Only one more sleep till the concert. A reminder for a children to be in their costumes and ready to go by 5:30. It is also a good idea to get their early for parking. Please check the attached map for places to park.
Yesterday, we had some discussions in small groups about puberty and sex. The groups were fantastic and it was a great opportunity for the children’s peers to share the knowledge they have and ask questions in a safe group. We will be continuing this on Wednesday 25th November and will be raising the subject of protective behaviours.
Next week we will start planning Mowbray Park. Please let me know which parents are coming so that I can start getting prices together. I also need to know about dietary requirements for children and adults also.
See you all tomorrow at Tamborine Bay
From Olivia
Posted November 12th, 2009
in Olivia's Class
by oliviam
Hello Everyone
This is a very busy week with the concert on Friday and Information Morning yesterday. We will be going to Tambourine Bay by car to practise for the concert on Friday morning, leaving at 9.45 am and returning at about 10.45 am. Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to drive children there. Please sign the permission note on the day.
The concert is at 6.00pm on Friday night. Please get there by 5.30 pm as we will start at 6.00 pm sharp. Parents are responsible for their children before and after the performance.
This week we have been germinating more seeds, looking at Van Gogh’s paintings and drawing trees. The children have also been writing stories and then acting them out. This is based on the work by an American Kindergarten teacher called Vivienne Gussin Paley. This has generated more stories and discussion about stories. Come and read them, they are on the wall in the dress-up area.
By the end of this week each child should have brought home an invitation to the Preschool Afternoon Tea on Thursday 26th November from 1.30 – 2.30 pm. If you have not received your invitation please speak to one of the teachers. The Afternoon Tea is to thank everyone for bringing their children to preschool all year. The children set up preschool to look like a cafe and make and serve the food and drinks. Only after everyone has been served do they have their own afternoon tea. This is valuable experience in delayed gratification and serving others! We really appreciate parents cooperating with us and encouraging their child to be patient about partaking of afternoon tea.
The Orientation Morning for the children going to Fran’s and for the new preschool families coming to preschool in 2010 will be held on Monday 7th December from 9.30 – 11.00 am. Children who do not attend preschool on a Monday will need to be brought to Fran’s by their parents so they can learn a bit about how Fran’s class works. Please diarise this date.
Preschool hours are 9.00 am – 2.30 pm. We are unable to supervise children before 9.00 am as we set up, write in journals, have meetings and do our planning. If you arrive before 9.00 am you will need to stay with your child until 9.00 am. Thank you for your cooperation in this!!
We have quite a few jobs needing to be done for maintenance -
- Glue the puppet stand together.
- Cut more felt objects for the “Hungry Caterpillar” felt board. We have felt for this.
- Sand and seal the outside boards. This is a take home job.
- Sand and seal/paint the climbing frames.
- Cut more easel paper.
Love from
Sue, Chris and Gabriela.
Posted November 12th, 2009
in Preschool
by sueg
This year, as usual, the weekend after Wendy’s class camp at Jervis Bay, will be a Currambena Community/Reunion Camp on Site 1 Bristol Point. All Currambena families are welcome to come down and stay Friday 4th and Saturday 5th at this beautiful place, sharing a large camping area with other Currambena families, ex-students and friends. You need to bring tents and all camping gear, food and cooking equipment and the cost will be around $10 per person per night depending on the numbers. There is a well maintained amenities block with hot showers and toilets etc and the beautiful white sand of Jervis Bay is a short stroll away through the bush. Please speak to Wendy if you are interested.
Posted November 12th, 2009
in General
by wendyp
Concert practice is top of this week’s agenda and we are all hoping Friday 13th turns out to be lucky for all performers and plays! A warm and sunny evening, with a spectacular sunset would be great too, if anyone knows where to send the order! Special thanks to the parents who have offered to drive us down to Tambourine Bay today for a dress rehearsal on site.
REMEMBER: On Friday evening, be at the park by 5:45 in full costume with all props in hand. Bring picnic rugs, food and drinks and take ALL RUBBISH away with you. Better still, don’t make any!! Please be very quiet during performances and make sure all audience behaviour is appropriately respectful towards the performers who have been writing and practising the plays for weeks and weeks!
Yesterday we said goodbye to our two art students from UNSW, Emma and Vanessa. They have done some great lessons with the class and have been a great help with our props. They both said how very much they enjoyed their prac here and appreciated the friendliness and enthusiasm of the children. That’s always good to hear!
I would like to have a meeting about CAMP AT JERVIS BAY next Tuesday afternoon at 4pm. Please come along to discuss this adventure and help with planning. The weekend after the class camp, from Friday night 4th December til Sunday 6th, has been booked as usual for a Currambena Community/reunion camp and several families have expressed interest in this. It is open to anyone from Currambena and is a glorious way to spend a weekend! Some of our group may well stay on rather than drive back to Sydney on Friday and others will come down that day to stay for the weekend. Quite a few ex-students and families will also be there.
But first, the concert!! See you on Friday!
Love, Wendy
Posted November 12th, 2009
in Wendy's Class
by wendyp
Hello Currambena!
CONCERT Friday 13 th November. 5.30pm full assembly of all cast members from every class. 6.00pm SHARP silence will be called and the show will begin! Please bring a picnic dinner, a rug or two and possibly some camping lights. Location – Tambourine Bay (see attached map).
Boxes of BEAUTIFUL 2010 CALENDARS are here in the office. It would be really helpful if a couple of parents could set up under the blue umbrella and start selling them. A single calendar is $18.00, two or more are $15.00 each.
RENOVATIONS
Our bathroom is coming along beautifully. We had a couple of anxious days putting various innovative barricades up across the door way to keep out inquisitive feet!!! I was in a quandary as to whether I should warn the kids or not. Warning them that stepping on the floor tiles before they are dry will move them out of position could possibly be an irresistible temptation to prove me wrong or oops…… she was right!!@$
THANK-YOU
If you have not been up to our library recently please pop in. Kerrie and her helpers are doing a wonderful job with beautiful mural paintings on the walls around the verandah and lots of enticing books on display. Thank-you, thank-you all you creative library people.
RESIDENCY STATUS
A newly added requirement for our census which is linked to our funding is the residency status of every student. I have put a template on the back of the newsletter which I would really appreciate if you could fill it in and return it to the office
REMINDER
All fees for school and CASP are due Thursday 12 th November. If you are being challenged by this deadline please speak to me now.
With love,
Julianna
Posted November 5th, 2009
in Coordinator
by juliannam
Posted November 5th, 2009
in Photo of the week
by Newsletter
Hello Everyone
This week has been taken up with concert practices, prop making, water colour painting and practising new found and proudly acquired climbing skills. We have also been discussing what costumes the children would like to wear. Please ask your child what they have decided on or come and ask us. We have a list the children’s decisions in preschool. Some children want to wear dress-ups or ordinary clothes from home, others want to borrow preschool dress-up clothes and there are some who want to make costumes with their parents.
In preschool we want the concert to be a joyful experience for all of us, so we do not make children perform if they are uncomfortable with this. We all practice together daily so that all the children are familiar with the performance, but on the night your child may choose to watch. This is absolutely okay with us.
We are planning a concert rehearsal on the morning of Friday 13th November. We plan to leave preschool at 9.45am and return by about 10.45am. We will need drivers to take the children who are in preschool on a Friday down to Tambourine Bay. Each child needs a rear seat with a seat belt. If you can help come and put your name down on the list outside preschool.
We need all the other children to attend this rehearsal so that they are familiar with the environment and procedure. Please meet us at Tambourine Bay at 10.00am. Please be aware that there is water at Tambourine Bay and everyone attending with their child or driving other children to the practice needs to be responsible for the children in their care.
The concert is on at Tambourine Bay Friday 13th November at 6.00pm sharp. Julianna has put a map of the location in the newsletter. We need everyone to be there at 5.30pm with their child dressed in their costume, picnic rugs, dinner, chairs for older people and camp lights. For the concert to be fun for everyone we need everyone to do the following-
- No little children on stage during other performances.
- Respect the hard work of the kids and do not talk during performances.
- Take home all your rubbish at the end of the evening.
- There will be a visual barrier up behind the stage to show where the water begins at Tambourine Bay is, but this is not a physical barrier. You need to be aware of your children’s whereabouts at all times.
- All parents are responsible for their own children before and after the performance.
There will be a rubbish-free day each Wednesday. This has been organised by Wendy’s kids following their success in reducing our rubbish on the rubbish-free day held last term. So on Wednesdays please send lunch using as few wrappings (cling film, tin foil, ziplockbags, wrappers), disposable containers and commercially prepackaged foods as possible. Please decant things into re-usable containers labelled with your child’s name. Thanks!!
We have gorgeous Currambena Calendars for sale – $30.00 for two or $18.00 for one. See Julianna to buy some as Christmas/end-of-year presents!!
Lastly, thanks for the boxes, Christine. Thanks to everyone who does all our washing week in and week out, we really appreciate it!
Love from
Sue, Chris and Gabriela.
Posted November 5th, 2009
in Preschool
by sueg
Building the Education Revolution
Commonwealth funded
Primary School in the 21st Century (PS21)
National School Pride (NSP)
Hi Everyone,
We have spoken with the architects and they have proposed some design modifications to the new classroom. The biggest changes are a simplification of the roof line, a change to the internal ceiling structure and an overall reduction in the building size. These changes should make us some significant cost savings which will begin to bring us closer to our budget. In addition there are changes to the materials that will be used and some of the detailed finishes. Once the changes have been drawn up we will pin the sketches on the notice board.
We will be meeting with Lane Cove Council tomorrow to discuss the changes and find out how long it might take to have them approved through council. But at this stage the architects are anticipating starting on site next year. This is a delay of about 4 months – it will take completion to mid way through next year.
Jess (jkimber01@bigpond.com or 0411220111)
Posted November 5th, 2009
in Building the Education Revolution
by juliannam
Wendy has summarised creativity, play and resilience wonderfully in response to an article in the SMH last Wednesday .
In preschool we provide for large tracts of time for free choice so that preschool children can play the games they choose. This is essential as they make sense of the world through play. Lots of time to play results in deep and satisfying play. The children test themselves in many areas when they play – physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively.
Our preschool children are extremely fortunate in having the whole, rich and ever-changing playground and all the materials within it to use to develop physical confidence, inspire their imaginations and form complex social groupings. They are also fortunate to have older children and adults to play with, plan with and help them make the resources they need for play.
We believe that even very young children need to take appropriate risks to develop their bodies, their spirits and their resilience. This lays the foundation for healthy risk-taking in the teenage and adult years. We believe that bumps, bruises and scratches are part of learning. They set up a store of resilience and rationality for later life, when the challenges have a huge impact.
Posted November 5th, 2009
in Currambena Chatter
by sueg
Responses from Wendy and Sue to article from Sydney Morning Herald (Wed Oct 28th)
Are children actually less resilient these days, as one school principal quoted in this article asserts? I don’t think Currambena kids are!
Maybe those “cotton wool kids” who are never allowed to climb trees or run across hard surfaces or use a real knife when cooking or a hammer in craft… maybe they cannot help being less resilient, having had no opportunities to discover for themselves that falling hurts and metal tools can be dangerous as well as useful.
When children are permitted to participate in the real world, choose their own challenges and learn from their own efforts, whether successful or otherwise, they learn that it is very important to think ahead. What are the risks here? What are the safety issues I need to consider to keep myself and those around me safe?
They learn that it is OK to make mistakes and have accidents because most of these are wonderful learning opportunities! If they are NOT making mistakes, it usually means that are not courageously trying new things but taking soft and familiar options which will ensure they are not challenged physically, intellectually, socially or emotionally.
It also means they will not have the chance to develop the skills to pick themselves up after an accident or mistake and have another go!
And that’s what resilience is all about.
Posted November 5th, 2009
in Currambena Chatter
by wendyp
