School Holidays

There are now only 3 weeks left until the end of term and the school and our Teachers will then be on holidays. The centre will close from 6 pm on December 20th and reopen on January 7th. School (and our normal classes )will  resume on January 31st . If your child will be away for any other times over this period please let me know. If your child will be leaving us at the end of this year could you please give me the final date of their attendance.


Jeanine

Chapple Room Graduation

This will be held on Thursday December 6th at 11.00 in our Town Square for the Chapple room children and their families. Festival Photos will be there to record the event for everyone. It will  conclude by 12 md and families are welcome to take their child with them at the end of it if they wish to.

New Babies

We have had a rush of new baby girls born over the last 10 days  to ELC families and staff !

Our congratulations go to :
Brita and Varis Lidums on the birth of Laila Jana on Nov 5th , a sister for Erik (Langley Room)

Mel and Greg Bishop on the birth of Chloe Grace on Nov 12th (Mrs Bishop from Edgerley Room)

Kelly and Adrian Manera on the birth of Lilah Luciana on Nov 13th , a sister for Sabian (Cooper Room)

Nativity

Next Thursday (15th November)  is the big day for our much anticipated Nativity Performance.It will be held in the Anzac Hall which is on the Dequetteville Tce side of the main bluestone building .(the oval next to the driveway should be open for parking provided it has not been raining)
Children who normally attend on a Thursday should arrive at their usual time for us to start getting them ready and children who do not normally come on a Thursday need to arrive by 10.00 am.
If you have not sent your child's costume in please do this by Tuesday of next week ready for our dress rehearsal.
The performance will be finished by 12 md .If your child attends on a Thursday and you take them home with you afterwards please remember to sign them out and let a staff member know that you are taking them.

The photographers from Festival Photos will be there as usual to photograph the children and photos will be available to order on line.

ELC Team

Chapple and Edgerley Rooms

Dear Chapple and Edgerley parents,

Don’t forget to RSVP by Tuesday 13^th November for the Chapple and Edgerley Traditional Christmas Fare morning to your classroom teacher.

And please, keep those recipes coming in to jgiorgio@staff.pac.edu.au we want to get them ready to be sent to the printers by week 7.

Thank you to all who have done so,

Miss Marcus and Miss Giorgio

OSHC Program

Children from Chapple Room who will be finishing at the ELC at the end of the term are eligible to use the Vacation Care program at the Prep School across the Christmas holidays.  Programs with Enrolment forms are with  the Parent Information materials outside Chapple Room.

Head Lice

There have still been some cases of head lice in the centre so please check your children carefully and treat them if necessary.  Several treatments are often needed to completely control the lice. Please inform us if you do find your child has lice so that we can monitor the situation.

Uniforms

Thankyou to all the families who have begun to send their children in Moroon shorts/pants (and white undershirts). Please make sure as you replace your child's clothing you purchase moroon only for ELC wear. We would like to have all children in this uniform from next year (apart from Edgerley children) . The uniform shop has supplies but you are welcome to purchase them elsewhere as they do not have to be a specific style/brand.(speak with Mrs Dry)

Fee Statements

This week you should have received your fee statement via email. If you did not receive it could you please let me know . We aim to send these out monthly from now on in this manner. 

If your email address has changed recently could you kindly update it for our records.

Jeanine

Chapple Room

Dear Chapple Parents and Friends,

This week we discussed the meaning behind our Nativity concert and why we celebrate Christmas. It was a wonderful chance to explore our understanding of what we are doing, and to see how much children in Chapple understand about Christmas and this busy time of year.

‘It’s something. I don’t really know.’ Zach H

‘It means when you play something like the dolls or the Christmas tree or computers. ‘ Jack

‘It’s like this big play at the end of the year to show everybody what happened when baby Jesus was born.’ Tommi

‘They went to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary. People said there was no room, except the last ones.’ Oliver

‘In the dativity, they give baby Jesus present to celebrate baby Jesus was born.’ Jack

‘The three kings have to wear some crowns.’ Zach H

‘They celebrated because they loved baby Jesus.’ Xander

‘First the three kings helped baby Jesus and gave her presents and when baby Jesus got a big boy they wanted to kill Jesus.’ Harry H

‘Another time when Mrs Rocca was reading a book it said they were going to kill baby Jesus.’ Grace

‘Baby Jesus. It’s Merry Christmas time.’ Leon

‘When they got to Bethlehem in a stable Baby Jesus was born and so Christmas is a very special day because we celebrated baby Jesus being born.’ Tommi

‘I don’t know.’ Ryan

‘They celebrated baby Jesus.’ Dillon

‘Good animals are smiling.’ Lucas

‘The animals love baby Jesus.’ Yi Bin

‘The donkey carried Mary.’ Sebastian

‘Builded the stage.’ Marios

‘About baby Jesus. He was born in a house in the snow.’ Seth

‘All the animals smiled because they wanted to see baby Jesus.’ Ryan

We are looking forward to the concert next week, and hope to see you all there! For those of you who are heading to the pageant this weekend, have a lovely time- and keep an eye out for Harry White's mother Helen. Miss Freer will also be returning to us on Tuesday. Thank you to Mrs Nacca for being such a wonderful help over the last two weeks. The children will miss you!

Thank you,

Chapple Room Team

Edgerley Room

Dear Edgerley Parents,

Through our conversations about the communities we belong to we started thinking about the people who help us.  We started with the postman who delivers our mail and then the children discussed who else there is.

"A judge, he puts bad people in jail" - Louis

"Firemen, they put out the fire" - Olivia

"Builder, they build stuff" - Owen

"Policemen, they help us from bad people in the street" - Alyssa

"If you lost they put you back in your home" - Rocco

"Doctor, my daddy is a doctor and he helps sick people" - Bruno

We have added dress ups to the break out space and the children have been enjoying the opportunity to explore these roles further.

This coming week we are going to start discussing the traditions we have at Christmas.  Please send in a photo of your child at Christmas for them to talk about in show and tell and that we can display.

Thanks for a great week,
Juliana and Coney

Mead Room

Dear Parents and Friends,

We have had some wonderful co-operative play in the Mead Room this week. The hospital Duplo has been a real favourite and before now, the children had been creating different models usually by themselves. This week the children have started discussing and designing incredible models with each other. We have made a big focus on sharing ideas and expressing our feelings whilst working with others, especially when negotiation is necessary. Our catch phrase is “Use your words!” Most of the time it works most successfully!

Best Wishes,

Emma, Pip, Cristina and Heidi

Cooper Room

Dear Parents and Friends of the Cooper Room,

We have been working hard to prepare for the ELC Nativity for 2012. We have been singing and practising all week! Now we are all looking forward now to "getting into our new clothes" said Oliver. 

The Cooper Room children have been busy painting their own Christmas tree and next week we will make decorations based around the special symbols of Christmas.  Please keep sending in any toilet or handpaper rolls as we will need these to make our bon-bons. We have been talking about the special story of Jesus' birth and how  we celebrate this at Christmas.

We also have a growing nature table in the Cooper Room. The children have been watching as our silkworms have started to spin their cocoons. The children have wondered what they will turn into?

"Darker cocoons I think," said Oliver
"What about fruit bats," added Kristian
"Maybe butterflies," thought Kate
We will just have to wait and see!

Kind regards
Susan and Coral

Langley Room

Dear Langley Family and Friends,

Continuing on with our investigations about who we are and how we are similar and different to other people, we have been creating clay representations of our faces. We have been examining our features in the mirror and then using collage materials to add features to our clay faces. The children have been discussing their different facial features as they explore and create;

Yes, me, eye – Alexander D

They my eyes – Bernie

I hammer in eyes – Clementine

I do my eyes – Jack

I’ve got hair. I gonna put on ears. I just gave it a little titch – Angus

That’s my eyes. That’s my ears. That’s my hair – Millie

My head is round. My eyes are blue not black. Dey got black bits in it – Thomas M

We have been practicing hard for our Nativity performance next Thursday 15^th November and look forward to sharing this special day with you. Please make sure you have brought in some denim shorts, pants or skirt for the performance.

Best wishes,

Jess, Kerry, Nicole and Ange

Centre Review

Dear Parents,

As all good organizations do, we hold regular reviews of our processes. This year we had planned to undertake a review of our administrative operations and with the pending parenthood for Mel Bishop we chose to take a closer look at our academic leadership model as well.

Some of the outcomes of this review have already been activated. The role of Centre Manager and Administrative Assistant has been replaced with one position; Centre Administrator. The management of the Centre will now fall to the Deputy Head and Head of the Preparatory School. You may already have seen Mr. Sean Watt speaking with staff and joining in and sharing in the learning process with your child. Sean is a very experienced educator and administrator and brings strong and collaborative leadership to the environment.

You will also have noticed in the last few weeks, while Jeanine has been on annual leave, Jess Catt greeting you and the children as you enter the Centre. Jeanine will occupy the same space upon her return and the office she used to occupy will become a meeting room for private conversations or staff planning.

The next phase of our review will see a number of changes to our academic and pedagogical leadership. These will be overseen by our Director of Teaching and Learning, Mr. Kelvin Sparks. Kelvin has an excellent knowledge of early learning and will work with our staff to ensure our vision of inspiring excellence continues to occur for staff as well as our children.

In closing, I am sure you will agree, Jess has had a wonderful influence on us all over the last two weeks. We thank her for her willingness to serve our community.

Kind regards,

Neil Andary

Head of Preparatory School