2022 Newsletter Term 04 | Issue 03 – Farmhouse Montessori School

NOVEMBER

Mon 14th & 15th – Transition to School Conferences: Jenny
Wed 23rd – Primary Campus: Orientation Night – New & Transitioning 2023 – 6-8pm
Fri 25th – Fees Due
30th November – Grandparent Day – Primary campus- 9am -10am

DECEMBER

Wed 7th – Parent & Staff Festive Drinks – Ruby Lane – 5.30-9.30pm
Thurs 8th – Last Day Of Term: Both Campuses
Thurs 8th – Primary End Year Picnic & Graduation Ceremony : 12.30pm
Thurs 8th – Preschool Picnic – 12pm
Thurs 8th – Primary hours: 9.00am-3pm
Thurs 8th – Preschool hours: 8.30am – (12.30pm Picnic) 3.15 close
Fri 9th – Staff Development Day

Click HERE to see further calendar dates.

Dear Farmhouse Montessori Families,

Retirement of Jenny Bensted After many years of devoted service to the School, Jenny Bensted has made the difficult decision to retire in 2023. Her last day will be Friday 3^rd March 2023.

Jenny has been a stalwart of the Farmhouse School. Her contribution to Farmhouse Montessori education, particularly at North Balgowlah has been significant. Jenny will be sorely missed.

We will have an opportunity to celebrate Jenny’s contribution closer to her date of retirement.

Information surrounding a replacement for Jenny and other leadership roles at North Balgowlah will be forthcoming in the near future.

North Head Campus Orientation Evening for 2023 will be held on Wednesday 23^rd November from 6pm-8pm. It will also be a good opportunity for current and future families to hear of the Montessori educational philosophy. Invitations have been sent to existing families asking them to reach out to families and friends who may be interested in knowing more of Farmhouse Montessori education.

Grandparents Day at North Head is on Wednesday 30^th November from 9.00am to 10.00am The opportunity for our Grandparents to enjoy seeing their grandchildren engaged in their class activities is special and I look forward to welcoming you into the classroom on this special occasion.

The Farmhouse bus service is going full steam ahead. The aim is to support parents in the busyness of their lives with a morning and afternoon pick up and drop off at the North Balgowlah shops.

End of Year Celebrations for both Campuses Thursday 8^th December is the last school day for 2022. Each campus will hold special events. North Head Campus will have a picnic will commence at 12.30 pm on the grassy hill beside Aikya, followed by the Year 6 Graduation Ceremony at 1.45 pm. An art gallery will be set up by Aikya and Yani in the playground.

North Balgowlah Campus will have a picnic commencing at 12.00pm. Details for these events will be provided to parents over the coming days.

The split timing will enable able families with children on both campuses to attend both events.

End of Year Social Wednesday 7^th December 5.30pm to 9.30pm at Ruby Lane

As we draw to the close of 2022 it is appropriate that we have the opportunity to come together as a community. Phil and Kate Dawson have generously offered to open their Restaurant, Ruby Lane. All parents and staff are warmly welcomed. This will be a non-children event. Parents are asked to bring a plate and beverage. I look forward to seeing you and sharing in the spirit of the Christmas festive season.

Cake-bake for Bear Cottage. I delighted and proud that a number of students from Akyia engaged in a cake-bake sale to raise monies for the most worthy of causes, Bear College. They raised $187 for Bear Cottage. Thank you and congratulations to all Akyia students.

Parent / Teacher interviews have been held of the past two weeks. These are such an important opportunity for parents to connect with teachers on the development of their child. I value and appreciate teachers and parent engagement in the process. Please feel free to contact teachers, or me if you need to clarify of any aspect of your child’s education.

Open day: I was delighted with the attendance at the recent Open Day at North Head, held 5^th November. It was wonderful to have so many students from North Head, North Balgowlah, as well as a number of new families, join in the classroom activities. A special thank you to our staff, class parents (Faye, Jessie and Jenny) and parents who helped in numerous ways to prepare for the day and to Harshitha, Toby, and Suzanne for their huge effort on the day. We will

OSH Friday: Currently Seaforth OOSH is not offered to North Head students each Friday. With the implementation of the new intercampus bus service I have made arrangements to have Seaforth OOSH available to our students. Parents of students using Seaforth OOSH will be notified of this change.

This week we welcome back Samantha Wong to the North Balgowlah campus. This term Samantha will be here two days per week and in 2023 she will be fulltime.

Bruce Rixon | Interim Principal

This past term the children have been exploring the concepts of float and sink in their independent work. We hold each object and guess whether it will float or sink. This is a fun one for the bath or water play outside! Think about your language as your work with your child – “hmm do you think the car will sink or float?” “I can see it is floating on the surface of the water” “it has sunk to the bottom” Sink, float, surface, bottom – all form the beginnings of positional mathematic and scientific language. In Elouera the children are beginning to organize their scientific and mathematic language and understanding. You can see them beginning to hypothesize and predict what the objects will do in the water. Consolidating learning at group time is a good opportunity for us as educators to gain insight into what learning the children have absorbed.

— Corinne, Nina & Rachel.

What is Remembrance Day?
This week in Burbangana we paused to think about and discuss what Remembrance Day means. Why do we wear poppies? The reason poppies are used to remember those who have given their lives in battle is because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after World War One ended.
We read a story book ‘Digger- the dog who went to war and the children created a poppy which is a symbol associated with Remembrance Day. At 11am on Friday the 11th of November all of the preschool children paused and stood quietly to listen to the last post.

— Helen, Teresa & Claire

We had a visit from a local wildlife lady who brought in many bush animals for us to see and learn about. We learnt that an animal home is called a habitat and it can be a pile of leaves, a log, a nest or be made of other materials.

After speaking about habitats, the children went into the garden and collected different natural materials. We then spoke about insects and minibeasts that we could make a habitat for. The children loved making tiny beds, living rooms and gardens for the insects, including worms, ladybirds, ants and slugs.

— Catalina, Elizabeth, Jo and Angela.

Children have a natural affinity with and are curious about animals. Before our incursion this week there was lots of guessing as to which animals we would meet. Children researched native bush animals, drew pictures and wrote the names of the animals they guessed. When they arrived everyone was very excited to see what would come out of the cages next. They wanted to learn more, touch the animals skin and share their own knowledge. There has been lots of talk of habitats, marsupials, camouflage and nocturnal animals. These incursions feed a child’s curious mind and hopefully establish long lasting respect for the world around them and the beautiful creatures we share it with.

– Dawn

This fortnight has been a full one. The main feature has been the inaugural receiving of new children to our little community as they transition from Stage One learning environments. Furthermore, our senior students continue their development journey and begin their transition into the Stage Three environment. It has been a proud moment for our whole class as a whole, and an exciting time also to welcome our new families and children into the classroom.

Maria Montessori described that children develop from birth to adulthood within a flexible chronological pattern. We are the first half of the second plane and exhibit characteristics and behaviours towards attaining independence. Each plane has a peak and recedes as a transition approaches the next stage. The so-called “constructive rhythm of life”.

Our Stage Two classroom is the first half of the Second Plane of Development (childhood: 6-12) and features vital characteristics. For example, the second plane will be the development of intellectual independence and features the growth in conscious social engagement with a powerful exploration of moral reasoning and social rules.

We welcome our new families to the community and congratulate our senior students beginning their transitions.

While many of our community find joy in thinking of others, we would also like to congratulate some of our students on a successful bake sale to raise money for Bear Cottage. A genuinely thoughtful act and demonstration of learnt skills within our classroom.

Until next time.
— Toby, Harshitha and Sarah

This week in Yani we delved deeper into the concept of decimals and multiplication using the decimal chequerboard. This material builds on what students already know about the normal chequerboard. The process was super engaging and challenging for our younger students, who are now able to use the materials to solve decimal multiplication in their millionths!

Yani has also been busy working away at some passion projects in the afternoons. These projects aim to teach students how to research and allow them to practise their public speaking and presenting skills. Last week we had an interesting presentation on Toy Cavoodles by Remy and Byron.

Lastly, we feature one of our cosmic lessons from this week. The students explored pollinators and were provided with rich resource literature to guide them in creating their own booklets on pollinating flowers. The care the students took in their illustrations is exquisite. We anticipate these booklets to be finished up this week.

— Thomas, Nick, Amy & Ella Lee