Hopefully you were able to enjoy the community picnic on Friday night and meet some of our many new school families. Please be mindful of children from these families when considering playdates, birthday parties or after school activity. The change of schools can be very challenging for children, leaving friends sometimes family and then adjusting to our Learning Centre environment. As members of a caring and inclusive community we need to reach out to these children and make them feel welcome.

Learning Through Play and Young Explorers.

Our children need opportunities to play to make sense of their world. At Halswell we believe that being in control of their own learning helps children develop the very important social, emotional and physical skills needed for their world. We have the philosophy of play based-activity, problem solving and independence running across the school through our daily programme. It's about educating the whole child and not looking just at their cognitive development. Play is a crucial component of a child's normal development as it shapes how children make sense of their worlds, how they learn thinking skills, and how they acquire language to become powerful learners.

Learning through play and our explorers approach are an important part of guiding children through learning experiences that encourage them to develop: reciprocity, reflectiveness, resourcefulness, and resilience. There are a multitude of ways in which unstructured, child-centered activity builds elements to support effective learning and develop healthy minds. During this time children have dialogues with themselves and with others as they engage in play. Children at play are making sense of the world through a process of "inner speech" - that is, they are often talking out loud to themselves.

Teachers might decide children in the Learning Centre need to focus on sharing and taking turns and so introduce this at the session start. Students will think about it as they participate in activities and it will be the focus of sharing and reflection at the end.

The many benefits of this approach across the school are clearly evident to teachers as we inspire every child to imagine, create, learn and believe.