REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER Principal’s Message
3rd February 2023
By Mrs Simone Cooke
Dear Parents, Welcome back to Term One, 2023 I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday break. Over the past three weeks the teachers have been busy transitioning the children to their new classes and we are delighted to report that we have enjoyed a very positive start to the new year. The children have embraced the vacation programme and are already establishing lovely connections with their teachers and new friends. A warm welcome to all our new families who have joined our Reddam community this year. I am extremely happy to advise that we commence the new year with our wonderful team of experienced and dedicated teachers, the majority of whom have been with us for many years, which provides us with much stability and ensures that their experience and understanding of our Reddam philosophy continues through our Reggio Emilia approach to learning, laying firm foundations for their future learning journey. For families new to our school you will hear our teachers speaking regularly about “Provocations”. A provocation is Reggio Emilia inspired and is designed to provoke and invite interest, creativity and discussion. It encourages children to think critically, respond creatively and expand learning, interests and skill development. Provocations are designed to be open ended and allow for children to be active participants in their learning, It enables children to have some control over the direction of what they learn about and therefore encourages them to be more engaged. The children themselves help to guide our provocations by brainstorming together a “Mind Map of Possibility” which allows them to share with us questions they want to answer it can be as diverse as Where does the sun go at night? To How is a rainbow formed? Where do people come from? Or What lives in the Ocean? Once the teacher has established an understanding of the individual interests of the children in their class, they will thoughtfully and creatively sets up intentional learning experiences based upon an area of interest that the children wish to explore. As the children are still young it will always contain a ‘hands on’ approach as young children need to learn through concrete experimentation. REDDAM EARLY LEARNING SCHOOL | ST LEONARDS NEWSLETTER
1