Dear CMS families,
Maybe the best kept secret in all of Canberra is that the Canberra Montessori School is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year! Formed by a brave group of parents in 1981, the school has grown to become a leader in the Montessori Community in Australia. We should be proud.
Judy and I have been planning a special gift for members of the society to commemorate the occasion and we hope to have it ready early in term 4. No hints.
A new friend to our school and the newest member of our staff is Helen Still. Helen is a Montessori Teacher trained at the AMI centre in Bergamo, Italy. She has 30 years of experience teaching in a variety of settings, Montessori and mainstream, and most recently has been the Assistant Principal at the Manly Village School. This seems to be the perfect time for Helen to come to Canberra and she is very much looking forward to joining our community as the teacher of our third Cycle 2 classroom. She is currently travelling on long service leave, but we hope to have her visit the school in term 4 to meet students and staff.
I can hardly believe that the calendar has brought us to the end of term 3. Next term we look forward to our school fair, the Narooma Family weekend and not long after we will be visited by two delegates from the Montessori Australia Foundation who will be observing as part of the MAFs Quality Assurance Program. We are looking forward to being one of the first Montessori Schools to embrace and complete the process.
Along with a number of teachers from our school, I attended a workshop in Sydney last Saturday afternoon on the topic of student transitions. It was great to hear observations from an experienced Montessori trainer. I came away with several impressions, notably the importance of the transition from Parent Toddler to Cycle 1 at as close to age 3 as possible; confirmation of the depth of materials and activities in the Cycle 1 classroom and the realization that there is no need to rush transitions from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2; and I enjoyed the discussion of specialist subjects and how they integrate with the children’s daily work cycle. These are ideas that we will share and discuss in our Cycle meetings.
Lastly with so many special events happening in Term 4, I would like to make a final appeal in 2011 for parent contributions towards our building fund. A number of parents have made a $200 per term tax deductible donation to the fund, and we are very appreciative of the commitment shown by our families. We are a little behind our target for 2011, so if you are able to help us towards our future building plans, including a new Cycle 2 classroom in the near future, it would be much appreciated by the school and the children. I will have Susan distribute payment details to families as a reminder for term 4.
Enjoy the springtime.
Peace
Jack Rice Principal, CMS
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Spring Planting Day
On behalf of the Learnscapes and Environmental Committee, I’d like to send a big thanks to everyone who made our Spring Planting Day such a great success.
It was a chilly and windy day but the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. More than 50 people of all ages, from toddlers to grandparents, spent their Saturday afternoon planting around two hundred native trees and grasses in the wildlife corridor and on the mounds behind Scribbly Gum. A handful of kids helped Sarah weed and plant in the Cycle One kitchen garden, while Jacqui and her family did some heavy digging to turn over the soil in the previously fallow veggie patch outside the Cycle Three classroom.
Particular thanks go to those who gave up their morning to prepare the site, making the whole day run smoothly. With the soil in place and the holes dug beforehand, planting was a breeze and even the youngest helpers were able to make a useful contribution (again demonstrating the value of the prepared environment!). It was a great joy to see the smiles on the kids’ faces as they delivered mulch and soil around the site in their little wheelbarrows. As a group we achieved much more than we had anticipated, including moving 5 cubic metres of soil and more than 3 cubic metres of mulch! Special thanks must go to those families who arrived later in the day, and ended up doing some very hard mattock work, digging new holes straight into the clay plan, for more eucalypts to extend the wildlife corridor.
To celebrate International Peace Day on 21 September, an olive tree was also planted in the orchard, kindly donated to the school by Fedra Olive Grove.
Thanks to Sarah and others for the lovely afternoon tea to wrap up the day’s activities. We had such good feedback that people are asking us when we are having the next one! We will be sure to let you know.
Cheers and many thanks,
Laura Stuart and the LES Committee