1 st March.2019

1. 1st March.2019 Dear Parents, We have finally had some reprieve from the wet weather. This has now allowed a great deal of our learning programs to be located in our outdoor learning spaces, which our students love. Please refer to your respective class Newsletters to see what has been happening. Nursery 1 C Meet and Greet This Friday ( 1st March), we have scheduled a Meet and Greet session for our new students and families to meet our N1C team. The new N1 teaching team has worked tirelessly over the past two weeks ensuring that the students and families are delightful and excited to be part of our EtonHouse School Community. If you see new faces on our campus on the morning, please welcome them with a smile and a “Hello”, in order for them to feel the immediate sense of “Belonging” and knowing that we pride ourselves on a happy and respectful school community. Thank you.  Etiquette Thank you to all our wonderful families who have taken time to teach their children our new focus of greeting each other in a kind and respectful IB manner. Many children are now entering our school campus in the morning, with a huge smile, and “Good Morning” before entering their class. This is so important in an international community as kind manners are revered in the global community. I would also like to thank our wonderful teaching teams who have invested time and energy in ensuring their students are equipped with such beautiful manners. It is very obvious to the staff at the Meet and Greet sessions each morning, the classes who have invested this time in their students -

2. N1 and N2 Parent Afternoon Tea/ Workshop • Please note that there will be a N1 and N2 Parent morning tea on Friday 8th March at 2:00 pm. During this time, there will be a brief presentation on Toddlers and Behavior, which by popular demand, I am presenting to our parents. • This is also a wonderful opportunity to meet other new parents from the N1 and N2 teams, so please let the front reception girls know by Wednesdays 6th March if you intend to attend, for catering purposes. Thank you. • For Kindergarten and Year 1 parents, please note, a Parent Afternoon Tea and workshop has been scheduled for Friday 15th March 2:00pm -3:00 pm • Holistic Learning • Teachers here at EtonHouse are immersing your child into activities and environments where they are feeling motivated and inspired by implemented a Holistic Approach. • Why Holistic Learning is Especially Effective • All learning is connected. • Holistic learning includes others.   • Nature becomes a part of the process. • Values are integrated into learning. • Physical health and wellbeing is made a priority. • Holistic learning considers the individual child. • Educators are willing to adapt their approaches. • Harmony's holistic learning environment

3. If we take a trip down memory lane and imagine you are back in your childhood; jumping in puddles, playing in the mud, building sandcastles, finding insects, exploring, discovering how things work – it is all fun! That is what being a young child is all about… Exploring, investigating, problem-solving, analysing and discovering! This is the holistic approach – learning and interacting with the natural world and opportunities for challenge, risk-taking, and social development. This approach involves children exploring and discovering as a way of learning by becoming highly engaged and actively involved in their interdependence between people, plants, animals and the environment. By supporting the holistic development approach, teachers and childhood educators are creating a safe, interactive and positive environment to support childhood development. What is Holistic Development? Holistic Development is an approach to learning that emphasizes the importance of the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of children, particularly in early childhood. World-wide research concurs and encourages early childhood educators to focus on the holistic approach to their learning technique, rather than focusing on the traditional academic milestones of intelligence. By focusing our attention on the connectedness of a child’s mind, body and spirit we are embracing the real and authentic developmental opportunities regardless of children’s culture, socioeconomic background, gender or age. In other words, early childhood educators use the holistic approach to connect children’s development with their natural environment and build strong relationships through active learning and social activities. How can I support holistic development? A few quick tips on how you can support and encourage the holistic development in early years as an educator, teacher, teacher aide or parent are:

4. Ask open-ended questions • Learning is experimental.  By asking open-ended questions, you are allowing children to think for themselves, and explore their thoughts with cognitive thinking rather than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Let them explore their train of thought and see how their thinking develops. • Build Strong and Trusting Relationships • Children engage and communicate better when they can connect with people they trust. By building a strong relationship with a child, you are creating a strong and safe community and improving connections between children, parents and other educators. • Create an engaging and inviting environment • Here at EtonHouse we create comfortable and safe environments for children to connect and be themselves in.  Make it inviting with the use of natural, child-friendly furniture, interest corners, and areas for individuals, small groups, and space for creative play, are just a few of the intentional area created by teaching staff. • Supporting children as they learn at their own pace is important for their early childhood development, and we should encourage and take every opportunity to explore their interests in a comfortable, natural environment • Identify the Child’s Interests • Understanding an individual children’s interests and understanding what motivates them will help guide children to discover their identity and purpose in life through their connections to the natural world and values. By identifying children’s interests, you can take a small idea and expand on it by broadening its learning opportunities. • For example: A child loves planes. A great early childhood educator will take that opportunity to expand this child’s learning by researching into planes. How planes are made, how many different types of planes there are, why we use planes, when were planes invented, and the list goes on! • Take a child’s passion and turn it into a learning opportunity!

5. Act consistently in response to your baby’s distress with comfort, warmth, and competency. But this tip comes with a caveat: research shows that when super-attentive mothers responded instantly to their baby’s every gurgle, cry, and hiccup, their children became less securely attached. The lesson: children react poorly to smothering. It hampers their independence and inhibits the process of learning to self-soothe. Have a two-way, mutual relationship with your baby; not one dominated by your needs and moods. Go along with the interactions and games that are initiated by baby. The most important thing you can do as a parent is be aware of the significance of touch, attention, consistency and your own physical and mental health, especially during your child’s first year. This does not mean constant 24/7 togetherness, or an abdication of all of a mother’s need to nurture herself in favor of baby’s needs. To the contrary, your baby needs you to be emotionally and physically sound now and in the vital years ahead. Find the balance that is right for you and your baby, and receive support and time out for mum from your spouse, family and friends. It really does take a village, if only to support a mother or father to be there and fully present during the first vital months of their baby’s life. That doesn’t necessarily mean mother has to give up her job and stay home full time, but a newborn baby thrives best (now and later) when someone, ideally a parent—and not a series of “someones”—devotes those first six months to being a primary caregiver. It may not be the message that every working mother wants to hear, but it’s what over a half century of studying children has shown us.