On Tuesday 14 May we were delighted to welcome our Wilderness ELC mothers, along with many other family members, to celebrate Mother’s Day. Our treasured mums were presented with thoughtfully prepared gifts and then shared breakfast with their daughters. It was incredibly heartwarming to see the families enjoy this special time together as a Wilderness community. I would like to extend a sincere thank you to the educators for the time and care dedicated to the creation of the gifts and to the wider school team for working hard to make this event happen.

Continuous professional development is incredibly important at Wilderness and this term has commenced with our team making the most of numerous opportunities for learning. During the day on Tuesday 14 May, Wendy Menzies (our Mamie House teacher) attended the first of a series of professional development sessions (run by the Association of Independent Schools) dedicated to focusing on the creation of culturally safe classrooms, which is deeply important to us in our ELC. Wendy looks forward to sharing and embedding this learning with the whole team.

Furthermore, as an ELC team, this term we have also spent significant time critically reflecting on our current documentation and planning cycle practices to ensure that our work is of the highest quality. This work has been supported by my attendance at a professional development session, again at the Association of Independent Schools, along with other ELC directors and educational leaders.

This was also an excellent opportunity to network with other leaders to share and discuss best practice. We are a united, ambitious team who are always striving to improve practices and in doing so, we also welcome feedback from our families and we thank you for your support.