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A very big Thank you to all those ELC families who braved the cold to join with Holy Family ELC for our Parent Information evening last Thursday, led by the team from the Leading Lights Clinic. It was a great evening – and very informative.
One of the key learnings I took away from the evening was an infographic about children’s behaviour shared with us by Lauren, their Positive Behaviour Specialist. This was a great reminder that when we see big behaviours from children, these are just the tip of the iceberg and the key to effectively supporting our children at these times is to try to identify what lies beneath. All the usual things – like are they hungry, over tired, getting sick - but also trying to connect with our child and (once they are calm ?!!!) seeing if we can find out the emotion behind the meltdown. I have heard another Parenting Expert – Justin Coulson describe this as ‘Get curious, not furious’.
It was also great to be reminded of the importance of good nutrition for children (and grown-ups too) for supporting their mood and well being. Vanessa spoke about the importance of protein in every meal – eggs, meat, fish, legumes, chia seeds, dairy, tofu– and providing children with plenty of fruit and vegetables (two fistfuls of fruit, and five fistfuls of vegies each day). She also encouraged us to let children help make choices regarding the kinds of fruit and vegies we buy and give them lots of opportunities to try a range of different fruit and veg, to discover the ones they enjoy most.
Pyjama Day
Thank you everyone for showing your support for our Principal Erin Marmont, as she joined the CEO Sleepout. Erin has raised nearly $6000 dollars to support those experiencing homelessness in Canberra. She also endured a particularly frosty evening on the sleep out – with the chilliest overnight temperatures of the year!!
This is such an important local cause to get behind – with many in the Canberra community impacted by homelessness. I was having a look at the Vinnies website and found the following information on homelessness in our community:
Some 2407 people experienced homelessness for at least a month in the previous year (2024), with 1082 people in Canberra experiencing persistent homelessness.
It was lovely to have all our students join the effort and come along to school in their PJs to support Mrs Marmont and the other Principals involved in the sleepout. We were snug and warm in our Pj’s despite the chilly weather outside!
Learning Summaries
Next week we will send home students Learning Summaries from Semester One. Your children will be given these to bring home on Tuesday (Bilbies) or Thursday (Possums & Koalas). These summaries provide you with information about your child’s growth and learning in each of the areas of the Early Years Learning Framework. Teachers have also included a summary of student growth in relation to their individual learning goals.
Early next term we will also send home student portfolios – a collection of the students learning from throughout the semester including some observations and learning stories. Enjoy looking through these with your child, they are a beautiful record of students’ development throughout their time at Preschool. Portfolios just stay at home with you for a week or two at this time, and we ask you to return them to us when you come in for your Parent Teacher Interview with your Class Teacher in Term 3. There will be lots more to add into these Portfolios as we celebrate students learning in the second part of the year.
We are well and truly underway with our exploration of emotional literacy as part of the Resilience Project. I am sure that by now, you would have spotted our Colour Monster Emotional Check In area in the foyer of the ELC. It is fabulous to see so many students and families accessing this spot as they arrive and leave preschool, and the beautiful conversations that spring from identifying how we are feeling.
All this learning about emotions also starts to seep into children’s play and conversations in the playground, and we hear students starting to identify how things make them feel (beyond the emotions of sad or happy). Hopefully you might see this growing awareness of different emotions in action at home as well in your conversations with your child.
I hope that some of you were able to join the webinar from the Resilience Project, that was held this Wednesday the 25th of June. This presentation is about supporting your whole family's mental health through the principles of gratitude, empathy, mindfulness and emotional literacy. If you were unable to attend, or would like to revisit the session, please click on the recording link below. This recording will be available until 27th July, 2025.
It was lovely to see so many of our ELC families attend the information sessions held at Holy Family last week. Thank you for taking the time to join us.
Please see a message and link below from Sally, Director at Holy Family ELC.
Dear Families,
Thank you to those parents who joined us and attended our highly successful Leading Lights workshop. I would really appreciate your help in completing a quick feedback survey via this link.
