different languages.  A strong sense of identity and respect for diversity are really important values, and it was a wonderful opportunity to see this in the children. 

What we have been experiencing in the Ferguson Room also sends a strong message to our children that we are always learning and that we can all learn from each other, not just from the people who are called ‘teacher’. The morning that Bea and Jo Anne shared their song with us, Jayden showed us his Korean ‘writing’ and taught us to say ‘Good Morning’ in Korean. To see the children empowered to confidently share their language with us in this way is very exciting and we look forward to further exploring the cultural diversity in our room that contributes to our group identity.

During her time as Thinker in Residence in Adelaide (2012-2013), Professor Carla Rinaldi of Reggio Children said that:

‘To educate means building together identity and future. …No longer can schools simply be reproducers of knowledge. They are places where children and adults construct knowledge and their understanding of the world together.’

We welcome all of our families to support their child, and share their language and special traditions with us. Please let us know if you would like to participate.

Mel Angel
Ferguson Room

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News from the Hallett Room

The Hallett Room children have shown a keen interest in exploring ‘eyes’. The eyes of themselves and of others. These explorations started in the light room and Atelier a few weeks ago which has been set up with mirrors in several sizes, shapes, colours and grades of reflection.

The children started to share their fascination with ‘eyes’ and began making connections between theirs and those of others. Taking time to observe our image in a mirror is a chance for us to reflect on ourselves, our face, features, colours and textures. It is also a moment of connection with others because the mirrors are a tool that enable us to watch the world from different perspectives and from multiple points of view. The children have been fascinated by their reflection. They observed their faces with interest and curiosity and they have started to share their theories.

Exploring themselves is a very important step for each human being. Children are always searching for meanings about ‘Who am I?’ and about their life. It is a crucial point for the rest of their life. To recognise themselves as an individual, is the child’s first step in expressing themself.

The mirror: the mirror is a useful tool to reflect on ourselves and of others.

• We can observe our physical features, our unique physiognomy, but we can also see the others next to us and recognise them as different and separate human beings. This is an important milestone in children’s cognitive development.
• This also promotes skills such as: observation, concentration, description.

It is important to unpack and give voice to the egocentric phase of the children. This moment in their life is fundamental to express themselves, their ideas, their own feelings and thoughts. Children will feel valued, safe and ready to open themselves to others, to give themselves to the community of learners and to be active in their social environment. They will enrich the group dynamic with their own identity.

The Atelier has been an integral place for the children to share and test theories, extend upon their ideas and explore their hundred languages using various mediums and materials. Ms Caterina, our Art Educator, has engaged in ongoing dialogue with the Hallett educators to work in collaboration to enrich the learning projects that are unfolding. A recent theory that was shared with the Hallett children by Prabir has set into motion an exciting student-led inquiry.

Prabir’s theory: “My eyes work as mirror. I can see my face in my eyes.”

Rachel said: “No… isn’t true!”

We invited the children to try to see themselves in their friend’s eyes.

Rachel then exclaimed: “I can see myself in your eyes!”

At present in the Hallett Room, the eye is working as a connector, it is a vehicle to work together as a group and for us, the educators, a way to discover and understand children’s co-construction of knowledge and groups dynamics.

We are extremely eager to share this project with you, our families, as it unfolds and we encourage you to have a look at the documentation that is displayed around the room.

Caterina Pennestri, Pam Reid, Kirsty Porplycia
Hallett Room

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From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

It has been wonderful to connect with so many of you personally over recent weeks, either at the centre as you have arrived with your children or at one of our special events. In particular I enjoyed sharing our teaching and learning outline with you at our very important Information Evening. It was such an informative time and the feedback from families about the teachers’ presentations was fantastic. We were able to share not only what we teach but how we do it. The iMovies and photos that teachers made, demonstrating the learning with concrete examples, gave life to our presentations. We hope that parents can continue to be involved in this essential part of our ELC life.

In addition to this more formal event, we hosted a morning tea which provided families with a chance to connect with each other and their teachers. The Friends of the ELC are to be congratulated on the opportunities they provide for our community to connect.

We continue to ask families for feedback about making information accessible. If there are ideas that you may have please do not hesitate to speak with me about how we can improve on this. Hopefully these fortnightly newsletters will continue to be a major source of information sharing and an invitation for you to be part of our journey with us.

My next challenge as Director is to ensure that the children now settle into established routines and that the inquiry learning that we have so carefully created for the term allows them to deepen their understandings and find ways that they can express their learning processes. Together, the educators are observing and analysing individual children and groups of children to ensure what we are proposing as investigations are essentially linked to our observations. Our intentional planning guides the inquiry and we are then prepared for the extraordinary question or provocation that comes from the child and we know how to respond and where to go with it. This is the cycle of learning!

Please take the time to share the displays of documentation in the rooms and read the ELC Handbook which has been distributed across the rooms.

Kind regards,
Kate Mount

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Meal times at ELC

Learning about healthy lifestyles contributes to children’s sense of wellbeing and builds their confidence in themselves. It is our role as educators, parents and families to help children learn about positive eating and exercise for a healthy life.

Joy of being together
Meal times provide wonderful opportunities for children to practise social, language and self-help skills. At the ELC, the educators ensure that meal times are pleasant, relaxed experiences. Sufficient time is given for children to interact with each other and enjoy their food. We place value on the educators sitting with the children, acting as role models for healthy eating habits, and talking about what they are eating, where it comes from and how it was prepared. We promote children’s self-help skills by encouraging them to open their own lunch box, unwrap their meal or ask a peer to assist them if needed.

Lunch Boxes
Many families ask us about the types of lunch boxes that are best suited for ELC and ideas for items to include for their child’s lunch. Please see the photographs above for some lunch box ideas and food items that have been recommended to us by the children and families. Some children are fussy eaters and choose not to eat much while at ELC. As this can cause some concern for families we encourage you to look at the portions you are providing for your child and reduce them slightly and see if this helps. Too much choice and large portions can be overwhelming for children at meal times. Please remember that children eat different quantities, some more or less. The examples in the photographs above are samples of lunch boxes from across the centre and are provided as inspiration for ideas.

Water in bottles
We ask that each child brings a labelled bottle of water to ELC each day they attend. The children have access to their water bottles throughout the day and the educators give additional reminders for them to have a drink.

Involving children in Meal Preparation
We highly recommend that you include your child in food preparation times in the home. This sparks interest and curiosity towards the foods they are eating and they will be more inclined to try new foods if they have been involved in the process of preparation. Please note that children often need to try new foods on numerous occasions before they may enjoy it.

Food Safety
Including an ice pack in your child’s lunch box helps keep food safe and cool for lunch time. Please can you ensure that your child’s lunch is kept in an insulated lunch bag and or includes ice packs or a frozen drink bottle inside the lunch box. If preparing lunch ahead of time, we recommend keeping it in the fridge until leaving for ELC. If you require your child’s lunch to be placed in the fridge, please communicate this to your teacher.

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Save the Date

• 10 March : ELC Twilight Picnic from 5pm on the lawns
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Photos in the mornings
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Parent Teacher Conversations
• 14 April : Easter and School holidays
• 18 – 28 April : Vacation Care Program

We trust that all families have collected their 2017 Key Dates Fridge Magnet from your room.

> Download ELC Fridge Magnet

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From the Friends of the ELC

Thank you so much to all the families who supported our recent Welcome Morning Tea.

It was a huge success despite the heat. We enjoyed meeting up with everyone and look forward to our future events.

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Inquiry: Exploring our identity

“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”

– Dr Seuss

This term in the Stonyfell Room our inquiry focus is exploring how groups can shape our identity. In order to recognise that we are part of a group we must first know who we are.

We have begun our inquiry by working with our children to explore their identity. This process is also allowing us as the educators to get to know the children and deepen our understanding of who they are.

Our children have a very strong sense of self this is linked to their development and at this age they are keen to express many facets that make up who they are.

This can include:

• In sharing their name
• Identifying their family members
• Their age
• Likes and dislikes

We have been using our morning welcome time to support our children to further explore these parts of our identity. Along with these intentional teaching moments, we have also provided suggestions in our environment to allow our children to make their own meaning as to expressing there identity.

We believe that it is integral to link our learning across the week and an example of this is our art experiences with Miss Caterina.

Our children have been creatively exploring other ways to express who they are so examples of this are:

• The use of mirrors
• Printing of our hands
• Creation of self-portraits using a range of collage materials

We would like to invite you to come and see some of the documentation that has been created to show the learning that has occurred as part of these art experiences. This can been found in our Atelier space.

Laura Reiters
Stonyfell Room

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News from the Bell Yett Room

It is our hope that each child who comes through our door
joins a community of children, families and teachers
engaged in the joy, learning and wonder of childhood.

A very big thank you to the families who were able to join us at our recent Parent Information Night. It was a wonderful opportunity to share your child’s learning with you. We are amazed by the rich and engaged learning that has happened in just three weeks. Please enjoy this short movie that provides a snapshot of our early inquiry investigations in the Bell Yett Room.
 

 
During our recent explorations of identity, it has become obvious that the children see their handprint as an important symbol that reflects who they are. We are inviting the children to create representations of their hands through photography, printing, shadow and mark making. Comparing their hands with the hands of others opens opportunities for children to see and share many perspectives of identity.

You might like to continue this learning at home by looking at your hands together. Some things you could talk about include:

• What do you notice about our hands?
• How are our hands the same?
• How are our hands different?
• Whose hand is bigger/smaller?
• What is special about your hand?

We would love to hear about experiences you share. Please feel free to email us with any snippets of conversations or photos.

Another way of supporting children’s exploration of identity, as well as developing their sense of belonging to the Bell Yett community, is through a family photograph. We would appreciate you providing us with a photo of your family which will support our learning in the room. This can either be a hard copy or via email.

Thank you for joining in, alongside of us, to support your child’s learning,

Leanne, Nell and the Bell Yett Team

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News from the Ferguson Room

Thank you to the many families who joined us for our ELC Information Night. It was a wonderful opportunity to share our passion for our work with you, the children’s first and most important teachers.

In these early weeks we have been working on creating an Essential Agreement to guide our behavior in the room, and our conversations with the children have demonstrated how knowledgeable they already are about what it takes to feel physically and emotionally safe. We have reflected on all of the contributions to our group discussions to arrive at a set of beliefs about the way we want to be in the Ferguson Room:

• We will be kind, friendly and help our friends
• We will tidy up after we finish playing with something
• We will be careful and gentle with our resources
• We need to ask, wait and take turns

We have seen many examples of the children working on resolving conflict with others or returning to tidy up after themselves when they have been reminded of their commitment to the Essential Agreement. One of the parents shared with us that they also have an Essential Agreement at home. It would be very interesting for us to know if other families have done something similar so we could highlight links between home and school and how we can belong to different groups that have many shared values. Please email me if you would like to share something with us: mangel@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

Another way in which we are making connections between home and school is in the sharing of home languages. Amy and Hannah have been teaching us words and songs in Mandarin and Bea has taught us to say Good Morning in Tagalog, the Filipino language. Bea’s Mum Joanne is teaching us a children’s song in Tagalog. This is such a rich opportunity for developing appreciation for languages and other cultures, as well as gaining insight into who we are as a group in the Ferguson Room. It also conveys a strong message to the children that we all have ownership over the teaching and learning in our context and that knowledge is built by working together.

Mel Angel
Ferguson Room

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News from the Hallett Room

The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team (Phil Jackson).

Thank you to those families who attended the Parent Information Night last week. We appreciate your attendance and value sharing your child’s learning with you.

As we move into Week 4, we have been able to reflect on some of the discussions about our Essential Agreement. The children are showing a lot of awareness about these important ideas, but beyond that we can hear children understandings about how a group need to cooperate, in order for the group to work together (function). As we work on ensuring we all have agreed on the ideas, children are beginning to remind each other of the part they play as individuals in the room. We are seeing leadership skills, kindness towards others and a sense of fairness coming to the forefront. Not only that, but we are hearing an awareness about other groups the children belong to.

“I’m allowed to pick flowers in my garden at home”
“But not at ELC”
“Because my mum and dad said I can at home”

As we look at this with a different lens, we see that children can articulate what their family group agree on (with or without a formal agreement!) and how that impacts their actions. We would love to hear from you on this. Do you talk about any differences that your family may have in comparison to ELC? Has the idea of different ‘rules’ come up – ‘My friend is allowed to do this at his home, why can’t I?’ for example.
 

 
The Hallett Team would very much appreciate if you have any examples of the children showing that group functioning depends on the individuals of that group.

The Hallett Team invite our families into our explorations by inviting you to share any anecdotes or observations that you have noticed of your children engaging in conversation about their ‘family agreement’ and that of the one at school. Has your child initiated an agreement at home for everyone in the family, or is this something you do together as a unit? When they visit their friends or extended family have they noticed that each ‘group’ may have different elements in their agreements? If you would like to share some examples with us this can be done through email, hand written note, informally at pick up or shared through photographs. We look forward to hearing from you.

Pam Reid
Hallett Room

From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

I began the year with the idea of reimagining our ELC teaching and learning. With such success over the past two years it would be easy to sit back and deliver the same recipe as we have done in the past. However, the significance of last year, in particular our visit in October from Professor Carla Rinaldi from Reggio Emilia, left us with some challenging questions which I have spent much of my break pondering. Whilst we know our practice is exemplary we can always strive to do better. With an expanded team, and a new set of expertise, we are entering 2017 with wide eyes and on some slightly new ground.

This year, I would like to focus on the idea of forever learning for without this we would become a stagnant model that others could copy. Our individual approach is unique and it certainly shone through in Week 1 with the inviting environment families were welcomed into, the exceptional level of care and communications demonstrated by the educators. We have, after all, entered a shared journey together which will be treasured.

The depth of our growth as a team of dedicated educators can be measured by the solid foundation that has been laid. I referred to this with my team as the roots of a tree with well fertilised soil as I believe that we have created this over the past few years. We will continue to fertilise the soil with quality educators, ongoing professional learning provided both in house and externally. We read widely and engage in deep discussions about how children best learn. We then watch our tree grow. It has a very strong trunk, anchored to St Peter’s Girls’ School – one of Adelaide’s leading ELC to Year 12 schools. Our School is positioned in a unique environment on a beautiful conservation park and attended by students who have such a strong desire to learn.

This year we will watch the directions of our branches as they grow new shoots and perhaps change shape and colour as the year progresses. This is a visual that I am using to offer my team and our families to better see growth and change in a positive light so that nothing ever stays the same. I look forward to presenting my ideas to you at our upcoming Parent Information Night as we launch our thinking and commence your journey with us.

Wishing our ELC families a wonderful academic year and look forward to meeting you all in the next few weeks,

Kind regards,

Kate Mount

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欢迎加入圣彼得女校ELC 2017

新的一年，圣彼得女校ELC欢迎大家回来，同时我们也欢迎新家庭的加入！值此中国新年之际，所有ELC的员工祝大家新年快乐！

我们希望您度过了一个愉快的假期和新年，如果您愿意，老师们非常乐意您和孩子跟大家一起分享你们的春节故事或者照片。

以下是近期的一些重要活动，我们期待您能参加：

• 本周五（2月10日）上午9:00，我们准备了Welcome Morning Tea，地点： Chiverton Lawns
• 本周五（2月10日）下午6:30，Welcoming Drinks，
  地点： Chiverton Lawns
• 下周三 （2月15日）下午7:00，Parent Information Night / 家长会，地点：ELC
  届时我们的中文老师Ms Qian会在现场协助。
• 我们为每一个家庭准备了ELC重要日期日历，各班老师会陆续发给大家，如果您有任何疑问或者需要任何帮助，请联系我们的中文老师Ms Qian（Stonyfell Room）, 或者发邮件到qpu@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

最后，圣彼得女校ELC祝您身体健康，万事如意！

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News from Friends of ELC

The Friends of ELC welcome all families to the 2017 school year and we hope to see many of you at our upcoming events. The Friends of ELC is a volunteer group that diligently works at supporting our community. Meeting fortnightly, they plan ELC events throughout the year and give visibility to the importance of community, particularly when working side by side with families of young children.

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Christmas Giving Tree

At the conclusion of 2016 it was decided again to use our special ELC Christmas Tree as a giving tree. Families were invited to bring in toys, clothes or food to contribute. Our two charities were the Backpacks for SA Kids and the Salvation Army. Backpack for SA Kids is an organisation that provides clothes and supplies for children placed in emergency foster care, kinship and domestic violence shelters. In these situations children have been removed from their families without being able to take their personal belongings with them. Most of our children’s packages under the tree were taken to this organisation.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of all families who gave and the understandings the children had in giving to others. Our gifts were so gratefully received and made a significant difference to many families at Christmas. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in this significant act of giving.

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Drinks on the Lawns

The St Peter’s Girls Parents’ and Friends’ Association would like to extend an invitation to all parents to welcome in the new school year at the traditional Drinks on the Lawns.

This annual, adults-only event is a great way for new parents to meet and socialise with existing parents, teachers and school staff in an informal atmosphere.

Please feel free to seek out our P&F Committee Members attending on the night to find out about the great benefits of volunteering at your daughter’s school.

Friday 10 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm
Chiverton Lawns, St Peter’s Girls’ School

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Save the Date

• 10 February : Welcome Morning Tea, Chiverton Lawns at 9am
• 10 February : Parents and Friends Drinks on the Lawn, Chiverton Lawns at 6.30pm
• 15 February : Parent Information Night, ELC  at 7pm
• 10 March : ELC Twilight Picnic from 5pm
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Photos in the mornings
• 3 – 5 April : ELC Parent Teacher Conversations
• 14 April : Easter and School holidays
• 18 – 28 April : Vacation Care Program

We trust that all families have collected their 2017 Key Dates Fridge Magnet from your room.

> Download ELC Fridge Magnet

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Welcome to 2017 in the Stonyfell Room, we would like to take this opportunity to welcome all existing families into the Stonyfell Room. We have had a wonderful first week, with everyone settling into their new room.

During this first week, we have been taking the time to support our children with making connections and creating a sense of belonging to the ELC. Together we are becoming a new ‘group’. This concept of group is at the heart of our teaching and learning this year.
Each team in the ELC is working on a research project with a strong ‘group’ focus. Our overarching question is examining how we function together. Our beginning point is examining how a group forms. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia Philosophy, high value is given to groups within the learning community. We are wanting to ensure we are looking beyond just the learning of the individual.

Our everyday practice places great value in group work, constructing knowledge and sharing ideas from each other. These early days are pivotal in the development of our group. We can view it as the beginning of our story; together we are telling a story, our story! In order to further support the development of ‘group’, we must understand what it means to be part of one. Through the use of the PYP (Primary Years Programme) we are able to specifically focus on a set of skills to support our learning. This term we are focusing on our social skills. Through this curriculum framework we can support and plan for our children to build on their ability to respect others and cooperate. These skills are needed in order to be part of and function in a group. We see these as essential life skills.

The Stonyfell team and I are excited to share our research over the coming months and are hoping to be able to have your voice reflected in our work. We are looking at constructing a parent focus group to assist us in our process. I hope to share more of this and of our research with you during our Parent Information Night on Wednesday, 15 February at 7pm.

Laura Reiters
Stonyfell Room

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News from the Bell Yett Room

Welcome to the Bell Yett Room in 2017. We are delighted to have many returning families who have transitioned from the Stonyfell Room, as well as some new families we welcome to our ELC. We look forward to this precious time we have with you and your children.

We are thrilled with the smooth start to the year. We have observed the children reconnecting with established friends, as well as being open to new relationships with both children and educators. One way that we can support the development of these relationships is through a family photo. We invite you to either bring in or email us a photo of your family that we can keep in the room. The children enjoy accessing their photos throughout the day and they provide a great starting point for conversations.

In the Bell Yett Room, we support your children in growing their independence. One way of doing this is by encouraging the children to keep their hats and drink bottles in their lockers. Ensuring these are clearly named will help your child identify and manage their belongings.

We are beginning the year by investigating how belonging to groups can shape our identity. Many of our learning experiences invite the children to reflect on and express their uniqueness. We are using play dough, mark making materials, light and shadow, and photography as ‘languages’ for the children to share their thoughts and theories. However, our learning environments have been purposefully created to be open-ended, enabling the children to be creators of their learning. We know that children bring endless possibilities with them and we look forward to carefully observing and engaging with your children to uncover their potential.

We look forward to seeing you at our Parent Information Night on Wednesday, 15  February at 7pm.

Leanne Williams & Nell Tierney
Bell Yett Team

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News from the Ferguson Room

During the past two weeks, the children, families and educators have been working on getting to know each other. Developing trusting relationships is the foundation for successful learning and so we have concentrated our efforts on ensuring that each of the children feels safe, supported and recognised for the unique and special person that they are. It is also important for the children to see their families and teachers interacting with warmth and respect, as this adds to their sense of security and wellbeing when they are at school. A focus on wellbeing is at the forefront of everything we do at St Peter’s Girls’ School, not only now but throughout the whole year. This extends to our families and our staff, because this is what helps us to learn, work and flourish together.

“I am a Ferguson friend” declared one of the children after a Morning Meeting last week. This was a significant moment as we begin to immerse ourselves in our Unit of Inquiry for Term 1, ‘Who We Are’. Our Central Idea is that ‘Belonging to groups can help shape our identity’ and so the experiences we offer and planning for possible investigations are intended to provoke children’s thinking about their own identity and the groups to which they belong. Children naturally have enthusiasm for these questions and have displayed rich evidence of their knowledge. In particular, their love for their family is uppermost in their minds and is conveyed in many ways, including their drawing and painting, conversations and contributions to Morning Meeting.

Throughout the week, the children will have opportunities for specialist lessons in Music, Japanese, Chinese, Soccer, PE and Art, as well as visiting the School Library. A timetable for these lessons can be found in our room along with our ‘Planning for the Possible’ and our PYP Unit of Inquiry documentation. All of these experiences will contribute to our collective research on what it means to be a Ferguson friend and a member of the wider learning community at St Peter’s Girls’ School.

Mel Angel
Ferguson Room

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News from the Hallett Room

Welcome families to the start of Term 1. As we begin establishing a new Hallett Room group, with new friendships forming and existing friendships inviting others in, we are actively questioning children on the importance of having an awareness of others. Do they realise their impact on others? How can we support one another to become more aware of this impact? As we move towards an Essential Agreement, we have heard the children passionately expressing their thoughts about what is important to them in their room.

“We didn’t know whose craft was whose. We need to make stop signs.”
“If we play with balls in the Hallett Garden they might go over the fence and get popped.”
“I was talking and you weren’t listening. It’s important to listen.”

Because the Hallett Room is “everyone’s room”, children are aware of sharing the information with those who aren’t there every day.

“We need to send a message to them. We could put it on paper and put it in their pigeon hole.”
“Or in their mailbox.”
“We can draw pictures to help them remember.”

As we begin to research the skills children need to function as a group, the children have already shown some excellent problem-solving skills. For instance, not using the Hallett Room quiet corner cushions at rest-time has resulted in children suggesting that they can bring their own small pillow from home if they would like to lie on one! (Please pop one in their bag if they ask!)

As this learning unfolds, we will document the children’s ideas and our planning for the possible. Please spend some time looking at the planning wall (above the lockers, next to the sliding door) where will we aim to make the learning of the children visible. We have also included a space on one of the walls to put their suggestions about what happens in the room. The aim of this is to introduce the democracy of the Hallett Room, to develop those skills needed as citizens to work collaboratively, to cooperate and to make decisions together. Our PYP this term focusses on these skills. We look forward to seeing our citizens develop and grow throughout the term.

Pam Reid
Hallett Room

From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for providing support throughout 2016 to our ELC. The strength of our community is something that we treasure and recognise the essential impact this has on the education of all children that attend our centre. Our relationships with you all makes our work so enjoyable, and it is what makes the partnership between home and ELC so strong.

Seeing our community gather as an entire group on the night of our ELC Celebration was quite overwhelming and special – it also made us realise just how big we have grown! It is the only time in the whole year that the community gathers as one. We thank you all for supporting us, the children and the occasion. It is a night that we will continue to smile and talk about!

Our successes this year have been plentiful and we have reported on each and every one of them throughout the year. For me the greatest success is the stability and consistent quality of the centre, with my incredible staff and beautiful children and families. People often refer to the highs and lows of life but I am just so grateful for the evenness and consistency! Every day the centre opens and closes in such a beautiful rhythm, different combinations of children come and special things happen throughout, but the hum is there all the time. It is for this that I want to say thank you and feel blessed to have it in my life.

You may have heard us talking about gratitude over the past weeks. It is because I think it is essential that we teach the children to appreciate what we have and say thank you to those who have made positive impacts on us. Miss Reiters, her team and children have designed a beautiful card that represents this, it is so beautiful and was created with special materials by our two year olds. I hope as we finish up the year, you can find time to ask your children who they are appreciative of and why. We could not function without those around us that support our centre. From Property Services, to Tuck, our cleaners, to Friends of ELC, to my team, the wider school personnel, staff and students – the list goes on but please accept our sincere gratitude for what you have done for us this year.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a safe, blessed and special time together with your loved ones as we conclude 2016. We farewell many families and hope that the foundation they have experienced from our ELC stays with them as they journey forward. For returning families, I look forward to welcoming you back in 2017.

With my fond regards,

Kate Mount

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Have you read your child’s ePorfolios?

We are currently uploading your child’s latest pieces on their ePortfolios. By Wednesday 16 December, you will be able to read pieces about recent learning. It has been a joy for me to read all of their Individual Learning Plans and see just how far the children have come, growing in confidence, skill, concept development and knowledge. Please view ePortfolio’s by clicking here.

In addition to these significant pieces there are also beautiful memories captured. For example the Magic Moments and the Christmas Celebration photos can be found on the ePortfolios. The specialist teachers have also taken the time to provide a piece for each room that has been uploaded for your information.

Please provide feedback to us how accessible you find the ePortfolios and how regularly you log on to them. They have new items uploaded every few weeks and the teachers and educators place a huge amount of time and effort into them. Without your valuable feedback we are unable to determine how effective this method of communication is to each family. Please email me with your comments: kmount@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au

Thank you,

Kate

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Vacation Care Bookings Close this Week!

With next week being Vacation Care, we are rapidly trying to finalise numbers and staffing. Please can all families ensure they have filled out their booking forms for both the December and January times.

Please download the booking form

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Dates to remember

Vacation Care commences on Monday December 12, 2016

Centre Closure: Saturday December 24, 2016

Centre Reopens: Monday January 9, 2017

Term 1, 2017 Commences: Monday January 30, 2017

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Friends of ELC Giving Tree

Thank you to all of the families who have supported our Giving Tree. We have loved sharing the time with you as gifts have been tenderly placed under the tree. The conversations about these gifts and who they might go to have been so precious and this supports our thinking about gratitude and appreciation. The gifts will be collected next week and taken to be distributed.

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Staff Farewells

As we celebrate another wonderful year in the ELC we thank the dedicated and passionate educators that work across the centre. We have travelled a remarkable journey together as a staff team and this has been evident through the rigorous learning projects that have been ongoing throughout the year.

We would like to take this opportunity to farewell an amazing group of educators that will be finishing up with us at the end of 2016.

Each playroom has been enriched with these unique and dynamic members of staff. They have shared their creativity and passion for early years’ education and have been actively involved in ELC life. We are extremely appreciative of everything that these educators have given to the centre and we wish them all the very best with the next step in their journey.

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News from the Stonyfell Room

A reflection on 2016 in the Stonyfell Room

As the year comes to an end and we take the moment to reflect on our journey, I want to take the time to think about where we started and how we have ended up.

Teaching is such a wonderful and rewarding profession! Every day I feel truly grateful to be a part of your lives and to have the privilege of working alongside your children. We all work hard to build trusting relationships over the year, as we learn side by side and we laugh and share moments of joy together.

In the early parts of the year there are often tears and emotions as the children find their place and feel comfortable being in this environment. We learn the routine, what to expect, as we learn and watch each other grow. We mark milestones in our lives and take the time to celebrate the small things like trying new food, putting our own shoes on, or even wear big girl/boy underwear!

The year always goes by too fast and we are amazed at the pace it takes. The children change so much in such a short time. The Stonyfell educators have been taking the time to reflect with the children about how far they have come and how much they have grown. This week we have been reliving some of these stories with the children and they love to hear about their first days and what they may have did or said. This brings us all great joy and often much laughter too. From those early tentative days to the confident wave goodbye, we watch some of our children moving across the ELC. This always warms my heart and brings me such a sense of pride. I am also excited to keep on our journey with many of our existing children and look forward to meeting and welcoming a large group of new children into the Stonyfell Room.

Thank you too all our amazing families and children, we love that you are part of our community and from all the educators in the Stonyfell Room we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

The Bell Yett Team would like to wish all families and friends a very Happy Christmas and a Joyous New Year. We would also like to thank everyone for their wonderful attendance to our Christmas Celebration Concert. Your children did the most amazing job, standing proudly on the stage, singing and dancing with such joy on their face. It was a lovely opportunity to catch up with many of you and celebrate our time together.

As we begin the last week of school, we have been reflecting on the wonderful year we have had in the Bell Yett Room. As a team, we have shared in the joy of your children developing into competent and confident learners, who strive to acquire knowledge through engaging learning environments.

We have provided many opportunities for growth this term and have been delighted in the enthusiasm and engagement of your children and their learning. The children have been involved in creating an iMovie reflecting our inquiry, recognising, following and recording systems in the ELC, participating in the Christmas Concert, transition visits to the Ferguson Room and evolving leadership skills in the friends who are staying in the Bell Yett Room in 2017.

We would like to remind families that the ePortfolios are an amazing place for you to share your children’s learning journey. Please view ePortfolio’s by clicking here. It allows us to share documentation and learning experiences as they are happening. It provides a window into your child’s life at the ELC as we share intentional teaching, specialist lessons and magic moments. It’s worth a look!

Happy holidays

Nell Tierney and Leanne Williams

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News from the Ferguson Room

As we are fast approaching the end of term, I would like to express the joy we are all feeling with your children, their learning, their friendships and the growth that we have seen throughout the year. We are always delighted by their engagement with the inquiry and their enthusiasm for learning.

Over the past few weeks the children have been thinking about systems, which has linked nicely with their transition visits to their new learning environment for 2017. During this time the children have been engaging in conversations about new expectations, developing independence and sharing information between others. The children have been working on a letter that they were eager for me to include in this edition of the newsletter. They feel that this important information will support those children moving to the Hallett Room next year and also those who remain in the Ferguson Room.

Dear all the Mums and Dads,

We need to bring our hats, spare shorts, spare leggings and not teddies (if you need a teddy at rest time you can get one from the box). And you need to bring your bags, drink bottles and lunchboxes. If you don’t have a lunchbox, get a lunch order from the basket at the front of the ELC inside.

We need these things because:

• In case your trousers get wet
• If you get a little bit dirty and wet with mud
• When you go into the mud the socks get wet in the boots, or you have holes in your pants
• If you get hot you could put a T-shirt or shorts on
• If you’re not cold you could take your long sleeves off
• If you don’t have a hat you stay under the veranda or stay in shade, or stay inside so bring a spare hat. It is so sad if you have to stay inside

No toys because it can get lost as another person could take it home if they liked it.

 From the Ferguson Room and the (soon) Hallett Room Friends.

Thank you all for another beautiful term, we wish you an amazing Christmas and an exciting 2017.

Pam Foden

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News from the Hallett Room

What a perfect way to end our year in the Hallett Room! The ‘Shared Lunch’ was a special occasion (becoming an annual event) to mark the end of our ELC journey for many of the Hallett children. It was informal and fun, with a few of the Hallett children’s favourite songs followed by a buffet style lunch, which was provided by all the families who brought along a plate of food to share with everyone. The buffet looked delicious, filled with a multitude of colours and flavours. It was wonderful to see so many cultures represented in the variety of food that was offered. I would like to thank all the families for their scrumptious contributions. We were lucky that the weather was so perfect too!

The community spirit that is nurtured along from when families begin at St Peter’s Girls’ ELC was certainly evident in the relaxed conversation and in the effort that people put into their platters of food. What those who attended will have really noticed though, was the confidence and sense of belonging that our Hallett children radiate. The children going off to school soon were leading the way followed closely by the children that are staying to be ‘the big leader friends’ in the Hallett Room. This cycle of opportunity for leadership is an important aspect of the Hallett Room children’s development. They are able to see that they are valued and have a very important place in the ELC as role models for our younger ELC children. The leadership position of the Hallett children gives them rights, the right to be heard, the right to express themselves in a multitude of ways, the right to be independent, the right to make decisions and the right to be their own unique selves. However, with rights come responsibilities and being part of a community of learners, means we have a number of responsibilities. The children are responsible to ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute, to care for our environment and belongings, to care for each other, to show our younger ELC children how we use our belongings and care for our ELC, to listen to each other, to allow others to be unique, to value this uniqueness and to recognise the rights of others as well as our own rights. From the beginning of Term 1 this year we have been building these values in the Hallett children through our Units of Inquiry. We have been on a journey from understanding our citizenship to taking action to care for our planet. These are big ideas for four and five year olds, but as they have shown, concepts that they are quite capable of comprehending!

Sarah Croston-Melling

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Stop Press

Today we had the Hat Ceremony for the girls continuing on from our ELC to Reception at St Peter’s Girls’ School.  This is a very special event in which our girls are welcomed into the School community at a full school assembly.  The children were filled with pride as Mrs Mount read out their name, as they walked across the stage with a 2017 prefect, shook hands with the Head of Junior School, Ms Haddy and received their special school hat and bag. It always brings a tear to my eye as I think about each child’s journey in the time that they have been with us, and I too feel pride, knowing that the children are ready for their next adventure in life….school.

Sarah Croston-Melling

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Magic Moment

From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

This week is a very special time for the team at the ELC. The ELC Christmas Picnic is one of the rare times that our entire community gathers together to celebrate our amazing children. The Friends of ELC are busily organising the catering for what is sure to be an amazing event!

We will be selling a number of items including sausages in bread, cupcakes, water and Zooper Doopers. We will also be operating a bar, which will be offering champagne, beer and wine.

To make this event as easy as possible for families we encourage you to bring your picnic rugs!

We ask that families arrive at 5pm – the concert begins at 5.45pm, so please make sure you are seated on the lawns ready for this by 5.40pm. We will gather the children to their areas at 5.30pm.

Don’t forget to tell your extended family members that they are welcome!

Dress for Children

Please dress your child in their party clothes. This is a special occasion and whilst there are no costumes, we think that their special ‘going out’ clothes make this event extra special. Feel free to add your Christmas colours or additions to the outfits if you like.

Supervision of Children

During the concert the children will be supervised by the educators. At other times parents will be responsible for their own children.

Raffle

We are having a special Christmas Raffle so please bring along a few gold coins. There will be great prizes to win including a laptop and vouchers.

We look forward to seeing you all on Friday night!

Kind regards,

Kate Mount

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Vacation Care

Could parents please complete their Vacation Care bookings forms ASAP to assist with staffing requirements. If you read the attached form, you will notice that we will be providing the service right up to Christmas and reopening again on Monday January 9. This is to provide our working families with as much support as possible. Miss Redmond and Miss Kay have been organising the program in preparation for this special time at ELC, and it’s sure to be plenty of fun!

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Christmas Giving Tree

The gift of giving to others at Christmas is one that we truly value. This year the Friends of ELC are organising the Giving Tree for new toys and food items to be donated. We ask that you please do not wrap these items.

Visit our piazza to view this magical tree!

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ELC Dates for the Diary

• Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 14 November 
• Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 21 November
• Hat Ceremony: Monday 5 December, 8.30am
• Final ELC Day: Friday 9 December
• Vacation Care commences: Monday 12 December

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News from the Stonyfell Room

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We are edging closer and closer to the end of the year in the Stonyfell Room and we have been working hard to prepare for our end of year Christmas Celebration. The children have been enjoying practicing their songs and embracing the Christmas spirit!

Christmas is a special time in the ELC as we enjoy many aspects to celebrating this time of the year, especially decorating our play rooms.

This year in the Stonyfell Room the educators have decided to tie Christmas into our Unit of Inquiry. Over the past two terms the educators and children have been exploring and using recycled materials. We have been empowered to transform everyday unwanted items in to something new. The educators decided to offer a provocation to the children:

We are not going to buy any Christmas decorations this year for the Stonyfell Room, we are going to make them instead.

This provocation has been a wonderful motivation for us to be creative and use our imagination, as well as being able to reuse many resources that may have otherwise been thrown out. We have been working together to transform paintings and artwork into paper chains and garlands. We are currently redecorating a range of boxes to turn into a Christmas tree for the room!

This process has allowed the children to collaborate together, problem solve and be creative. Alongside making our decorations we are building a deeper understanding of the meaning behind Christmas. It may have been simpler to go out and buy decorations, however this doesn’t teach our children to be grateful and develop gratitude.

We will be continuing this process throughout the rest of the term and we hope you are enjoying watching our room transform in preparation for Christmas.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

This term as part of our inquiry, People can create systems to learn together, the children have been investigating systems in our ELC, including homes and communities. We have been developing the children’s understanding that systems can have a positive impact on our planet and that we can take responsible action by sharing our systems with others. We have been intentional about our learning environment ensuring the teaching and learning strategies we use promote children’s thinking capacities.

“The learning discoveries included the recognition that systems thinking helped children become self-regulated learners capable of taking on different perspectives and making connections as they actively engaged in the learning process.”

Developing Very Young Systems Thinkers – Waters Foundation

Through our Morning Meetings we have been introducing the concept of a system and familiar systems that we use to help us in our everyday lives. We have been inviting the children to engage in systems, record them and share it with others.

Last week we put the provocation to the children, ‘what is a system?’

“It is something that you do.”  Elsie

“It’s when you have an idea.” Molly

“It’s when you wash your hands and wash the soap off and dry them.” Audrey

“Morning Meeting and saying hello to the friends.” Lila

“Recycling is a system.” Hannah

“We make play dough with Miss Boccaccio, and that’s a system.” Kyan

Through our art lessons with Ms Casson the children have developed a fabulous iMovie about the system of recycling. We look forward to sharing that and many other systems with you between now and the end of the term through our ePortfolios.

Nell Tierney and Leanne Williams

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News from Ferguson Room

Last week saw an exciting twist to our inquiry on systems. As we were exploring the routine of ELC and about to read ‘Pete the Cat: Rocking in my school shoes’, we were struck by the first page that described Pete and his belongings ready for school:

“I bring a bag”
“And a lunchbox”

Children began comparing what Pete had ready for school and what they bring to ELC. One child noticed something important:

“Where’s his drink bottle?”

We then switched our attention to what might be in Pete’s bag. We decided to look in our own bags to see what each of us brings to ELC. As we were exploring the bags, we discovered a problem!

“My mum forgot my hat!”
“My dad didn’t pack my drink bottle today!”

We wondered how we could help everyone remember what to bring to ELC.
Perhaps we needed a system when we get ready for ELC in the mornings?

“We could write a letter”
“Or make a card”
“Or a sign”

As children make more understandings about systems, we see them moving towards change – as some children have begun showing action towards this important part of their day:

“I packed spare clothes today”
“Oh dear, I don’t’ have a bag, just like before”
“I’ve got my hat today”

Children have been using these new understandings to make changes in their communication with others and are becoming more responsible for their belongings. We asked the children, who is responsible for getting yourself ready in the mornings?

Watch this space for something exciting to come home that will help create a system to remember what to pack each day. We hope that it helps build the same agency at home as we promote here at ELC.

Pam Foden

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News from the Hallett Room

This term the Hallett Room numeracy focus has been on ‘patterns’. Patterns are extremely
important in developing early algebraic thinking and reasoning, “General mathematical processes of representation, symbolisation, abstraction, generalisation and proof rely on initial pattern recognition and application in a variety of forms” (Bobis, Mulligan and Lowrie 2009).

Patterns are everywhere and are in many forms, so they are an accessible topic for our Hallett Room children. The children started with defining what a pattern is.

“A pattern is different things, then the same thing then different things then the same thing.” Sophie

“A pattern is zig zag, stripes, then zig zag then stripes.” Charlotte

“You can have patterns on shoes like I have because I have a rainbow and that is a pattern.” Tilly

“There are patterns everywhere, all around the world. Even skin. See spot, skin, spot, skin.” Isabelle

“You can make patterns with marshmallows on sticks, my sister did that.” Sophia

Following this discussion, we have been exploring patterns in a variety of ways; colour, shape patterns, artistic patterns, simple and more complex patterns. In small groups the children have demonstrated their understanding of patterns and the educators have challenged them to extend their understandings further. The children have begun to notice patterns around them, including in their food, on their clothes, in nature and in their man-made environment as well.

Last week, to help the children make links to their learning at home I gave them a ‘home work’ task. The task is to find patterns at home, take a photo of the pattern and email in 1-3 photos to me at scroston-melling@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.

The idea for the children is to then be able to share the patterns that they have found and to explain their understanding of the patterns to their peers. Explanation and justification can develop more sophisticated mathematical processes of generalisation and proof in later years (Perry and Dockett in Bobis, Mulligan and Lowrie 2009).

In the next few weeks we will also explore patterns in music using percussion instruments and in dance. Learning about patterns through a variety of ways helps children to develop a deeper understanding of pattern concepts.

Isabelle was right, “patterns are everywhere, all around the world.”

Sarah Croston-Melling

Hallett Room Shared Lunch

To farewell the Hallett children moving off to school next year, we would like to invite the Hallett children and their parents or carers for a shared lunch. The children will sing a few of their favourite songs and then we will have our lunch under the verandah and in the ELC garden. Please bring a plate of food to share – it can be savoury or sweet. We especially love to try savoury food from around the world!

**Please note, no nuts.**

Where: Hallett Room, ELC
When: Friday December 2, 2016
Time: 11:30-12:30pm
Bring: A plate of food to share

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Magic Moment

From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

Providing leading, innovative early childhood education has been an ongoing commitment of the ELC. The educators are continually striving to deliver best practice across the centre. This cycle of continual improvement based on deep reflection is embedded in our practice. For several years we have been inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. With several staff experiencing first-hand this Italian pedagogy, we are able to authentically adjust the principles to blend in our Australian setting and culture. St Peter’s Girls ELC holds a very strong image of the child and of childhood. The value we place on giving visibility to this both within and beyond the ELC gives value to the learning that actually takes place. We are beyond being viewed as just looking after little children; the seriousness of our pedagogy lays the foundation for every child’s learning journey and, in particular, their position in society of being a significant person with so much to offer. We do not see the child for what they cannot do, but rather for what they can do. I am continually challenged when I hear adults talk about all that they have to do for the child – why is it that we cannot see firstly what the child has the capacity to do herself or himself.

During the October holidays my staff had the privilege of a visit from Professor Carla Rinaldi from Reggio Emilia. Those of you that have followed our ELC journey over the years would know that this would have been an incredible honour. Carla was Adelaide’s Thinker in Residence in 2012 – 2013. Following this she made several recommendations to the State, including the development of Prototype Services that could act as models for services endeavouring to incorporate the Reggio Emilia approach in their schools/workplaces. This includes not just a few schools and preschools, but also the Art Gallery and a group of Architects. St Peter’s Girls Early Learners’ Centre is one of these prototypes and regularly meets with the other prototypes to share our research. We follow the principle of Educator as Researcher to deepen our understandings of our practices and beliefs. We continually read, theorise, collaborate, share, question and endeavour to articulate our findings, wonderings and practice.

It was a morning of pure joy having Carla in our centre: for her to view the marriage of architecture and pedagogy, to see our environment so alive and transparent, our strong image of child, and emphasis on community with relationships at the centre. She loved all of the traces of years gone by and, in particular, loved the Friendship Garden and what it represented to us. Carla walked through each section of the centre, asking questions, provoking our thinking and challenging us. She delighted in our projects of inquiry and the journey we are travelling on. In particular, she highlighted our advocacy for the very young child and how beautifully we catered for two year olds in our centre. Carla commented:

“This ELC has to be respected. It is a wonderful place; it is so alive. It is a treasure.”

As we all sat together at our big, long table Carla congratulated us on our authentic work and our trust in ourselves to be so proactive with our continually changing pedagogy, which is driven by our research. She told us about the essence of the centre that she could feel. It was not something she could really explain in words; rather, a feeling she had! Her words of encouragement and provoking questions have given us a burst of excitement going into Term 4 in the ELC – it was indeed one of my proudest moments since being Director in this beautiful learning facility. I congratulate my team of educators for being part of this exciting event!

Kate Mount
Director of Early Learning

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ELC Christmas Picnic

Join us in the ELC grounds to celebrate the end of a fantastic year as we wish all our families a wonderful Christmas.

5pm, Friday 25 November 2016

The Friends of ELC will have some food and drinks on sale, as well as a Christmas raffle. Bring your own picnic basket, rug, nibbles and drinks.

Lock this date into your diary so you don’t miss your children participate in this special concert. Extended families are very welcome!

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ELC Dates for the Diary

• Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 14 November 
• Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 21 November
• Hat Ceremony: Monday 5 December, 8.30am
• Final ELC Day: Friday 9 December
• Vacation Care commences: Monday 12 December

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News from the Stonyfell Room…

Exploring sorting and classification in the Stonyfell Room

“Numeracy is the capacity, confidence and disposition to use mathematics in everyday life.”   Early Years Learning Framework

Every term, each room in the ELC plans and constructs a numeracy planner that sits alongside our Unit of Inquiry, that supports the children to deepen their investigations and explorations.

This term’s focus in the Stonyfell Room is sorting and classification. This focus has allowed our children to begin to explore and understand the process of recycling. We have been introducing this concept during morning meeting and offering the children a range of materials both rubbish and recyclables to provoke their understanding of this concept.

We have been asking the children to express their ideas as to where we could put these materials and why?

Grace: “In the bin, we put rubbish in the bin!”
Hugo R: “They all go in the bin.”
Teddy: “Yes, over there in the bin.”
Penny: “I have a bin a home.”

Many of our children have the understanding of where to put our rubbish. However, we want them to start thinking about the difference between rubbish and recycling and how we can actively engage in this practice to take responsibility for our world.

The educators have planned an intentional experience to support us in unpacking this concept. We have offered the children a range of resources to sort and classify as they see fit. This has allowed the children to have multiple opportunities to revisit and create their own meanings. We can sort and classify items in many ways and by giving our children the opportunity to work in collaboration with others further assists them in developing their understandings of numeracy and how it is ingrained in our everyday world.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room…

The educators in the Bell Yett Room have been extremely pleased with the deep understandings the children developed during our Term 3 inquiry, People Are Connected to our Planet. This has been particularly evident in the way they have embraced taking responsibility and initiative for recycling and reusing materials in the Bell Yett Room. With our delight, comes a challenge. How do we ensure that the children’s enthusiasm and learning does not stop with the end of a term? This led us to thinking carefully about how our Term 4 Inquiry could build on such previous successful learning. Our new Central Idea, People can create systems to learn together, has given us the opportunity to look at how we can share our knowledge and understandings about sustainable practices with others. Many of the children have been enthusiastically creating posters for their friends across the wider ELC. Other children have been helping to create an iMovie which we hope to share with the Junior School. We look forward to sharing these systems with you upon their completion.

If you would like to know more about our current Unit of Inquiry please use this link to login to your child’s ePortfolio: https://link.stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.

We were extremely excited to announce the launch of our ePortfolio’s in the ELC in Term 4 2015. The ePortfolio’s allow us to share documentation and learning experiences; as they are happening. It provides a window into your child’s life in the ELC as educators share intentional teaching, specialist lessons and spontaneous moments through photos, videos, text and images of children’s creative expressions. The ePortfolio’s enable us to share more of the process of learning rather than just the end product.

It was wonderful for the educators to be able to share your child’s ePortfolio with you during our recent Parent Teacher Conversations. It was also beneficial to receive feedback from you in regards to this still relatively new communication system. Through this opportunity we discovered that while parents are very positive about the ePortfolios and all they offer, they often forget to login and have a look. It was through one of these discussions that a parent suggested that we provide a link through our eNews as a regular prompt for families. We would love to hear if you use the link above and if you have any other suggestions for improving our communications with you.

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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News from the Ferguson Room…

Recycled Treasure

We thank our families for joining in with our treasure hunts at home! We have loved sharing the interesting collections and hearing great feedback about the joy children have had in participating in the experience at home. As we talk about often, your child’s learning is enhanced when we all work together.

In sharing their treasure bags, children are developing their communication skills and confidence. As they enthusiastically show everyone their finds, we can see their sense of pride and excitement. One thing that strikes us as fascinating, is their ability to happily share their items with the group. We don’t see a worry for what is their property, but more a willingness to involve others in their joy. The apparent learning this is bringing to the inquiry is awesome to see!

This learning has included:

• an awareness of others as they share
• the numeracy component of organising and sorting
• working collaboratively to establish creative ideas of what to make
• continuing the important notion of sustainability.

The Bell Yett children have discussed with us their ideas about recycling and ways to use materials again. This links beautifully with our ideas of looking after our planet, as we build the foundations of thinking about what it means to ‘waste’ materials.

Thank you again for participating in our program.

Pam Foden

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News from the Hallett Room…

The Year 5 musical, ‘The Little Mermaid’, was definitely a highlight of last week for the Hallett children. The colour, song and enthusiasm of the Year 5 girls swept us away into a world under the sea – it was truly magical! It made me think how lucky we are, to be part of a school. The week before we joined the Year 12 girls for their Celebration Day as they ran up the path to the Arts Centre for their final day. I explained in an email to Kerry Skinner, the Head of Senior School and Georgina Sarah, the Head Prefect, how connected the Hallett children were to this special occasion, recreating the magic in the Hallett Room later that day. Georgina replied to say that it ‘really is a tight knit community at St Peter’s Girls’.

So it is with great excitement that many of our Hallett children are preparing to start school. For those continuing at St Peter’s Girls, they will be continuing their learning journey knowing they are part of a special community full of joy, dedication and care.

Many parents ask me how they can best prepare their child for school with a particular focus on literacy and numeracy. It is great to playfully support and grow your child’s interest in literacy and numeracy in various everyday experiences however, the best skills that we can nurture in our children is a love of learning and a sense of agency. As International Baccalaureate (IB) learners we encourage children to act on their interests, to research the answer to their questions, to find out more and to listen to others. In the Hallett Room we encourage children to develop their independence by taking care of their belongings, having a try at doing something before seeking help and encouraging them to help their peers. As parents we can support children to develop independence by encouraging the children to carry their own bag, providing lunch boxes and drink bottles that the children can manage to open/close themselves, by encouraging children to dress themselves and by asking them to take responsibility for packing up their own bag at the end of the day. A good routine can assist children with knowing what to do and how to help them-selves. Please feel free to discuss this further with me if you wish.

How exciting it is to be in the Hallett Room at the moment, to be surrounded by children beaming with confidence as they prepare for the next step in their learning journey!

Sarah Croston-Melling

Hallett Room Shared Lunch

To farewell the Hallett children moving off to school next year, we would like to invite the Hallett children and their parents or carers for a shared lunch. The children will sing a few of their favourite songs and then we will have our lunch under the verandah and in the ELC garden. Please bring a plate of food to share, it can be savoury or sweet. We especially love to try savoury food from around the world!

**Please note, no nuts.**

Where: Hallett Room, ELC
When: Friday December 2, 2016
Time: 11:30-12:30pm
Bring: A plate of food to share

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Magic Moment

From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 4, our final term for 2016 and we have many things to look forward to. To begin we  recently had our Junior School and ELC PYP Evaluation visit. This was a chance for us to share our pedagogy and practice with external educators and receive feedback for further growth. A common practice at the ELC is to share our exemplary educational practices with colleagues from other schools’/ELC’s and engage in dialogue about our documentation and how it enhances the teachers’ thinking and understandings. During the visits the assessors requested to meet with the teachers and educators to share their journey and tell stories behind the children’s work and inquiry projects. The educators in the ELC shared ways that they have been able to innovative and transform a best practice to an even better practice. The educators were open about their challenges and obstacles when implementing the PYP and shared the growth that has occurred throughout 2016. Although the report will come at a later date, the feedback that we did receive was that ‘you can feel the atmosphere’ when you walk through the centre and that it was a special place to be. The evaluation process has reinforced our effective model of an ELC – Year 12 school as we were given the opportunity to come together to share the practices that are in place across the school and to engage all students in their learning journey at St Peter’s Girls.

Our work with Ada the robot continues to provide very rich learning opportunities for all age groups. In particular I have noticed that Ada is spending time in the Stonyfell and Bell Yett Rooms giving the children the opportunities to form a relationship with her. The most obvious learning is how Ada is the same as us and what is different. We are writing a strategic plan for how Ada will be used in the centre over the next 12 months. Kirsty Porplycia and I meet weekly with Ms Melissa Bray, our eLearning Integrator across the school to ensure the ELC and Junior School are working in sync with each other.

The Friends of the ELC worked very hard at the end of term to deliver all of the wine orders. We have now completed this delivery so if you have not received your order please come and see us as soon as possible. I would like to thank the FOELC members for their mammoth task of labelling and delivering the wine and olive oil. The reports back have been extremely positive about the quality of wine, olive oil and labels. This effort has secured our purchase of a robot so we again thank the community for embracing the 2016 fundraising to give us such unique learning opportunities.

As previously stated in the last newsletter bookings for 2017 are now complete and families have been advised of their child’s movements. One term’s notice is required if you do not intend to return in 2017. Our requirements for bookings are that two and three year olds attend a minimum of two days per week and that four and five year olds attend a minimum of three days a week. This is very clearly outlined in our enrolment policy.

I look forward to sharing a very special term with you all.

Kind regards,

Kate Mount

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ELC Dates for the Diary

• New Parent Information Night: Monday 7 November
• Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 14 November 
• Reception Transition Visit for girls attending St Peter’s Girls’ School: Monday 21 November
• Hat Ceremony: Monday 5 December, 8.30am
• Final ELC Day: Friday 9 December
• Vacation Care commences: Monday 12 December

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Grasshopper Soccer Adelaide

**BUILD CONFIDENCE – MAKE NEW FRIENDS – GET ACTIVE**

With the weather warming up, it is a great time to get out and play soccer.

If you have a child between the ages of 2 – 12 who would like to start experiencing our Fun-Based program, please get in touch with us at Grasshopper Soccer.

Run from our Kingswood and Windsor Gardens locations on Saturday and Sunday mornings, registrations are still open, so please get in touch with Andrew on 0408 825 280 to organise your FREE trial and/or discounted program cost. More locations are available at www.grasshoppersoccer.com.au.

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ELC Christmas Picnic

Lock this date into your diary so you don’t miss your children participate in a special concert. Extended families are very welcome!

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News from the Stonyfell Room

Exploring Ada the Humanoid Robot in the Stonyfell Room

The Stonyfell children and educators have welcomed Ada our ELC Humanoid Robot into our room. We have been exploring Ada every morning and she has been joining us for our Morning Meeting. We have been using Ada as a tool to build our social skills. She is a powerful provocation that we offer to the children. She has been supporting us to learn how to interact with each other. When we interact with Ada we have to be gentle just like we do with each other. We need to give her space so she can move around and we need to listen to her. During Morning Meeting time the children need to teach Ada what to do as she is learning from us. This provocation means that the children can be role models demonstrating positive behaviour choices, sitting down with friends, listening and turn taking. Along with supporting their social skills we have been exploring and observing how Ada is the same as us and what is different. Some of the similarities we have discovered are related to her physical appearance such as:

• She has legs
• Two eyes
• Arms and hands
• Feet or shoes
• A belly button
• Ears

The identification of what is the same about Ada has allowed the children to develop a relationship with her. They see Ada as being part of the ELC learning community and the Stonyfell Room. We can learn with her and she can support us in developing and extending our relationships and our ability to connect with each other.

We have also been discussing what we know about Ada:

“She lives in Mrs Mount’s office.” Teddy

“Her eyes are green, no they’re blue.” Madhvi

“She can talk.” Penny

We have been excited to see in such a short time the impact that Ada has made on our children and how she can be used as such a diverse learning tool. Our observations and work with Ada is rather innovative. There has not been much research done on the use of a robot such as Ada with younger children aged between two and three. We are excited to see the direction that she will take us and how the children will extend on their own learning and development. We are making our explorations visible in the room and would like to share this with you. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Ada please feel free to talk to me or any of the ELC staff.

Laura Reiters

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News from the Bell Yett Room

Finding Humanity Through Technology in the Bell Yett Room

The arrival of Ada, our NAO Humanoid Robot, to our ELC learning community, has extended our thinking about technology in the early years. We have always been mindful of the role of technology in the ELC, ensuring that it is used as a tool that enhances learning experiences for our children rather than a context that results in children playing in isolation from others. When Ada joined us we were fortunate to engage in some professional learning with Mrs Melissa Bray, the schools eLearning Integrator. Melissa challenged us to use Ada to find humanity through technology, to prove that technology can be a social connector rather than a social isolator.

With this in mind we have begun integrating Ada into the daily life of the Bell Yett Room. Ada has joined us for Morning Meetings, delighting the children as she greeted them by name. She has also supported our inquiry by asking the children to explain the recycling process to her. More recently, we have begun to explore Ada more closely, using our light room and its technologies as a support for creative, critical and caring thinking.

Through observing the children as they have engaged with Ada, we have noticed that the children are inclined to follow a certain pathway in their thinking. Some children are fascinated by how Ada works, resulting in the development of many theories about her technology. Other children are more interested in the human side of Ada. Our challenge is to support the children to follow both equally important pathways and provide learning invitations that will allow them to move between the two.

We have invited the children to look carefully at photos of Ada and draw a representation of her onto transparent paper. We have then placed these pictures onto the overhead projector, creating a larger image on the wall. The children have then been able to trace their image, creating an almost life size Ada. This experience is supporting the children to extend their curiosities about Ada as they interact with her through both social and technological means.

Leanne Williams

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News from the Ferguson Room

Welcome back to Term 4 – what an exciting term it is going to be.  The children have continued their learning from last term and vacation care, with conversations about pathways in the park and what lives there. The children have expressed their interest in continuing to work on creating a path from ELC to the paths in Ferguson Park.

When we hear children talk about the past inquiry, it is evidence of the strong connection they feel towards Ferguson Park and ELC and what lives there. We have been able to link the concepts in Term 3 beautifully to this term, as we begin exploring our new Central Idea, ‘Humans can create systems to learn together’. Through this idea, we are asking the children what systems do we have in place to organise our day? It is a fascinating idea to explore and one that will enable us to continue to build on the social skills the children have been developing, such as respecting one another, cooperation and group decision-making. We have combined the focus of social skills with communication skills, striving to build on the children’s ability to share their understandings with each other and with their family. We would love to hear about any conversations that may occur with your child about their learning, so please let us know.

As educators, we are researching the impact of being part of a group on children’s wellbeing. It is exciting to be able to reflect on what we see everyday but also hear what the children think about the functioning of the Ferguson Room and the ELC. They are after-all, the people that are impacted by the decisions that we make everyday. What an amazing opportunity for them to voice their opinion! We are excited to see where this learning takes us in the Ferguson Room and can’t wait to share this with you all.

Pam Foden

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News from the Hallett Room

Our initial conversations this term have focused on gaining an understanding of what the Hallett children already know in relation to our Central Idea, ‘Humans can create systems to learn together. We have started with breaking it down to the word ‘system’. The children had some interesting ideas about what that could be. Some children related it to our last unit of inquiry and said it was planting plants, others thought it had something to do with work and some said they didn’t know. I’m sure all will become clear as we progress through the term.

We have given the children a provocation to get them started. We have no system for watering the plants in the Hallett Room so we don’t know if they have been watered or how much to water them. With this problem we are working with the children to break down the information that they need to know in order to put together a system. The children have shown great respect for their environment in their enthusiasm for solving this problem and great respect for each other in the solutions that they have put forward to far.

“We could work together.” Rachel G.
“The plants will die if we don’t water them.” Gabriella
“If everyone waters the plant it could die.” Juliette
“We need to write down which friends will water the plants each day.” Neko
“Two friends could water them in the morning and two friends could water them before they go home.” Charlotte

We will focus on communication skills by asking, ‘How could we show others what our system is?’ You will see that the inquiry communication board near the sign in desk in the Hallett Room is filled with your children’s ideas, which have been arranged using symbols. This is to expose the children to some different ways of expressing their ideas, and we hope that it makes the inquiry clear and easy to understand for our families too. Please feel free to discuss the unfolding of the inquiry with me if you want to know more, I would be delighted to share.

Sarah Croston-Melling

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Magic Moment

From the Director of Early Learning

Dear Families,

As the term concludes we reflect on the journey travelled over recent months. Our mid-year transitions went incredibly well and I would like to thank all the staff and families involved in this important process. They appeared seamless, which means that our children feel comfortable in rooms other than their own and have developed some predictability about the journey they will travel whilst at ELC. The children and their families are demonstrating trust in us, our decision making, our guarantee of a seamless learning pathway, and of the sharing of information from one room to the next. As a team, we will consider all the elements that set us up for success in this process and work on any areas we can improve.

Clearly the children benefit from this process, which means we can continue the learning in a way that builds on from the term prior. In fact, this year we have been very strategic in our PYP units of inquiry, planning each one so that they connect with our overarching idea of making a difference to the world in which we live in. I have been very impressed with the depth of research that has occurred in each room and how this was communicated to families at our recent Parent Teacher Conversations. Thank you to all the families who took time to share with the educator’s news of their child’s progress this semester.

Staffing 2017

We are very excited to announce that Mrs Mel Baulderstone will be joining the ELC as one of our teachers in 2017. Mel is a highly experienced Early Childhood educator and will bring a wealth of knowledge to this role including experience in implementing both PYP and the Reggio Emilia Principles.

Mrs Sarah Croston-Melling will be leaving us at the end of the year. Sarah has had two years as key teacher in the Hallett Room and she will be dearly missed by us all. We wish Miss Laura Trueman farewell at the end of Term 3. Laura will be commencing her final practicum before becoming a fully qualified teacher. We thank Laura for her quality contributions to the ELC over the past two years. Miss Emma Veitch returns from her leave as Laura’s replacement as key co-educator in the Stonyfell Room.

Mrs Kirsty Porplycia will extend her working days across the centre next year. Working four days a week, Kirsty will spend extended morning blocks of time in the Hallett Room working alongside Pam Foden. This teaching structure will provide additional curriculum for our Hallett children. Kirsty will spend the remainder of her time in her existing role as support to me across the centre and will also be leading the robotics program in 2017.

2017 Room Teachers

Stonyfell: Miss Laura Reiters
Bell Yett: Mrs Leanne Williams/Mrs Nell Tierney
Ferguson: Mrs Mel Baulderstone
Hallett: Ms Pam Foden (Full time)/ Mrs Kirsty Porplycia (four mornings a week)

I wish everyone a lovely school holiday break and look forward to welcoming you back for Term 4 on Monday October 17.

Kate Mount

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ELC Dates for the Diary

• Christmas Twilight Picnic: Friday November 25
• ELC Hat Ceremony: Monday December 5
• Christmas Vacation Care Dates: Monday December 12 – Friday December 23
• Centre closed: Monday Dec 26 – Friday January 6
• Centre reopens: Monday January 9, 2017.

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2017 Enrolments now Finalised!

We wish to advise families that our 2017 enrolments and movements have now been finalised. Each room is now at its capacity with room numbers and ratios. We appreciate that many families have requested change of days due to work commitments. Where possible we have tried to meet these requests, however we no longer have any flexibility.

Please contact Sarah Elliott on selliott@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au if you wish to be placed on a waitlist for 2017 regarding any change of day for your child’s schedule.

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Reflections from the Stonyfell Room

As we come to the end of the term we reflect on the 10 weeks we have had together – growing, learning and exploring. We have welcomed and settled in our new children and as a team of educators we feel that we have developed strong and trusting relationships. We appreciate the communication and support from all our families and have loved the time that we have had together to discuss and share the progress and learning of the children.

This term we have really unpacked and explored our Unit of Inquiry Central Idea:

“People are connected to our planet”

I enjoyed sharing this journey with many of you during our Parent Teacher Conversations and showing examples from your child’s ePortfolio.

We began our exploration with building our connection of home to ELC.

We engaged in experiences:

• exploring our homes
• sharing our thoughts and ideas around homes
• what we know about our homes
• other spaces and places we have relationships to.

This progressed into thinking about how we can begin to take responsibility for our belongings and resources. The teachers wanted our children to begin to understand that we don’t necessarily have an endless supply of resources and materials and that we need to take responsibility for what we have. This has led us to explore and use recycled materials in our everyday practice. Using these materials has allowed us to build our understanding of sustainability. We have empowered our children to transform unwanted items into something new, extending their life and giving them new value and meaning. In doing this our children have been demonstrating their imagination and creativity. Many of our explorations have allowed children to work in collaboration, supporting the development of their social skills such as sharing, turn taking and valuing others ideas.

One experience has been the development of our castle. I am sure many of you have seen the large box that we have had in the Stonyfell Room over the past five weeks. This box was offered as a provocation and was placed in the room for the children to explore. The box began its life at a fruit and veg shop containing watermelons, however our children saw more than just a box. It became a boat that they laid flat and sat on, rowing it down a river. The box then evolved as more children engaged with it and the idea of it being a castle was suggested. The children had to problem solve how they could get into the castle as when it was standing up it was too tall to climb into; it was suggested that I cut a door!

It is through this inquiry we have supported our children to take action in caring for the planet. This action demonstrates the understanding that the Stonyfell children have of being active participants and responsible citizens of the world. We will continue this practice in the Stonyfell Room and we want it to become embedded in our everyday practice and part of the ELC culture.

The Stonyfell team would like to thank all the families that have participated in this inquiry by providing us with a wonderful supply of recycled materials that we have greatly valued and used in many experiences.

Laura Reiters

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Reflections from the Bell Yett Room

We began our inquiry this term with very clear learning outcomes. These included the development of specific knowledge, skills, attitudes and concepts as the children explored the Central Idea, ‘People are connected to their planet’. More broadly, we were aiming for the children to develop a relationship with their natural world that would inspire some sustainable practices. This was left fairly open as we wanted to follow the children’s ideas and theories.

Through our early observations, we discovered that although the children knew that rubbish could be a problem, there was room to deepen their understandings. Many children believed that they did not have rubbish in their homes. During our walks in Ferguson Park, some children thought that leaves and sticks on the ground were rubbish. As we entered the ‘action’ stage of our inquiry we wanted to ensure that we were offering opportunities for learning that would be ongoing for the children, so they would continue to take action even after our inquiry had ‘finished’.

We decided to relaunch our inquiry with a specific focus on investigating rubbish. This was a turning point for the children’s understanding as they started to create connections between their relationship with the planet and their actions. We began by exploring the rubbish bins in the ELC, with the children taking a particular interest in our paper recycle bin. It was while investigating this bin that we were provided with a provocation by the Property Services Team. They informed us that there was a problem throughout the School, as people were putting the wrong rubbish in the recycle bins.

We examined the bin more closely and discovered that there was a tick and a cross on the bin which told us what rubbish could and could not go in the bin. We conducted an audit on our bin and discovered that we were putting some of the wrong type of rubbish in this bin. The children began working together in small groups to deepen their understandings and share their emerging theories.

By providing the children with a wide range of learning invitations, they have not only deepened their knowledge of recycling but have also developed and tested a theory – rubbish does not always need to go in the bin or be recycled – it can be reused. These small group experiences have also supported the children in developing essential attitudes such as cooperation, empathy, respect and social skills, including: accepting responsibility, respecting others, adopting a variety of group roles and group decision-making.

We are excited to be continuing our ‘Rubbish’ Investigation into next term as we explore how we can share our new recycling knowledge with the ELC community, including Ada our Humanoid Robot and the wider school.

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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Reflections from the Ferguson  Room

Here we are at the end of Term 3! I want to start with a thank you for all of your wonderful support throughout the term. We have seen the evidence of how partnerships with families extend and promote each child’s journey at the ELC. Having the opportunity to discuss your child’s journey with you at the Parent Teacher Conversations has highlighted the importance of this communication.

Our intention when we planned our Central Idea of ‘People are connected to their planet’ was to encourage the children towards an action that was initiated from their understandings and knowledge of the inquiry.

With a strong sense of empathy and connection to their world, we ‘aspired’ to develop the children’s desire to really make a difference and to understand that they do and can make an impact on the world. As the IB focus is to develop global citizens, we are building the foundations through informed choices that show respect and responsibility for their world.

For the children, the importance of staying on pathways in Ferguson Park created enough reason to demonstrate action.

“Other rooms go into the park too.”

“And playgroup.”

“They might not know that we have to stay on the paths!”

“They might not know we are making a path.”

Due to a small sense of despair at the possibility of damaged spider orchids, squashed scorpions and millipedes, the children wanted to make sure the other rooms knew about the pathways.

Our path building will continue into Vacation Care and Term 4, as we test more of the theories we are forming each week. In this case, we are ensuring children are developing persistence in seeing that action continues over an extended period of time, just as our care towards the world never ends. What an exciting time ahead!

Pam Foden

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Reflections from the Hallett Room

Having spoken to almost all of the Hallett families last week, I feel a new sense of warmth in the room. It is so wonderful to have the time to build our home to ELC relationship. We  value our parent community voice and these meetings help us to understand your child so much better. We hope that our conversations have also increased your understanding of your child’s participation in our ELC community.

There have been many highlights this term, but I am most impressed with the increased level of empathy that the children have achieved. The children are expressing this in various ways such as being more understanding of, and kind to friends, caring for their planet and animals. The children have taken a particular interest in caring for animals through rebuilding their homes. One of the provocations we had this term was a wooden birdhouse that fell from a tree in one of the storms we have had recently. The children decided to decorate the birdhouse before having it remounted on the tree. However, the children’s empathy is so deep that they wish to seek the advice of the birds about how they would like it decorated. The children wish to create bird noises to attract and talk to the birds to find out their ideas. They also made some beautiful coloured birds to attract their attention. I can’t wait to hear how the bird conversation goes and to see how the bird house will be decorated this week.

I have seen many children helping their peers and trying to be more understanding of each other. However, the Hallett Room is full of social learning. As the children’s confidence has grown so much, they are more willing to take risks and experiment with various forms of social engagement that they may not have previously experienced. This often results in facing challenges that they have not had before. As educators, we are very aware of the growth in social development and the support that this requires to find appropriate ways to disagree, to be able to choose their own path, but to also be mindful of the group. At the moment we are focusing on social skills, in particular, how to communicate with peers. This includes the use of language, the tone and volume we use when we speak to our friends, and how we can solve problems. We have been sharing stories and role playing many scenarios with puppets as well as talking with the children, to help them see each other’s point of view and to model ways that they could solve their problems.

Finally, we have been building a sense of connection with each other through taking responsibility together for our environment and also through exploring dance. Inspired by the ‘We Are All Connected’ dance video that I shared in a previous ELC eNews article, some of the Hallett children have been learning some hip hop dance with Miss Simmitis, one of the co-educators in the Bell Yett Room, who is a talented hip hop dancer/teacher. The children have loved learning a dance together, building co-ordination and creating a bond, as they are motivated to help each other learn the moves. It has been wonderful to see their confidence and enthusiasm grow over several weeks. The dance is to the music of Meghan Trainor’s ‘Better When I’m Dancing’. We feel better when we are dancing!

Sarah Croston-Melling

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Magic Moment

Introducing Ada…

On the first day of September we welcomed Ada into our learning community. We thank our parent committee, Friends of the ELC, for supporting our dream and strongly advocating for the purchase of a NAO Humanoid Robot for the Early Learners’ Centre. The children have welcomed Ada into their playrooms and have displayed innate curiosity and wonder towards their new friend. The children have begun sharing their questions, wonderings and theories and these are being documented by the educators.

The children’s interactions with Ada have highlighted their empathy and compassion for others as they have begun to question and share their concerns about her sleeping arrangements, being alone and what to do when she falls over. They are also eager to further develop their understanding and learn more about her features and functions. It’s interesting to see the children share their theories about what her features are for and how they are used successfully and they are beginning to recognise their responsibilities to Ada and appreciate their connection to her.

The sessions with Ada are challenging the thinking and understandings of the educators as the children begin to think and pose questions and provocations for further inquiry. The educators have maximised these learning opportunities and have effectively used Ada as a social connector, engaging numerous participants, sharing ideas, theories and perspectives. Children have begun challenging the ideas of others and further developing their understandings.

Each week I have the absolute privilege to be included in a meeting with Kate, Sarah Croston Melling and Ms Melissa Bray the schools eLearning Integrator. We engage in rich dialogue about the children’s experiences and together we analyse data and synthesise pathways for further discovery. Ms Bray challenges the thinking of the children and educators and encourages us to be brave and creative in our approach. In our last session, she conceptualised our work with Ada as finding humanity through technology, as the children develop empathy/emotional intelligence, identity, social cues, leadership and build connections through their inquiries. She has developed the image below to support educators, children and families to associate this language in learning with Ada from the beginning ensuring the pathway is clear and successful.

As the children are developing their questions and theories so are their families. We would like to invite you to share with us the conversations that you are having with your children about Ada and any questions that you may have that may deepen our inquiries. Please contact either myself kporplycia@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au, Kate Mount, kmount@stpetersgirls.sa.edu or your child’s class teacher with your questions.

Kind regards,

Kirsty Porplycia
ELC Educator

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Why the name Ada?

The name Ada was selected by both the ELC staff and the Friends of ELC. Independently we all set off to find a suitable name and discovered that Ada Lovelace (born in 1816) was the first coder. She developed a passion for mathematics and analytical thinking. This led her to explore how technology could be a collaborative tool. Ada developed a code that she described as an algorithm tailored for implementation on a computer hence she is known as the first computer programmer.

We could not believe our luck to discover and learn about Ada Lovelace and imagined all those years ago a female scientist and mathematician developed such early coding. We were also thrilled to read about technology being a collaborative tool!

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Notification of Illness

Parents are requested to advise the ELC of any illness and/or reason for absence that your child may have. This is extremely important. We have reflected on our recent illness across the centre and believe we could have provided earlier information to families if we had been notified immediately of children who had been unwell. This is outlined in our Illness Policy requesting notification.

To assist us we are now providing the option for families to contact the  ELC by either ringing us directly or by sending an email to their teacher. To improve the consistency of this process we are requesting that families utilise the service offered by our Front Office for School students. Lesley and Sarah in the Front Office manage student absentees, it would be appreciated if you could you please notify them of a late arrival/absence, using one of the following methods:

Test message: 0428 601 957
Email: attendance@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.

When sending to either of the above methods, please include your child’s name, the ELC room and reason for absence (illness detail). It would be preferable it this was completed by 9.30am.

We know from experience that school families find the text method very convenient as they can place this number directly in their phone.

Much appreciated,

Kate Mount

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Happy Moon Festival

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News from the Stonyfell Room

In the Company of Beauty- Reflection on the Right to Beauty

“The task of teaching cannot forget beauty.” Vea Vecchi

At ELC we have a culture of being lifelong learners. We believe in maintaining a continual high level of professional development. Last Saturday, I had the privilege of attending a Reggio inspired session entitled ‘In the Company of Beauty’.

This session unpacked parent’s perspectives on beauty in Australian early childhood environments. This session was run by David Gilkes, a passionate and highly regarded teacher from Tasmania. He shared what he has learnt about parent perspectives on beauty in Australian early childhood settings.

David is a strong advocate for the roll that beauty plays in any setting and that beauty can mean many things as it is subjective and personal. David defined beauty as being three main things:

• A need and a right
• A connector
• Joy and wonder.

Every aspect of his presentation lead back to these three beliefs.

This session was such a provocation for me, I had many of my own personal beliefs affirmed. Expressing beauty and exploring the right to beauty is a passion of mine. I hope many of you have observed this as I have a strong belief in creating an aesthetically beautiful environment for your children to be immersed in. The Stonyfell Room holds this beauty!

“The space has to be a sort of aquarium that mirrors the ideas, values, attitudes and cultures of the people who live within it.” Loris Malaguzzi

I work extremely hard at creating a stimulating and beautiful environment, as I believe that children have the right to be exposed to beauty in many different ways. Every area of the space has been carefully considered and put together with love. I hope in return that the love and care can be felt through the experiences.

Beauty however is not just about aesthetics, beauty can be in a relationship, a connection or a moment. Beauty can be a feeling; it can be shown through empathy and understanding. I believe that we are creating beauty in the Stonyfell Room and that being exposed to beauty and beautiful spaces allows us to reciprocate that beauty in our lives.

“A space should quietly whisper beauty is all around you. Together we should take the time to explore.” Thornton and Brunton

Laura Reiters
ELC Educator

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News from the Bell Yett Room

As the ELC community reached our fundraising goal and were able to purchase our own Nao Humanoid Robot, we shared the news in the Bell Yett Room via our digital screen. The children wondered why this robot was featured as we excitedly shared the news with them.

“Is it robot day yet?” became a common question as the children eagerly anticipated its arrival.

As the children first met Ada, they were not only filled with joy and wonder but they quickly began questioning and developing their own theories and ideas:

“Will the robot catch a ball?”

“Will he eat lunch?”

“I wonder if he will have a bag.”

“You need to charge her.”

“The robot was waving at me.”

“They might be twins.”

“Why does she have red on her?”

“You press her button and then she can work.”

The children in the Bell Yett room have already had opportunities to meet Ada and her impact is already influencing our learning program. As we have been investigating recycling and exploring different ways of reusing materials, we have been amazed as the children are regularly coming up with the idea of making our own Ada with a variety of different materials and in a variety of different forms, including 3D sculpture and collage. We have even been able to introduce Ada to our own Recycle Robot!

As the children are developing a relationship with Ada, they are naturally connecting her to our learning experiences, enabling deeper and more meaningful engagement. We can’t wait to see where Ada and the children lead us next!

Leanne Williams and Nell Tierney

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News from the Ferguson Room

After the initial introduction of our new robot Ada last week, the Ferguson children have started to share their wonderings and theories about her. After some discussion this is where the children’s interest lie:

“What colour was Thomas?”

“Blue. Ada is red because she is a girl”

“Does Ada have batteries?”

“Where is her bed?”

“Why can’t the robot have some water?”

“What does the purple button do?”

“Would you like to hold my hand?”

Throughout the term our numeracy focus has been on transformation and location. As part of this focus we have been programming the Beebot’s to move across the floor, under tunnels, through legs and around chairs. Watching children at this age explore the foundations of computational thinking has been exciting to see. Once we asserted that the Beebot could only be moved through programming (it was too tempting at first to pick them up and move them) the children engaged their problem-solving skills with one another to determine its movements.  It has been an exciting time for the room, made exceptionally more profound when one of the children realised:

“We have to program Ada the robot like we program the Beebot’s”.

Now that we are fortunate to have our own robot in the centre it provides the opportunity for our children to connect the coding between the Beebot’s and potentially Ada.

During the week, Ada came to visit us in the Ferguson Room and it was fascinating to see the children’s engagement with her. We looked at some of the wonderings and theories we had begun thinking about before we met her again. For the moment, we are ensuring that we give time and place to focus on the children developing a relationship with Ada through interactions, touch and questioning.

We are excited to be part of such a dynamic area of learning and look forward to sharing more news with you all soon.

Pam Foden
ELC Educator

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News from the Hallett Room

The Hallett Room children never fail to surprise me and this term is no exception. I have seen the children develop a deep respect and empathy for the environment as they gain an understanding of the connection they have to the planet.  The educators have been encouraging the children to share their knowledge with each other and to research to find out more.  You may have had your child taking an interest in the bins at home and asking you what goes in them. We have shared stories about the impact of waste on the environment and animals, so your child may be showing more concern when they see rubbish on the ground. This leads us to our third Line of Inquiry, ‘taking action to look after the planet’.

Valencia, “Some girls in Reception and Year 1 left some rubbish near the slide in the Junior School playground and I put it in the bin.”

Isabelle, “Our actions could make the planet happy.”

Ava, “If we break the planet we won’t be able to live on the planet and the plants will die, that’s not fair.”

Matilda Purvis, “If you leave rubbish in the park a baby animal could eat it.”

Faith, “On my way to ELC I saw some rubbish and I told my Mummy.”

We have spent a lot of time this term gardening and looking after plants. We have also been growing and caring for mung bean sprouts. This has helped the children to see the positive impact their actions can have on the planet. Our adventures in Ferguson Park have built on the children’s understanding that we are not the only ones to use the space and if we take something out of the park we may be impacting on the animals that live there. The children are beginning to notice that their actions can impact on the planet (key concept: causation). This has been motivating for the children to begin to take action.  If your child is taking action at home to look after their planet, we would love to hear the story. Please feel free to stop us to chat or email with any changes you have noticed.

Sarah Croston-Melling

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Magic Moment