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Empowering Girls
early learning highlights 2020 Sarah Denholm, Director of Early Learning 2020 was an extraordinary year with many opportunities and challenges for our Early Learning Centre.
For every change and new government restriction or rule regarding Early Learning operations, we responded quickly with the information at hand. Our staff navigated working between Early Through state COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions Learning, Junior School and being at home and and alongside colleagues across the School, Early embraced the new normal of different working Learning staff pivoted their practice to provide days, hours, rosters and roles. Throughout the both distance and onsite learning opportunities. daily life that was lockdown, we ensured our This ensured our philosophy and pedagogy team stayed connected socially through our remained at the forefront of the programme team’s WhatsApp group, with staff checking in and our youngest learners received continuity of on each other and sending updates regularly. education and care. Our team also ensured the We also enjoyed soul nourishing opportunities highest level of compliance, health and safety for professional learning, with external education for our onsite program, participating in COVID-19 consultant Kirsty Liljegren remaining a constant infection control training early in the year and in our pedagogical support throughout the year, implementing regular and thorough COVIDSafe along with other opportunities to engage in cleaning and hygiene measures each and every day. online webinars, podcasts and training. As our onsite and at home learning numbers fluctuated across the year, our children, staff and families remained resilient and adapted to each change with grit and strength, showing support, empathy and care for each other through each hurdle and new learning. The wellbeing of our students remained at the forefront and we provided children and parents regular opportunities to connect with class teachers, as well to ensure our families had access to resources to support wellbeing and learning at home.
We celebrated the year with our online 2020 Celebration of Learning, where the students shared aspects of their learning, knowledge and reflections from the year in a digital format. This was then made available via our Ruyton Intranet for families to view together at home. Even though our goals for 2020 may have shifted, Ruyton Early Learning is proud of the high levels of education and care it was able to provide for our families and we take many new learnings forward into our approach and practice. Annual Report 2020
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