4 December

Firstly apologies for my lack of posts lately. The semester has really sped up and it is sometimes the blog that suffers. The first half of my first year at East has really flown past. Here we all find ourselves with another half year nearly finished.

For those of you who read my last blog, you might remember I wrote about the importance of connecting emotionally with children, and if done well the impact this can have on their learning. I wrote about Miss Shea, a person who connected to me and others in my class at an emotional level and provided experiences that engaged us and got us really interested in our learning. I thought it important to try and follow through and find out if I could find Miss Shea and tell her what an impact she had on me as a young child. Since writing the last blog entry, I have done a bit of detective work and have located someone with the same name close to where I went to school. I've written a letter, in my best handwriting, explaining who I am and asking her to respond if it is her. Feeling slightly stupid, I nervously put it in the postbox last Friday. I will keep you up to date with any news or lack of.

If you are surrounded by people who have similar philosophies, it is likely you are going to appreciate the teaching practice of those you work with. Mr Trevaskis, our Year 6 teacher and Mrs Pinto, our K1 teacher teach at opposite ends of the age range at East. This year, partly because they have small classes, they have buddied up their classes. This means they get together regularly for their students to work together, providing opportunities for leadership, to learn empathy and develop relationships and confidence within our school family. The outcomes of this pairing are really positive, but successful because of the planning and organisation that go into the learning experiences. Last week, the experience involved Mr T's class basing some of their learning around the maths, language and practical skills of making, baking and decorating gingerbread men. After making the gingerbread dough K1 and 6T cut out the gingerbread men and, baked them. 6T then worked with the K1s to teach and support them in the decorating process. I think they managed the eating process without the same level of support. This is teaching at an emotional level, creating memories and developing learning that will last forever. I will leave the pictures to tell the rest of the story.

I'd like to thank you all for the wonderful support you have given to the school for the first semester. Have a restful and enjoyable break with your children.

Adrian Smith