Conn

ect-

Crea

te-

Com

mun

icat

e Child Side Update Term 1 Feb Important Dates

Please check whiteboard outside the middle YAC building, the closed Child Side Community for updates. See Larissa.

Wednesdays Early Close 2pm for Staff dialogues and family LTDs: Please see Karron to book a time for an LTD (learning team debriefs- staff, family, child) if required.

Friday 1 March is a School Development day for Staff so family time for children at home. Monday 4 th

March is a long week end so that children get a mini break mid-term and time to refresh now they have all settled in and hopefully get over the summer colds and flu that have been going around.

Summer Reminder: Please remind ALL ages DAILY to bring and/or keep a labelled hat at school. Often children leave hats and water bottles in the car. Shoulders need to be covered for BOTH genders.

A spare set of clothes is also essential for the Early Childhood Cluster ECC as our work is messy.

Thanks for washing the kitchen and hand towels and keeping eh HUB tidy. Restoring it after enterprise was greatly appreciated!

Please be aware of snakes, including baby ones which look like sticks, as they have been seen around school. Closed shoes are essential and please stick to the pathways, STORY PARK SNIPPETS OF LEARNING: Please email lisa@childsideschool.wa.edu.au so that Lisa (YAC Continuity Educator) can set up for 2019 families. Please accept Story Park invitations and notifications on-line for a window into our work. Just a reminder to families NOT to post comments on Story Park. Story Park is a way of engaging families as educational partners by making learning visible and enabling families to start face to face conversations with educators and children. Story Park is not about individual children, but a snippet of what clusters are engaging in. Story Park demonstrates our commitment to active, authentic, applied and arranged learning and to challenging children with academic rigor whilst learning to work outside of their comfort zones developing their personal qualities. Shape of the Day: across all the clusters, the shape of the day incorporates blocks of time shaped fit for purpose. Each cluster has its own version of morning work (called IWT-Independent Work Time in YAC) which focuses on practising literacy and numeracy skills at each child’s own point of need and level. Parents as educational partners ensure that these reverse homework sessions keep children in the ECC and MCC engaged and making progress with increasing fluency, accuracy and growing confidence and competency. Educators set the work and are available to model, explain, demonstrate, stretch or shrink the work and make sure that children are engaged at just their right level. Morning work is routine work with the focus on developing working memory rather than just copying or going through the motions. Each child is responsible to engage with their set work and having an adult there to engage with them one-on-one or small groups supports them to stay on track and have a smooth transition between home and school. Children get to develop working relationships with their own parents and other families. Families get a hands-on window into their child’s work, their learning style, their strengths and how to learn and grow together. MCC and YACs start off their work day with a body boost designed to wake up brains and settle bodies. Families encouraged to join in or find another way to Find Their 30 (activity for the day) such as a walk

.

around the bike track or lake and then join their MCC or YAC for morning work deliberate practice session (see your cluster educators if you are unsure). Even just popping in once a week to play a maths game with your own child or a small group, play a game of TRUGs or quizzing them on their word sorts and spelling is enormously helpful and shows children that adults are interested in their work, and that adults are life long learners too as well as being MKO- More Knowledgeable Others. Even if you don’t work with your own child it helps all children value all adults as part of their education network. BPEA (Big Picture Education Australia) works from the premise that ‘Education is everyone’s business approaching one child at a time in a community of learners”. Morning work and exhibitions build our community purpose and engagement with families becoming part of the journey not just bystanders. We have TRUG sets for home use if families are unable to make it in for Morning work. We have a large variety of maths games too. Please see your cluster educator. We thrive on the vibrant community of engaged families during morning work, games mornings, enterprise afternoons and exhibitions. This is an enormous point of difference of our school. Families matter!

We also welcome parent/family engagement on a Wednesday to help in our World Café and Kitchen Garden. Please see Clair and Leonie.Healthy habits: All Child Side children, staff and families are encouraged to Find your thirty and Move It Australia. https://www.sportaus.gov.au/findyour30https://www.sportaus.gov.au/findyour30#athome Move it Australia Families are encouraged as their children enter the MCC phase of development to connect to a sporting club or regular active activity such as gymnastics, Footy, speed skating, mountain biking, bush/beach walking, orienteering, dancing, tennis, geocaching, soccer, hockey, swimming…