It has been wonderful to observe the sights and sounds of happy chatter and smiling faces filling the Early Learning Centre this week as the children returned from the term break. The children are certainly feeling relaxed and refreshed, and have returned with many stories to share of their exciting adventures.

Our focus as educators for this first week of term has been on supporting the children to re-connect. This involves re-connecting with the educational program and current interests and inquiries. It also involves re-connecting with peers and educators to re-establish these connections and relationships after the break. The children also need to re-familiarise themselves with classroom routines and expectations as they adjust to being back in the group learning environment.

We have an exciting term of learning planned for the children. There are many interesting ongoing inquiries happening in each classroom and many more will evolve as the children’s natural wonderings lead to further discussion and learning. This term our full complement of specialist classes will commence with the addition of French for the 4-year-old classes and PMP for all classes. We also look forward to connecting with our ELC families as the children host Mother’s Day celebrations and we welcome guests for our Grandparents and Special Visitors events. It is sure to be a wonderful term ahead.

Natural Materials

Our early learning programs are inspired by nature pedagogy. We use a range of natural materials for a range of purposes within both the indoor and outdoor educational programs. We are always on the hunt for additional natural materials such as sticks, branches, pine cones, seed pods, shells, rocks and more. If you happen to collect any of these items on your visits to local parks, gardens, farms or the beach, we would welcome contributions of any of these items to add to our collection.

Recycled Materials

We also welcome donations of recycled cardboard boxes, cardboard rolls, egg cartons, fabric, ribbon, buttons etc. The children use these recycled materials for various projects involving construction and collage. If you happened to have any of these items that you wish to recycle, your donations are most welcome.

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Out of School Hours Care

St Catherine’s School offers an Out of School Hours Care program to all ELC and Junior School families. The program is implemented by our provider ‘After the Bell’, and operates within the ELC building. Parents are reminded that if you need to use the Before School Care or After School Care service, registrations need to be made in advance with ‘After the Bell’. Please allow up to five business days for your registration to be processed before your child can begin attending the program. Registration is free. All families are encouraged to register so that you can use this service in the event that you are unable to pick up your child.

Before School Care – 7.00am to 8.45am

After School Care – 3.00pm to 6.00pm

Registrations can be completed via the ‘After the Bell’ website https://afterthebell.com.au/register-now/

Please phone 9758 6744 for all enquiries.