My first official article for the Helena River newsletter! Thanks to all those who have made me feel welcome as I get the lay of the land and work out which way is up. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful colleagues all committed and striving to deliver the best of themselves for your children. There is a lot to take in and it has been lovely to get to know some of you already.
I’d like to talk about a couple of things. Firstly, please ensure your child is coming to school on time. Rhythm and routine is paramount to a child’s sense of predictability, safety and calm. It can be very unsettling for the children already in class and the teacher if children enter the class late. Secondly I’d like to draw your attention to an article that I came across wherein technology was discussed and its impact on young (and older) minds.
It was written by Teresa Siqueria who wrote about the idea of a digital detox, something I am sure we can all benefit from. I know sitting behind a screen all day at work is not ideal, so the one thing I do when I get home, is go for a lovely long walk to counter the effects of staring at a screen. Being in nature is such a wonderful antidote for all things tech driven these days.
Within the article Siqueira talks about disconnecting from T.V, smartphones, video games and social media. The following negative impacts can be observed when we overload ourselves with screens:
Lower stress threshold
Reduces creativity
Technology encourages instant gratification and prevents us from having the patience needed for the more profound thinking skills associated with creativity
Negatively impacts human to human relationships (we concentrate less, listen less, attend less)
Impaired social intelligence: Spending too much time in front of a screen interferes with our ability to learn from successes, failures, and the people around us
Technology is constantly pulling us in multiple directions at once
Disrupts sleeping habits: The blue light screens emit has been proven to disrupt the circadian rhythms that help us sleep at night
What then, I hear you ask, are we supposed to do? Well, there is quite a lot we can do - including a digital detox as part of our self-care routine. The important part is that we give our brains a break from all that incessant information and the flickering lights which physically, our brains can only take in small amounts. By switching off we will open ourselves up to being more creative, having more energy and productivity.
We can:
Read a book
Go for walks/hikes
Have boardgame nights
Have ‘jam’ nights
Take up a craft (knitting/crochet)
Draw
Write
Bake (learn new recipes)
Start small and build it up over time. Start with one evening a week and build on it. I have recently started walking my dog WITHOUT my phone on me for example. I am much more attuned to nature and my brain is not going a hundred miles an hour incessantly making lists of who I can call while walking or any other jobs I can create on my 'notes to self' app. I am present with my dog and I love it. It almost feels rebellious!
When you unplug, you may notice "how much fuller your heart will feel.”
11.30am: Arrive, Craft activities
12.15pm: Welcome to our festival
12.20pm: Picnic lunch
1.00pm: Walk along river singing the Djeran song
1.30pm: Home time
Please bring:
A picnic lunch for your family
Water bottles for everyone
Picnic rug or chairs for your family
Please note: There is no school before or after the festival. Parents must remain with their children at all times.
DIARY DATES
Monday 27 - Friday 31 March - Class 9/10 camp
Friday 31 March - Early Childhood Easter Celebration, Hazelmere, (5.00 - 6.30pm)
Wednesday 5 April - High School Easter in Djeran Festival (last day of Term 1 for High School)
Thursday 6 April - Primary School Easter in Djeran Festival (last day of Term 1 for Primary School)
Our High School Gardening program is a great way to encourage the students to engage with the earth and plants, and apply their collaboration and communication skills in group work as well as build their ecology and regeneration knowledge.
This term the Class 9/10s have been creating a garden diorama. It has been a challenging activity with hot temperatures, burning sun, dry soil and clay hampering efforts. The task was to design the planting of one of the front garden beds, which has a triangular border of logs. Each group was required to suggest suitable plants, features and materials that would reflect the original ecosystem of the land on which we work and play.
Class 9 and 10 students patiently pieced together their designs, using different materials and natural objects. We look forward to seeing the results of their creative endeavours emerging from the earth.
Tess Kershaw Class 7/8 guardian & English/HASS
FRENCH
Class 1
When the children see me walking through the school, they always say Bonjour to me with a big smile on their face. I am happily surprised how confident they are after just a few weeks of learning. Bravo Class 1!
Class 2/3
The children are now familiar with the classroom routine and activities. They have been busy starting their ABC of food. Through this process, they discover similarities and differences between the French and English alphabet, but also some of the most famous French specialties.
Class 4
In February, as the children were coming back to school, it was a good time to learn useful French vocabulary relating to school supplies, verbs about schooling as well as common phrases used in a classroom context. They did some fun activities to support their learning, and all did very well!
Class 5/6
It has been a pleasure to welcome new children and to see last year's students now in their final year of primary school. The goal this term was for students to be able to write and maintain a small conversation in French. The students learnt about the French alphabet - the accents, the sounds and they also discovered some popular informal French expressions involving food. Of course! Feel free to ask them what it means in French to ‘have the peach’ or ‘the potato’.
Class 7/8
It was a privilege at the beginning of the year to welcome the students from the Primary School into a High School setting. In every lesson, the students are encouraged to speak, listen, read, and write in French. They are learning to interact in French with the teacher and each other. They are already able to maintain a basic conversation in French related to their personal world and they have learnt how to tell someone the time.
Class 9/10
This term, the students learnt to describe someone’s appearance, talk about someone’s personality and express their opinions. As part of their writing assignment and to enhance their creativity, they were asked to create a ‘wanted’ poster in French.
Eurythmy, an art of life and sound in movement, will sprout and grow between us through a mix of guided and exploratory movements inspired by the starry heavens above. The Zodiac gestures inform the consonants of speech and all aspects of our formed, built world - which in turn turns around to also inform us, our structures, our interactions, our health, and our sense of place and time.
You're warmly invited to join my next round of Adult Eurythmy Classes, with those twinkling stars and a medley of poets as our muse.
Monday mornings - 9.30 to 11am
May 29th to June 19th (4 classes)
Saint Paul's Hall, Beaconsfield.
$100 total, or other arrangements by conversation
Edstart is an organisation which provides families with flexible payment plans to help them manage their education costs. They have payment plans designed to fit around family budgets.
