ELC Information Session

Date: Tuesday 20 February
Time: 7.00pm till 8.00pm
Venue: Campbell House classrooms

We would love to see at least one parent representative of each of our early learners in 2018 at the forthcoming Information Session to be held next Tuesday from 7.00pm to 8.00pm.

Children thoroughly enjoy hearing from parents who have sat in their classrooms and met their educators. To ensure comfort and confidence in our young learners, which are essential needs of children as well as effective learners, it is essential that parents and educators are in close communication.

Conversations about events and activities at School, held at home, are vital reinforcement of all the possible learning opportunities. Educators eagerly look forward to meeting up with as many parents as possible on Tuesday 20 February 7.00-8.00pm in Campbell House. 

Screen Time and Young Children

Families are encouraged to contemplate the recent discussions and current thinking surrounding the impact upon young children who spend a great deal of time engaged daily with screen devices.

The risks involved with over indulgence of screen time and the impact upon young children’s physical, social and emotional wellbeing, as well as their capacity to learn effectively, are being emphatically voiced by those who are investigating current trends.

With no long term research yet at hand, it appears currently that high caution should be advised regarding children engaging in lengthy periods of screen time.

Early Childhood experts often comment and agree upon the following essential needs of healthy young children:

1. Engagement and connection with others
2. Expressive and explorative activity (through play)
3. Education
4. Extra-curricular development eg. sport, swimming, outdoor and indoor physical games
5. Entertainment

Like the Healthy Food Pyramid, ‘balance’ is emphatically identified as being sensible practice with regard to screen tine for young learners.

Undeniably, there is a strong passion for devices amongst all age groups, including very young children. Its benefits are encouraged to consider the word balance seriously and to ensure there is a mixture of activities on offer to children which include all aspects of play – both outdoors and indoors. Screen time should be avoided well before sleep is anticipated and devices should not be used as a means of children settling to go to bed nor permitted in bedrooms.

The value of a bedtime story read by an adult is historically a popular and excellent option just before children settle to go to sleep.

Mrs Alana Moor
Head of ELC and Junior School

Welcome to the Wattle Room

The children of the Wattle Room have shared in a week of play, learning and establishing cheerful, reciprocal relationships.

The children were invited to consider the golden wattle flower as a way of forming a connection with their classroom by looking closely at wattle pictures and sharing their unique observations. The group enjoyed an outing to visit the wattle tree positioned on St Catherine’s Walk and have expressed their interest in creating their own wattle tree for the indoor learning environment.

Further, the children discovered that the golden wattle is a plant indigenous to Australia and that it is the National Floral Emblem.

The children are now considering the role they play in the Wattle Room community and what positive contributions they plan to make as members throughout the course of the year together.

Miss Kristina Schrader
Wattle Room Teacher