GEKA Centre Road
Growing Patience, Resilience and an Understanding
Sally Maher, Early Childhood Teacher
2020 has certainly been full of highs and extreme lows for our GEKA CRK families. The year began with so many excited and energetic children ready to begin their time making new friends, meeting their teachers and educators, playing inside and outside and making kindergarten their own.
We welcomed two new team members, Remya in the Sea Star and Little Fishes groups and Jacqui in the Seahorse group. We experienced great sadness in our kindergarten community with the loss of two much loved members of one of our GEKA kindergarten families.
But one thing for certain is even though we have not all been together at kindergarten, work or social gatherings, we have grown in our patience, resilience and understanding. We have relied on the support of Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers to help us with the children’s learning journey when remote learning was needed.
During term 2 and 3 through FlexiSchools, we provided many enriching and inquiry based learning for children to learn from, be involved in and add their own learning experiences.
Many families in term 2 collected art packs ready for children to be creative with full of paper, craft, glue and kindergarten resources to play at home. In term 3 each week there were science experiments, art activities and nature to explore. We looked forward to receiving the many photos sent to us via email of the kindergarten children, sharing and showing us what they have made, created or seen.
We begin term 4 as we did term one with the same excited faces, knowing that the children have grown, ready to share in play experiences and continue with friendships.
Our Little Fishes children will now move to four year old kindergarten with some at GEKA Centre Rd kindergarten and others moving to new places, we wish them well and Prep awaits our Sea Star and Seahorses children.
We hope our families hold their time with us with fond memories as we do with them. Our door is always open to see past students come back and say Hi, showing us their new school uniform and telling us about what they are learning.
From a personal note, I would like to thank the wonderful teaches and educators that I get to spend my days with. They are dedicated to your children’s learning, socialisation and feelings. They are always smiling and caring even when things don’t go to plan.
Lastly to our exceptional families and children, you make our days ! THANK YOU. We love what we do and seeing your children accept challenges, take on risks and flourish makes it all so rewarding.
I look forward in seeing what 2021 brings ….
Metta Mindfullness
Kelly Turner, Early Childhood Teacher
On behalf of the team in Platypus group (GEKA GSK) and the Little Fishes (GEKA CRK) I would like to share with you my most favourite mindful practice of, Metta - Metta means “loving kindness”
The practice of Metta is a gentle reminder to go easy on ourselves, to remind ourselves that we are human and that 2020 was the year that we most definitely will not forget. For all the ups and downs, challenges and perseverance; never before has the cultivating of love and compassion been stronger within ourselves, those we love and our planet. It is a wonderful practice in cultivating compassion, understanding and love. Do you not agree that once we truly love and take care of ourselves, we can be much more helpful to others? Metta can be practiced in part or in full. Just by saying one line of the Metta mediation will already bring more compassion and healing into the world! Give it a go and see how you feel.
Belonging
GEKA Centre Road Educational Team
One of the most important tenets of early education is BEING, BELONGING and BECOMING.
Of course belonging doesn’t just happen at kindergarten, we feel belonging to our families, our communities and each other. Never has this been so important, as it has been over this lock down period.
Our children have missed each other.
At GEKA Centre Road in the Seastars Group we have been lucky to have Zoe D’s mum Karen, our GEKA Volunteer PAG Chair, ran a Zoom class this lock down for those who wanted to join.
”What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” - Aristotle
