Dear Parents

Our school was set ablaze with vibrant colours, warm smiles

and excited children on Spring Day last week! Beautiful,

handcrafted spring flowers created by our children adorned

the corridors, trees and classrooms as children hopped

along in their new Spring Day outfits! The day started off with

a tree planting ceremony – each Stage planted a Wild Olive

tree after sharing messages of goodwill for our school and

our future growth. A picnic was the treat of the day as

children huddled together on their picnic blankets sharing

their lunch and chatting happily under the beautiful warm

sky.

Our Spring Day most certainly afforded our children the

opportunity to enjoy the freedom to explore and appreciate

the day.

NEWSLETTER | 08 September 2016 | VOLUME 1:16

FROM THE HEADMISTRESS

Parents’ Coffee Morning

Date: Tuesday, 20 September 2016 @ 08:00

Topic: An overview of Tools for having ‘The Talks’

What children should know about their bodies at this age.

A discussion about what‟s „enough‟ information to answer their questions about bodies, touching

and babies.

Presenter: Casey Blake

Casey is a registered counsellor who specializes in trauma, relationships, sexuality and gender issues. Casey

has a passion for bringing light and information into areas that are kept in the shadowy silence of taboo. Prior to

beginning her Masters last year, Casey was in the media frequently talking about sexuality related issues,

specifically about helping parents speak to their children about sexuality and safety, in age-appropriate ways.

RSVP: Pat Nkonyane via email pat.nkonyane@reddam.house or add your name to the list at our reception

desk by Friday, 16 September 2016.

Heritage Day and Grandparents’ Day - 08:30 Morning Ring

We have decided to end a busy term by celebrating our heritage with our grandparents on the last day of school

Friday, 23 September. Children are invited to come dressed in clothing that represents their heritage and bring a

plate of their traditional snacks. We respectfully ask parents not to attend, however, should grandparents be

unavailable please would a special person in the child‟s life join us in the celebration.

Concours D’Arts

This year our Stage 5s were invited by Reddam House Bedfordview to participate in the Concours D‟Arts

cultural festival. A selection of Artwork was sent and each child did exceptionally well. Well done to our Artists!

CONGRATULATIONS

Supervision of Children after School

We have noted that a number of children are left unsupervised after school. Whilst we do understand that some

children are waiting for siblings whose day ends 30 minutes later in the ELS, we do need to ensure that each

and every child‟s caregiver or parent closely supervises their children as teachers and educators are on duty ie.

dining hall or sleeping room duty. Children need to sit and eat their lunch if in holding class or if waiting for their

sibling to finish an extra-mural activity.

Late Comers

Some children are still arriving late for Morning Ring, some as late as 15 minutes. We once again urge parents

to have their children arrive punctually as late entry into a class is hugely disruptive for sound teaching and

learning practices.

Late Collections

Some children are being collected by their parents or caregivers after Adventure Zone rather late – by as much

as 30 minutes later which impacts directly on their children who have spent a long day at school and our staff

who need to access public transport. Please phone our Receptionist should you for any reason be late and we

will accommodate your child‟s needs accordingly. However, not notifying the school is unacceptable and

penalties will be put in place.

Warm regards

Dr Bev Evangelides

Welcome to Spring! This week the children have had such fun exploring the wonders of nature. We created our

own flowers using pasta for the petals and tearing small pieces of paper to make the centre of the flower.

The children and I also decided to paint some cherry blossoms to celebrate Spring Day by using pink paint for

the petals and black paint for the branches.

On Friday we made edible flowers using marshmallows as petals and a jelly bean for the centre. Baking is our

favourite activity and we can‟t wait to eat our treats afterwards.

With this lovely warm weather upon us please remember to pack a spare hat for the afternoons. Clearly label

the hat with your child‟s name. We also encourage the children to drink plenty of water in the afternoons and will

re-fill their bottles when necessary.

Healthy children are happy children.

Liz Miller and the Adventure Zone Team

THIS WEEK IN ADVENTURE ZONE

Over the past week or so, the Stage 1s have been focusing on the much anticipated arrival of Spring and we have been very busy in our little garden. The children have assisted us in preparing the pot plants and beds so that we can plant new seeds and seedlings, and I must say, they have done a wonderful job – I think the best part for them is the watering of the plants. Along with Spring Day, we also celebrated Arbor Day by planting a tree. We discussed with the children that we need to take care of our environment as well as the importance of trees and plants within the environment. Not only do these make our environment look pretty, but they also create oxygen for us. The children in Stage 1R were asked what plants need in order to survive and also what will happen to the plants if we don‟t take care of them, and these were some of their answers: Hannah said: If we don‟t feed them, they will die. We also mustn‟t play in them, cos they‟ll die. Kylie confirmed Hannah‟s statement and added: We must give the plants water. Tyler mentioned: The plants also need sun.

Teacher Katy, Bullie and Patience

This term our provocation is: “Up in the Sky…”

As a fun activity I decided to try a new technique with my Stage 2 class - Spaghetti Paintbrushes! Just the idea

had my children jumping with excitement. We had a discussion about how spaghetti felt hard and what we need

to do to make the spaghetti soft. We then made our spaghetti soft by placing it in boiling water. I showed the

children a picture of fireworks and encouraged them to make their own fireworks using spaghetti paintbrushes!

The children loved working with a new medium and luckily no-one decided to eat our wonderful new

paintbrushes.

Teacher Kelly and Thuli

Stage 2 – Up in the Sky

Stage 1 – Our Beautiful Garden

FOCUS ON | STAGE 1 TO 5

Exposing children to sensory play includes any activity that stimulates the child‟s sense of touch, smell, taste,

sight and hearing. Children learn best and retain information when their senses are engaged.

Stimulating the senses is important as it sends signals to the brain and this helps strengthen neural pathways

important for all types of learning. It teaches children about co-operation whilst playing alongside other children

involved in the same activity as well as giving the child an opportunity to use descriptive and expressive

language. Sensory materials might be warm or cool, wet or dry, rough or smooth, textured or slimy.

Characteristics such as sorting or classifying and math concepts such as more, less, full, empty also come into

play. Fine motor skills are strengthened whilst different materials are handled such as mixing, pouring,

measuring, scooping and squeezing. And lastly, sensory play is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child.

In Stage 3D, the children have been exposed to different sensory mediums, in the atelier and in the garden. We

have called any slimy medium, “mush, mush, mushane”. The best part of sensory play is that it is therapeutic

and gives every child an opportunity to succeed.

We hope that our parents will see the value of sensory play and encourage you to try some activities at home.

Teacher Astrid and Sarah

Stage 3 – The Importance of Sensory Play

Logan bought three huge marbles to school to show us what his dad had brought him. This sparked a

conversation about marbles. Suvir told us about the Marble Run his brother has at home. We decided to make

our own marble run. I asked the children what they thought we could use.

Suvir: Straws

Mishti: Corks

Max: Pool noodle

Tyler: Pipes Nyiko: Toilet rolls.

Kaylin: Let‟s make it on cardboard and turn the cardboard sideways, to make it longer.

Tristan: And stronger.

Suvir: We need something at the bottom to catch the marbles.

Aren: Let‟s start with the white pipe and then decide what‟s next. We can use hazard tape to stick the pipe on.

Mishti: Or masking tape. We need to make it so that the marble runs down and doesn‟t get stuck. Arran: I will be the one that puts the marble in and tests it!

When we can see that there is a problem and the corks are not directing the marble as we had hoped, Rungano

suddenly said: “I have an idea! Instead of the corks let‟s use another pipe so that the marble doesn‟t jump out

and over, like it did with the corks.”

The great thing about building our own Marble Run was that there was opportunity for trial-and-error,

therefore problem solving was required. We tried many different combinations. It is a complex construction

activity that is fun as well as an effective way to achieve a variety of goals.

Teacher Tanya and Nathi

Stage 4 – Children Engineered Marble Run

20 September

Coffee Morning 08:00 - An overview of Tools for having ‘The Talks’

Stage 3 Mornings of Song & Dance - Penny

Stage 3 Mornings of Song & Dance - Astrid

Parent Interviews 14:00 to 18:00 – By Invitation Only

Stage 5M‟s provocation is „Big and Small‟ so we took a closer look at hippopotamuses.

Our letter that week was „h‟ so it was the perfect opportunity to investigate this creature. We decided to draw

huge hippos. I took large sheets of paper and attached them to our exterior walls. This was something different

for the children to do and upright drawing is very beneficial to their development. Did you know drawing on a

vertical surface helps elbow and shoulder stability? The large movements encourage strength and stability for

the arms and shoulders. Bilateral coordination and mid-line crossing is improved as the surface is so large the

children have to use both their hands to stabilise themselves and their page.

Working on an upright surface brings the work closer to the children's eyes which helps the child to focus and

develops their hand eye coordination. Core strength and spatial awareness is improved as the children are

stretching to reach across the huge page.

You are welcome to pop into our class (Room 33) to see these huge pieces of work and I'm sure you will agree

we certainly do have some very talented children in our class. I find the children always want to share their new

found knowledge so I taught them a factual song about Hippopotamuses too.

Teacher Annie & Precious

Stage 5 – The Huge Hippopotamus

DATES TO DIARISE

23 September

08:30 Heritage Day/Grandparents‟ Day – End of Term 3 –School Closes 11:30

NEWSLETTER | 08 September 2016 | VOLUME 1:16

13 September

14 September

12 September