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The Blessing of Figgy Grove
On Wednesday 5 June 2019, the school community joyously celebrated the official opening of Figgy Grove in Rathfarnham, in honour of the Morton Bay Fig that stood in this place for over 120 years.
Sr Mary Baulderstone ibvm blessed the newly created landscaped space, designed to not only provide a beautiful, lush, green garden area, but its circular seating invites our girls to an open circle in which they can gather, chat, play and enjoy each other’s company. This idea of an open circle dates back to the time of Mary Ward and her companions, and today it invites all of us in, to gather together and continue her vision and mission within our lives and our contemporary world. Figgy Grove is to be a place of inclusion, unity and joy providing generations of Loreto Toorak students with a place to explore, create, imagine and play. We look forward to this newly created area to be such a space for generations to come.
Left: Sr Mary Baulderstone ibvm blesses the new Figgy Grove space. Below: Rathfarnham students gather together in an open circle for the blessing.
St Peter’s Early Learning Centre
Throughout the latter stage of the year, the ELC children had one particular area of interest; the Nativity. Whilst it may have seemed strange to see the children engaging with the nativity scene, walking Three Kings on camels across a desert made from sand and clay in the Kinder room – in October, the knowledge and understanding the children developed was authentic.
“The Kings went to see Baby Jesus. They needed to give Baby Jesus presents.” - Chiara “The shepherds and the sheep had to go to the baby because he was born. The baby was Jesus.” - Emma This interest in the Nativity was embedded within the program, engaging the children in the many ‘languages’ of learning within their play-based environment. To engage the children in this story and ensure that the information was received, the children followed their own interests, such as clay, drawing, painting, making, block building, dramatic play, even a little papiermâché. We wanted to ensure the children were given the time to visit and revisit these experiences to develop concrete understanding in the liturgical language and concepts. Throughout this time of ‘play’, our educators were close by, guiding, observing and documenting, finally coming together to share this work with our families and ELC community for our End of Year Celebration. These films focused on the children’s voice and understandings of the real Christmas story and was
the perfect reflection of the children’s knowledge. Each group had particular areas on which they focused, and they were then brought together to share the whole story. The fun had throughout the project was clearly evident. Within the Pre-Prep program, one focus was a donkey, learning about the animal, then drawing and painting one to get an idea of its size, shape and attributes. The children then voted on the particular design they liked best and this was used to assist in planning for the 3D version that was created with papier-mâché. Tell me about the donkey. Why was there a donkey in the Nativity story? “Because Mary and Joseph needed a ride to Bethlehem.” - Spencer Throughout the year, the children in both the Kinder and Pre-Prep programs welcomed the time to play by their ‘magic tree’. The play was open, natural and full of creativity and imagination. It was also the perfect location to collect some sticks. A stable was created by the Pre-Prep children, carefully working with their educators as they used a hot glue gun to bind the sticks together. The roof that was created was the perfect accompaniment to their blocks, and also clay pieces, each made by the children. What are the sticks for? “To make a stable, they’re from our tree, for Mary and Joseph because Baby Jesus was going to be born.” - Daniel
Opposite: The Stable created by Pre-Prep children.
Above: One of the Three Kings following the Star to Bethlehem created by the Kinder children.
Below Left: Spencer Tannous and Myles Cornish.
Below Right: Kinder children playing with the Three Kings; Bailey Gravelle, Hendrix Coyne and Connor Karklins.
Opposite: Christmas Prayer written by the Pre-Prep children, with the assistance of Ms Michelle McCarty (Director of Mission & Leadership).
KATHLEEN BROHIER HEAD OF ST PETER’S ELC DECEMBER 2019 VOL. 34 NO. 2 MANDEVILLIAN
Our Christmas Prayer Dear God, We thank you for our Christmas We thank you for Baby Jesus. We thank you Mary for saying Yes to the Angel. We thank you Archangel Gabriel for bringing the message to Mary. We thank you Joseph for walking beside Mary and looking after her. Amen.
