Message from the Principal
Dear CMS families,
The long weekend in June may be designated as the Queen’s Birthday but for our Teachers it is taken up by the Montessori Australia Foundation’s annual AMI refresher course in Sydney. This year our school sent 11 delegates to the conference; one of the largest contingents from any Montessori school in Australia. The conference is broken down into 3 streams so that Cycle 1 teachers, Primary teachers and Administrators all enjoy a program tailor-made to the issues they face daily at their schools. The teachers I spoke to all enjoyed the presentations and I know were eager to try out new ideas in their classrooms, but perhaps even more important it places an emphasis on those ideas that we all know, but from time to time need reminding.
From my perspective I enjoyed the Administrators’ presentation, and having a chance to catch up with the excellent group of Principals that lead Montessori Schools in Australia. I am also looking forward to another conference which will take place in the first week of term 3 in Minneapolis, U.S.A. I will be attending the Montessori Administrators’ Association annual conference which will give me a chance to meet many Montessori Administrators from all over the world. I hope it will give me an opportunity to learn from leaders that have grown Montessori schools to all sizes in all kinds of environments. I hope to bring back some learning that we can apply at CMS. In my absence Felicity Young and Sarah Beresford Jones will be on call in the event of anything unforeseen.
At the school, term 2 has been a great period of settling and consolidation for the students. The classes continue to run well and I recently enjoyed the Cycle 3 Eurovision competition. I was very impressed with the organization of the event and the choreography involved for each act. Looking ahead to term 3, I am looking forward to our Healthy Bones Breakfast which is always an enjoyable social event and the International Day of Peace which will give us an opportunity to celebrate our shared purpose.
I am also very pleased to announce that one of our casual teachers, Martina McGovern has recently signed on to pursue her Montessori training through the Centre for Guided Montessori Studies. Martina will begin an internship in term 3 in Grevillea!
Our 2 biggest projects for Term 3 will be our ongoing school registration which should conclude in August and our impending plans to grow to a third Cycle 2 classroom in 2012. Currently we have many more names on our Cycle 2 list for next year than we can possibly handle in Melaleuca and Grevillia alone. Felicity and I have been researching best practice when it comes to beginning new Cycle 2 classrooms and we have decided to move forward with a small class of 6 year olds which over a 3 year period will grow to a full Cycle 2 room. This seems to be the preferred method used in most established Montessori Schools. As you may know we have applied for a grant to build a third Cycle 2 classroom, however even with a successful grant application it will take a full year to plan and complete the construction so we will be looking at starting the classroom in a demountable for a short period until the classroom can be completed. Classroom assignments for entering Cycle 2 children will be handed out early in Term 3. Other questions and concerns, such as “who will be the teacher?” will be resolved in short order. As the task of adding a third cycle 2 is one that has taken us a great deal of careful consideration we would request that parents who may be ending their CMS journey at the end of Cycle 1 give the office as much notice as possible so that we can plan most effectively. Normally we ask for a term’s notice but this year if you could give us 2 terms we would be most appreciative.
It’s great to have so many exciting things to look forward to at the school but for now I wish you and your family a restful school holiday.
Peace
Jack Rice
Principal, CMS
Click here to view full Bulletin