2020 Newsletter Term 04 | Issue 04 – Farmhouse Montessori School

DECEMBER

Monday 7-9 – Primary – Stage Three school Camp
Thursday 10th – Primary Campus End of Year Concert 1.00pm-2.15pm – held via Zoom
Thursday 10th – Preschool – Last day of Term 4 – closes 3pm
Thursday 10th – Primary Campus – Last day of Term 4 – closes 3pm
Friday 11th – Both Campuses – Closed- Staff Development Day

JANUARY

Tues 26th – Australia Day
Wed 27th – Staff Development Day
Thurs 28th -Staff Development Day
Thurs 28th – Preschool NEW Student & Parent Orientation Morning
Thurs 28th – Preschool NEW Parent Orientation Evening – Via Zoom 7pm
Fri 29th – All Students Return

Click HERE to see further calendar dates.

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that everyone is doing well, looking forward to the break and staying healthy and safe.

2020 has been a testing year. It has been a year where we have needed to pull together, to work as a team and truly understand what the word community means.

As a school, our focus has been and always will be the well-being and education of the children in our care. We take this responsibility very seriously. 2020 was a year that forced us to think outside the box, to react to situations and attempt to predict the unknown. I think you’ll agree that our dedicated team did an amazing job in maintaining the standards our school is known for, regardless of the situation ahead of them. I would like to publicly acknowledge their dedication, determination and passion throughout this turbulent year. Thank you.

It is also important to note that the support of the community, the voice of the parents, help from our class parents and our board, all contribute to allow us to deliver the best education possible for every child in our school. We appreciate you!

As the year comes to an end, I feel grateful that we have each other to rely on. If we can get through a year like this, we can achieve anything. I love the way our community is so close, we support each other, we listen and we genuinely care for each other, and this is reflected in the behaviour of your children. They genuinely care for one another and it is this which is the real measure of success. We are collectively raising wonderful human beings and this is exactly what the world needs right now.

This year saw our school reach an amazing milestone. After 28 years in operation, our first graduates will complete their Stage 3 enrolment and take the giant steps off to high school. We are very proud to see these wonderful human beings embark on the next steps of their educational journey, they will indeed do amazing things. Congratulations to Leo and Jess!

Have a wonderful break, thank you for your support. Be safe and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2021.

– Gavin McCormack

Christmas is one of the many celebrations we celebrate throughout the year, when we discuss Christmas in the classroom we really try to explore the culture of Christmas and what it means to celebrate Christmas as part of our community and families. Inevitably with our age group, this discussion comes back to presents and gifts. Instead of focussing on receiving gifts, we cultivate a discussion about giving and sharing and how this might make people feel.

We have discussed the giving tree and the presents for the children at Dalwood house, we helped Keith pack the food hampers we collected for Rotary and we have spent a lot of time making special gifts for our families. Next week we are baking gingerbread cookies, not to eat, but to share with the other classrooms and children.

The children have been forming deeper connections and understandings about what this season means and how giving can make people feel happy and loved, and after all, isn’t that the real magic of Christmas.

– Corinne, Debbie & Sarah

Thank you for a fantastic year under some very challenging circumstances. The children have grown and we are so proud of what they have achieved this year. We have accomplished so much together with many memorable experiences.

Farewell to our Kindergarten class as they begin new adventures in new learning environments. Also farewell and good luck to Noah, Estelle, Theo, Ailish, Dylan, Freddie and Mary who are leaving us to start school next year. We will miss you all but you are more than ready for new challenges. Farewell to William and Isaac who are moving on from Farmhouse next year, you have many adventures ahead so have fun.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe holidays and a wonderful 2021!

– Amanda & Teresa

The lifecycle of the silkworm is complete.The children have investigated the silkworms from eggs through to caterpillars then cocoons then moths and back to eggs again. Working with concrete materials inspires children to extend their learning. Some of the children began to write and illustrate their own lifecycle of a silkworm book. As the process evolved the children asked lots of questions and resourced their investigation with books from the library. This shows children by nature love to investigate, hypothesis, problem solve and share ideas. The moths are back in the mulberry tree and so the story continues.

– Jenny, Jo & Angela

My little Eco Warriors have done an awesome job of collecting bread tags, old toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes this year the majority of which would have ended up in landfill but now will be recycled. I am so proud of the way they embrace being able to make a difference to their environment as they know that no matter how small you are you can make a difference and they have made a big difference with these collections.

I wanted to thank all of you for your support of our sustainability program which empowers the children, develops an appreciation for the environment and ultimately lays the foundations for environmentally responsible adulthood.

Keep collecting as we will continue these programs next year and maybe even have some new ideas!

Take care of each other. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas break filled with love, laughter and adventures!

– Dawn

The Kindergarten children have been learning about writing letters and different forms of communication. We wrote letters to each other, letters to persuade and letters to nature. This led onto writing letters to friends and family around Australia. We spoke about adding the indigenous country name to our letters. By looking at a map, we pinned on where everyone was sending their letters to. We enjoyed a short local walk and posted our letters. We are looking forward to perhaps receiving letters back!

There has been discussions about what Christmas means to us and how it feels good to give. The children made Christmas biscuits and created a biscuit stall to sell them. The children raised $160 for Dalwood home and we bought presents using the money.

– Elizabeth

These past two weeks have been such a joy with the feeling of summer in the air and the anticipation of holidays.The children are busy preparing their Christmas gifts and cards, practicing for the Christmas concert, enjoying the use of our kitchen classroom, plus all the other project work and curriculum activities that will come to and end in the coming days.

Notably Aikya has engaged in using the Kitchen Classroom. We have explored topics such as the Anatomy of Fish and Other Vertebrates, Sustainability, Recipe Reading and Writing, Where Does our Food Come From, Practical Measurements (in the kitchen) and Healthy Eating. For example, we examined the features of a whole Snapper together, then fillited it to look inside and made use of the fillits by making tasty fish tacos to share. Also, we have developed a signature Aikya Granola exploring different seeds, gluten free grains and dry fruit to mix a delicious healthy breakfast snack.

From this point we look forward to the final days of school for 2020, wrapping up some long awaited projects and enjoying each other’s company at the school Christmas concert.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all from Aikya!

– Harshitha, Toby, Phillipa & Thomas

What a term it has been! The last few weeks have been super busy with many different activities happening in the Yani classroom.

We were so fortunate to have Zali Steggall come and visit us! She is a member of the Australian Parliament who is doing amazing things for the Division of Warringah and our country. She spoke about her role in Parliament, what her thoughts are on democracy, equal rights, and climate change and how we can help.

We also had our very first Year 6 graduates, Leo and Jessica! The year 5’s delivered speeches about our wonderful Year 6’s, with Leo and Jessica giving their own speech about the journey of their school years. They also bought our Stage 3’s gifts for our classroom which we are excited about to use. It was a beautiful ceremony for all involved. We are all so proud of Leo and Jessica and we welcome our new Year 6’s for 2021.

Sadly, we farewell our incredible teacher Philippa who has decided to leave our school and take on new adventures of her own. As a farewell gift she gave to us, she kindly finished a quilt we were all sewing together and is now a cherished material for our class. We wish her all the best and will miss her and all the fun teaching and art and craft she brought to our class.

By the Yani Students

– Laura & Jessica

Dear Families,

Highlights over the last fortnight

Unfortunately, we will not be running vacation care for the upcoming holiday period of December 10th- January 29th. If you do require care, we are operating a Vacation Care program from our Seaforth OSHC Centre which operates from Seaforth Community Centre on Baringa Avenue.

Bookings can be made through our website http://www.primaryoshcare.com.au/vacation-care or by contacting the service directly on 0433 472 776 or soshc@primaryoshcare.com.au.

Community library box update

We are on the home stretch! The children have been busy applying primer and the first top-coat to the box. We learned to paint with the grain of the timber and by giving the primer a light sand afterwards restored the smoothness of the box, and why we shouldn’t overload roller with paint – thank goodness we laid down a dropsheet!

Library box graphic design winner

We are proud and pleased to announce we have a winner for the Library box design competition we ran a few weeks ago. The design won on a number of merits; it is simple yet clever! But most of all it has an element of inclusiveness; every child that participated in this fantastic extended project can put their own mark on it!

Writing letters to Santa

Now that we’ve reached the festive season, “Dear Santa….”has been the prevailing theme of the week with the children busily writing letters to Santa with vigour and in their best handwriting. To give you a heads up, many children have asked Santa for puppy dogs (the real living breathing kind!). The children demonstrated great teamwork in this activity by helping each other with spelling.

The Smith Family Donations

A warm thank you to the families that kindly gifted presents towards the Smith Family Toy and Book Appeal. It has been lovely to see the children getting onboard this worthwhile activity. In addition to contributing nearly all the great gift suggestions hanging on the little tree they have been getting involved in wrapping the presents. The appeal has opened opportunities to have conversations with the children about why there are charities, the importance of them and how we can all do our bit to help.

If you would like more information about Primary OSH Care or our centre and how to enrol, please visit our website www.primaryoshcare.com.au

From Sarah, Ella and all the OSHC staff at Farmhouse Montessori OSHC Centre