It has been a wonderful start back to the term with families now allowed back on to site for parent meetings, Parent Ed, Montessori Morning Chats etc. We have really enjoyed catching up with friends and new families at our recent Snack and Chat afternoons and we look forward to more families joining us over this term at these regular Friday afternoon events. Please keep an eye on the “What’s on this week” so you know which location we are meeting at and please join us to catch up with friends that are no longer on the same campus as your children. We really look forward to this Thursday night for our Parent Education evening which is focused on “Supporting your anxious child”. This is a face-to-face event to be held at the Adolescent Program site at Murdoch University on Dixon Rd in Rockingham. Many of our staff will also be attending this event so come along and make the most of this opportunity to talk through this very important topic with your class/advisory teacher.
I am really pleased to inform you of the progress at our new Adolescent Program site which has now windows installed both upstairs and downstairs, three beautiful sets of stairs fully installed with the balustrading going in this week along with floor coverings. Our elevator shaft is also being bricked up as I type and is awaiting delivery of the elevator. The spaghetti junction of all the extensive electrical work has now been finalised and sheeting of walls will be complete in the coming week. We are anticipating being able to move to site in the second half of this term and as soon as the floor coverings are finished, we will start to move to the site, our stored furniture and equipment. I would like to thank all our adolescent students and their families for the patience and understanding they have shown with the recent delay as our builders, Shelford Constructions P/L are working at lightening pace to get us to site as soon as possible.
Our School is a proud member of Montessori Schools and Centres Australia which is the national body for Montessori and as part of this membership we have been selected as a pilot school for the new Genuine Montessori Pathway program which schools and centres can elect to undertake as part of a school improvement process. Rockingham Montessori School has always strived to ensure we are providing our children with an outstanding Montessori program and the Genuine Montessori Pathway program will enable us to review all our processes to ensure we are adhering to best practices. The process follows ten tenants including;
Key Tenet 1A: Trained Adults
Key Tenet 2: Mixed Age Groups
Key Tenet 3: A Prepared Environment – Physical space
Key Tenet 4: Observation and Planning
Key Tenet 5: Uninterrupted Work Cycles
Key Tenet 6: Materials and Presentations (Learning and Teaching)
Key Tenet 7: Freedom and Movement
Key Tenet 8: Leadership
Key Tenet 9: School/Centre Focused Partnerships
Key Tenet 10: Wider Community Partnerships/ Child Advocacy
One of our key areas of focus this year has been 1A Trained Adults and we started this term with all staff attending the first Montessori Teachers Association of WA conference. This was held via Zoom and staff from eight of our Western Australian Montessori schools participated in this event where we focused on areas of Montessori practice relevant to the various cycles. I would particularly like to thank Jodi Kerslake for her work as an MTA committee member to ensure this very first conference was established and was so successful. Our work with Montessori Schools and Centres Australia has also led to our school hosting the very first Association Montessori International 3 – 6 Diploma course to be held in Western Australia. As we now have the Penguins room available, we will move the face-to-face training component to run from this room during week 10 this term and through out the holiday period. I am also delighted to announce that our school will also host the very first Association Montessori International 12-18 Diploma course for Adolescent Program practitioners to commence in August this year. Both opportunities will see international and interstate teachers and aspiring teachers come to our school for this extensive training and we are delighted as this highlights the recognition of outstanding practice our school is able to provide not only to our families but Montessori practitioners globally.