The Bulletin Number 1 www.southernmontessori.sa.edu.au Feb 2019 ~ Leaders among us ~ As you know, Montessori educaon involves cycles of vercally grouped students. We have high expectaons that students will demonstrate leadership in their classrooms and in the playground, especially students in Years 9, 6 and 3, who are the ‘oldies’ in their cycle group. Each year a special program is run for our Year 6 students. Last Thursday the Cycle 3 teachers ran an aſternoon full of interesng acvies. Comments from students included: The best part was learning how to lead; I am looking forward to learning with my buddy; I enjoyed wring my applicaon for Year 6 jobs; I learnt how to be a good buddy. Busy time in our Preschool! Pictures do paint a thousand words.
Transcript
The Bulletin
Number 1 www.southernmontessori.sa.edu.au Feb 2019
~ Leaders among us ~
As you know, Montessori education involves cycles of vertically grouped students. We have high expectations that students will demonstrate leadership in their classrooms and in the playground, especially students in Years 9, 6 and 3, who are the ‘oldies’ in their cycle group.
Each year a special program is run for our Year 6 students. Last Thursday the Cycle 3 teachers ran an afternoon full of interesting activities. Comments from students included: The best part was learning how to lead; I am looking forward to learning with my buddy; I enjoyed writing my application for Year 6 jobs; I learnt how to be a good buddy.
Busy time in our Preschool! Pictures do paint a thousand words.
While many important dates for 2019 are yet to be confirmed (such as camps), we spent time last week pop-ulating our school calendar. You may find it helpful to note the various dates to ensure that you can be pre-sent for all of the important occasions. Click on the School Calendar link on our main page - https://www.southernmontessori.sa.edu.au
Tomorrow evening we are holding our Parent Orientation Evening. This is an important event where you have the opportunity to hear about the classroom learning your children engage with. It starts at 6pm and a crèche is available. You need to let the office know if you need the crèche asap.
Every minute of every school day is precious. Teachers establish classroom routines that maximise learning time and we ask that you respect this by being punctual at the start of each school day. Children should be well prepared to enter classes at 8:50am when the bell sounds. This reminds me that one of Australia’s lead-ing parenting experts, Dr Michael Grose, has written an article titled It’s not okay to be away ... nor to be late to school. I have the article for anyone who would like to read it but I’m sure you will get the gist from the title.
Last week I noticed several parents entering through the gates near the road in their cars. Only staff and delivery vehicles should enter the property. It’s not so much of a concern after hours but I ask that parents not enter the staff car parks or driveway.
It was such a pleasure to be here last week. I took several visitors around the school, including prospective enrolling families and prospective new relief teaching staff. All were quick to notice the culture – the tone – the atmosphere. Every school and every workplace has a unique culture, some very positive, some not so. Ours is priceless! It simply feels great to wander through the rooms and playground. Speaking of which, many of our ‘long-term’ families might not have toured the classrooms for quite some time. Give me a call and I will gladly show you around (including the Middle School).
Over the summer break progress has continued at Kalyra Woodcroft at the site where our Middle School is to be established. We are in constant communication with builders and architects and everything is running according to our plans.
The Parents and Friends group of Southern Montessori School is an amazing collection of people who work to support our students and improve outcomes. It is an open group – inclusive of all. Their first meeting of the year will be held in the staffroom on Monday 11th February at 6pm. Please come along – I am sure you will enjoy the very social nature of this team.
“The children in our schools are free, but that does not mean there is no organisation. Organisation, in fact, is necessary … if the children are to be free to work.” Dr Montessori
Visitors to our school are often surprised by how ordered the classrooms appear and how calm the children are.
Dr Montessori believed that an organized environment supports children to develop internal organisation. More recent research provides strong evidence that order promotes positive development including cognitive growth.
We are privileged in our school to be extremely well resourced. However, this means that teachers need to be very careful about how they prepare their classrooms to ensure that materials are ordered and that children can easily find what they need.
Teachers spent many hours over the summer holidays de-cluttering and beautifying their classrooms. In Week 1 teachers encouraged children to take ownership of their classroom and take pride in looking after it.
When you walk around the school you will also notice that all the internal brickwork has been painted
white making the school look lighter and cleaner. The Preschool has also had a major renovation as
we have purchased new furniture and created a warmer, more homely look. Please feel free to pop
in after school and have a look.
See you tomorrow at the Parent Orientation Evening!
Welcome to another year of Montessori education and what a smooth start it seems to have been. We are looking forward to 2019. I would like to extend a special welcome to all the new families starting Montessori this year. We hope you have all had an enjoyable start and look forward to seeing you around the school.
The Permission for Local Walks form was sent home last week and should have been returned. If you have not yet returned this form please do so immediately. Reception children would have filled this out in their enrolment pack so they did not receive one.
NAPLAN forms also went out last year and a reminder was sent last week. NAPLAN data needs to be submitted to the government this week. Please return these forms if you have not done so already.
SCHOOL CARD FORMS have been forwarded to those eligible for School Card last year. If you think you might be eligible, please lets us know. The first submission date is 8th of March so please have these forms in by that date, although there are later dates in the year.
A reminder that if your child/children are leaving early or arrive late that you must come through the office and sign your children in or out.
We look forward to seeing you all throughout the year
Kind regards,
Danielle and Janine
Information and Workshops from the Community
Kids Yoga/Relaxation – Wednesday 6th February – Wednesday 13th March 3.30pm-4.30pm. Hackham Com-munity Centre. 72 Collins Parade, Hackham. Ages 8-12. Bookings 8186 6944.
Women’s Group – Community Driven Women’s Group. Tuesday’s from the 5th of February. 12.30-1.30pm. Hack-ham Community Centre. 72 Collins Parade, Hackham. Free, call 8186 6944 for bookings.
Parents and Friends
DO YOU WANT TO GET INVOLVED AT SCHOOL?
DO YOU WANT TO MEET NEW PEOPLE?
DO YOU WANT TO HAVE FUN?
Southern Montessori is fortunate to have a very successful and well supported P&F or Parents and Friends committee. Its aim is 2 fold – to encourage the close community spirit that is enjoyed here at SMS through fun social events where students, parents & staff can get together and also arranging various fundraising activities so that we can contribute back to the students & their learning environment.
Members of the P&F are everyday mums & dads who are interested in and enjoy being a part of their children’s school life. Meeting catch-ups are arranged to plan activities for the year, discuss topics of interest to our families and look at items to spend any funds we raise on. These meetings are quite infor-mal with lots of laughter and are a great place to make some new friends. Not all our members get to come along to those meetings because times don’t suit everyone but you still get to keep in touch with everything that is going on through emails and updates and of course, you can join in and volunteer at any of the events.
Some of these events are the Family Picnic Nights, School Disco, Inflatable World, Casual Day Bbqs, helping out at our Sports Days & our huge School Fete – all lots of fun & very rewarding when you see how much the children enjoy it all and the great support we receive from all our families.
There are many benefits that come from being a part of the P&F – you become a real part of the school community – you get to know people better including all the staff, keep your finger on the pulse as it were so that you know what’s going on, what’s coming up, what’s being planned and your children see you as part of their education and that you value it highly.
Sounds awesome doesn’t it? Would you like to know more?
Please come along to our first catch-up for 2019 on Monday February 11th at 6.30pm in the school staff room. It’s a great time to get involved as we chat about what fun things we can get up to this year over drinks & nibbles. Don’t be shy – and if you are, feel free to bring a friend. We would love to see you.
If you can’t make that time and would still like to be involved please email me at:
Top five strategies to improve your parenting this year – from Parenting Ideas
The start of the year is a great time for making changes and improvements to the way you raise kids. But it's difficult to know where to begin. To assist with the change process we've carefully selected five practical strategies that will have a positive impact if acted upon. We've organised webinars in the first half of the year to assist you to implement each strategy. 1. Switch on your child’s strengths
Most of us have been conditioned to focus on what kids can’t do. There is a better way. The Positive Psychology movement lead by US-based psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman showed that when we can unearth kids’ strengths we are, in effect, unlocking their true potential for success and happiness. Three elements come together to make a strength and parents need to be mindful of all three: performance (being good at something); energy (feeling good doing it); and high use (choosing to do it). 2. Balance kids’ extra-curriculum activities
Alongside social media and news events, being busy is now recognised as a major stressor for many children and young people. The choice of activities to keep kids busy after school hours is mind-boggling. Having so many options is wonderful but it does place a new set of pressures on parents and kids. The cost of loading kids up with scheduled activities is that many don’t get the chance for free play, or simply ‘vegging out’ on the couch. 3. Focus on friendships
Friendships are an important part of the road to adulthood for a child or young person. Friendships can also be problematic. Not every child is naturally outgoing and makes friends easily. If your child has difficulty forming friendships and is worried by that, then there are many ways to approach this including: encouraging kids to spend one-on-one time with others, making extra-curricular activities fit their interests, and coaching kids to develop friendly behaviours. 4. Give kids tools to manage anxious moments
Currently we have a childhood anxiety problem. A big one! And it’s mostly undetected as community understanding of anxiety is low. It’s our experience at Parenting Ideas that many parents are anxious and they don’t know it, and many children routinely experience anxiety, which goes unrecognised. 5. Develop rights of passage
Community changes have largely eradicated many traditional rights of passage, making it harder for a young person to know when they’ve become an adult. Fortunately, many families are now creating their own to mark events such as the end of primary school, the move into the teenage years, and mark different stages of adolescence. These traditions are now becoming legitimate rights of passage for young people. Change and improvement in anything worthwhile generally comes incrementally rather than in one giant leap. We've pointed you in the right parenting to take this year. With our webinars we’ve made it easy to take that vital first step. Have a great parenting year.
