2023 Newsletter Term 01 | Issue 03 – Farmhouse Montessori School

MARCH

Mon-Fri 13-17th Harmony Week
Wed-Fri 15-24th Naplan | Primary Campus
Thurs 23rd Primary School Campus Tour: 3.15pm
Fri 24th Naplan | Primary Campus
Fri 24th Ride to School Day
Fri 24th Farmhouse Montessori Open Day 3-4.30pm
Fri 24th Fees Due
Mon-Fri 27-31st Parent Teacher Conference | Aikya & Yani Classes | Primary Campus
Thurs 30th – Jenny’s Farewell 6-8pm

APRIL

Tues 4th – Strategic Planning at North Head 7.00pm – 8.30pm
5th April – Strategic Planning (on-line) 7.00pm – 8.30pm
Thurs 6th Last Day of Term
Fri 7th Good Friday

Click HERE to see further calendar dates.

Dear Farmhouse Montessori Families,

Open Day at North Head Campus Friday 24 March from 3.00pm to 4.30pm. The Montessori Primary experience at North Head is outstanding, and yet, perhaps one of the best kept secrets. In promoting this campus to the wider community, we will be in parallel with the Ride 2School Day with an Open Day at North Head Campus. We welcome North Balgowlah parents to join us at North Head for the after-school experience. We are also reaching out to local Preschools and parents of preschool children in the area.

National Ride2School Day, Friday 24 March

Please join us, and more than 350,000 students across the nation who will ride, walk, scooter and skate to school on Friday 24 March 2023. The purpose of the day is to empower and enable students to get physically active on their journey to school, giving them the opportunity to create healthy habits for their future. Join the bike riders up to North Head in the morning or talk to the other parents and walk, scoot or skate together to school on the day.

We will be celebrating the day in our very own National Ride2School Day Festival from 3.30pm-5.00pm on the Parade Ground next to the Farmhouse Montessori Primary School at North Head. This is a community event: come, join in the activities, lend a helping hand at the different stations – and most of all, have fun with the wider Farmhouse Community. Everyone is welcome. Children, please bring your bikes. There will be a bike skills, tricks, bike maintenance, coffee van and cake stall.

Marketing Farmhouse Montessori. We are in the process of increasing our marketing of Farmhouse Montessori, in particular North Head Campus. Parents who shop at Balgowlah Stockland Mall will soon see images of our school on the large screen on the wall as you use the travelator to the carpark. Over the past week photos and videos have been taken, capturing the Montessori experience of our children and educators in the classroom action. We are in the process of updating our website and developing banners advertising Farmhouse which will be strategically placed in different parts of the community.

Retirement celebrations for Jenny Bensted will take place on Thursday 30 March 6.00pm to 8.00pm at The Steyne Hotel. Please come and join us in celebrating Jenny’s outstanding contribution to education, in particular, Farmhouse Montessori. It will also be a wonderful opportunity for the parent community of both campuses to come together. Joining us will be our new Deputy Principal, Alia Rogers. An invitation has been sent to all parents. To assist catering arrangements, please RSVP to Alli. Thank you, Lara McGuire and the North Balgowlah parent social committee, for your role in preparing for Jenny’s farewell.

NAPLAN for Students in Years 2 and 4 commence Wednesday 15 March. While NAPLAN will provide data to assist an understanding as to the development of each child, it is a snapshot of a child’s capacity, as such, it is important that students do not place undue pressure on themselves.

I am delighted that parents have taken up the opportunity to be part of Parent Observations in the North Head classrooms of Akiya and Yani. These are wonderful opportunities for parents to have a deeper understanding of the teaching and classroom experience of their child.

We welcome Teacher Assistant, Amy Judge to North Head campus. Amy will have a full-time role and will be working with children in Akiya. Sarah will assist students in Yani.

Harmony Week will be celebrated by Farmhouse next week. The rich cultural backgrounds of our students and their families will be celebrated at the North Head campus though conversation, dress, and food. Parents have been invited to join the celebrations to speak of their family heritage and background. We have invited them to bring artifacts including, maps, flags, clothing, books, photos and even a song that represents their culture.

Kind regards,

Bruce Rixon | Principal

In Elouera the children have been very helpful with the window and mirror washing to keep our classroom looking nice and clean. The children feel very accomplished and proud of themselves when they finish their work and it shows they take responsibility for how their classroom is presented.

When the children are window washing they will carry the box with everything they need over to the window and spray the window all over before using the sponge to do any extra scrubbing. They will then use the squeegee to clean the water off the window. When they want to clean the mirror the children know they need to put their apron on and use the small jug to get water from the tap. They are amazing at using two hands to carry the jug and always remember to mop up any spills that might happen along the way. They then use the small brush to dip it into the water and then the soap before scrubbing the mirror. They love watching the bubbles soap up over the mirror and use this as a guide to know where still needs some more scrubbing. The children then use a cloth to dry the mirror. After they have completed their work they put the cloth into the washing basket, pour the water into the sink and hang the apron back up.

Children loved to be involved and included in taking care of their environment and helping others. They are also learning to follow longer sequences and developing their memories as well as their fine motor skills. Thank you for all your hard work Elouera children.

— Nina, Rachel and Yuko.

Working outside gives children the chance to explore the natural environment of our garden and to have adventures. To observe and ask questions helps to develop an appreciation of the world around them.

This week children took the leaf cabinet into the garden to make comparisons between leaf shapes and sizes. They also found some little footprints and some fungi so we investigated who had made the prints and did some tracking of animals that may have visited in the night and researched which type of fungus we had found. Children choose to work together or just spend time alone looking closely at an ant, a flower or a piece of wood. As we all know spending time in nature ultimately makes you feel good!

– Dawn

The children continues to work on language. They have been working with a variety of activities such as three-part cards and they have been building three letter phonetic words and sentences using the Large Moveable Alphabet. Part of this helps the children to identify initial, middle and end sounds.

We also had small language groups to encourage the children to have conversations using a variety of objects. The children have been reading daily and introduced to phonetic books and poems. The children was inspired by the way the poems rhymed and wanted to create their own.

The aim of language activities is to help scaffold the children literacy and critical thinking when reading and speaking.

— Samantha.

Greetings from North Head Sanctuary in Manly!

It’s been a busy two weeks in the Aikya Stage 2. We’ve been heavily engaged with the material and getting through the thick of term one. The students have been very eager to learn more and have been participating in activities with enthusiasm.

We’ve enjoyed the continued sporting program of touch footy held on Fridays. The students have been able to learn the basics of the game and have been able to practice their teamwork and sportsmanship.

We were also lucky enough to have gone on a guided bush walk through the surrounding bushland, hosted by the volunteers of North Head Sanctuary. We focused on native animals and their habitats, and the students were able to gain a better understanding of the natural environment.

We’ve seen some great work produced by the students recently in relation to our three comprehension texts. Harrisons Song, Gorden Mcdonald Partridge and Danny the Champion of the World.

Furthermore, the children were incredibly lucky to receive a visit from the peace-run organisation. During the visit, the organisation discussed the importance of peace in the world and shared their initiative to promote peace around the globe. They shared stories of how they have been spreading peace to many different areas of the world and offered advice on how the children might promote peace within their own lives.

A student-led group project of a bake sale to raise money for Bear Cottage Foundation was also a great success, with over $200 dollars raised by the girls who took part. This is a testament to the Montessori philosophy of encouraging students to be actively involved in their own learning and development. Well done to the girls!

We’ve also enjoyed the continued impressionistic storied held so dearly in the Montessori classroom with The Story of Numbers and the story of How Geometry Got Its Name being of focus this past two weeks.

The students have been able to explore these stories and gain a better understanding of the concepts behind them, creating a great foundation for further learning.

We look forward to the next two weeks and all the wonderful learning opportunities that will come with them!

Thank you,

—Toby, Sarah, Amy & Fiona.

We are excited to share with you the amazing experience our young learners had at Bunnings last week. Gustave, Tyler, Callum, Arjo, and Oscar visited the hardware store to purchase materials for the classroom garden project. They carefully picked out a variety of seeds including basil, lettuce, tomatoes, and many more! The children were delighted to learn about the different types of plants and how to care for them. They were thrilled to put their green thumbs to the test and cannot wait to watch their plants grow. This experience was not only educational but also fun and engaging for our eldest members of the class. We look forward to seeing our classroom garden flourish with the help of these five enthusiastic learners!

The Montessori philosophy emphasizes the importance of going outside the classroom to enhance children’s learning experience. Dr. Maria Montessori believed that children learn best from hands-on experiences that allow them to connect with their natural environment and develop important social skills. Furthermore, outdoor education encourages children’s creativity, independence and fosters their love for learning. In a Montessori school, outdoor activities are integrated into the curriculum to ensure that children appreciate and respect nature while building lifelong connections with the world around them. This philosophy is a core theme of the Yani adventure.

— Tom, Nick, Ella & Amy.