What an unusual welcome we experienced at the beginning of Semester 2. We certainly didn’t expect to see our little girls’ smiling faces on our computer screens rather than in our classrooms!

Having the opportunity to visit many online learning lessons across our five days of lockdown was truly rewarding as Head of the Junior School. In particular seeing the calm, warm and focussed learning environments that our teachers were able to provide for their girls remotely, in addition to how well-equipped even our smallest girls have become at adapting to this different mode of coming together.

With young children, so much of their learning at school is in the ‘hidden curriculum’. This involves understanding and applying the behaviours of being a learner in a collective environment, learning group norms and operating and cooperating within them. It is also about navigating the wealth of new and nuanced interactions and relationships that come with beginning school. The onset of online learning provided yet another set of parameters for our girls to understand and in effect, they had to quickly ‘learn how to learn’ in this environment. To say I am proud of the way they engaged, contributed, asked questions and displayed respect for both their teachers and friends is an understatement.

Thank you also to you, their parents and families for your support and positivity throughout this period. We know the impact of managing online learning with your own work and home commitments can be enormously challenging. You truly enacted this beautifully. Thank you also to so many of you who provided such kind feedback to your daughters’ teachers during this time; it was both heartening and very much appreciated.

Our staff also demonstrated this ability to pivot and be flexible on the Tuesday that the lockdown was announced. As a staff group, we were deeply engaged in professional development when we learnt that the girls would begin the term in online learning mode. In a matter of hours, our staff had banded together to ensure that devices and learning packs were available for collection before moving into planning for the coming days. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Junior School teaching and support staff for their unfailing commitment to our girls, for their ability to be creative and positive under pressure and for the way that they drew together and supported one another to ensure that a quality and connected experience was available to each girl.

We now look towards a term of adjusting to learning under the conditions of the necessary restrictions. I am delighted to share with you in this edition of Life in the Wilderness some of our experiences of online learning in Reception. Always interesting, sometimes challenging and filled with unexpectedly funny and beautiful moments, we chose to think of it as an opportunity to learn differently, to consider what is truly important and to find new and creative ways of maintaining our sense of belonging and connection to our Wilderness community.

Receptions learning online

The Reception Team had already prepared our learning environments for the new semester and we eagerly awaited the return of our girls to fill the classrooms with all their lovely energy and enthusiasm when the call to online learning came. Remote learning required creativity on the part of educators, flexibility on the part of our young students, and a lot of support and patience from our parents!

Webex became the way we could stay connected, enabling us to chat in small groups in both the morning and early afternoon. Our wonderful Co-educators, Mrs Emma Franzon and Mrs Justine Anderson, utilised the screen-sharing aspect of Webex to have one-to-one reading sessions with each student.

Keen not to have our little learners in front of screens too much, we used Seesaw to uploaded a range of activities. We gave them challenges such as scavenger hunts to find things beginning with each letter of the alphabet, creations inspired by the new digraph ‘something blue for ue’ and using play dough to form the letters of new words. It was wonderful to see our girls embrace this style of learning as they uploaded their hard work for us to see and comment on.

A huge thank you to all our parents for the amazing support they provided their girls with during this challenging time!

Melissa Foster
Reception Teacher

Luminary Lunch

On Wednesday 23 June, the Junior Library Committee attended Adelaide’s inaugural Luminary Lunch at St Peter’s College. Tracey Grice, creator of the LiTracey podcast and leading Adelaide literacy educator and consultant, was the mastermind behind the event.

Together with students from Concordia College, Pembroke School, Pulteney Grammar, Encounter College, Immanuel College and St Peter’s College, our girls gathered to enjoy lunch with an author. There were door prizes along with best costume and best table decoration prizes. Students engaged with authors and enjoyed many rich conversations about books and writing. Literary quiz master, Mike Lucas, devised two tricky quizzes to get everyone thinking. The highlight of the event was an engaging keynote address by Jack Heath, an interstate author. He talked candidly about a writer’s life and reflected on his journey of becoming a top selling author within Australia and internationally.

“Library committee had the opportunity to attend a very special luminary lunch where we got to meet many authors. We sat with an amazing author called Charlotte Barkla who wrote ‘Edie’s Experiments’. It was so much fun getting to participate.” Alice Bonar

“I absolutely loved the luminary lunch, I had so much fun with my classmates and we got to participate in fun activities!” Nikoo Rasheki

“The Luminary Lunch was an illuminating experience. The Library Committee shared a table with South Australian author Charlotte Barkla who has written three science-themed books for junior readers. Meeting Charlotte was an experience that inspired the whole library committee to write, think, create and imagine.” Alexandra Pringle

Our author, Charlotte Barkla, inspired our costumes and table decorations with her ‘Edie’s Experiments’ novels. We used the example of Edie to release our inner scientists and even make Edie’s famous slime (in Wildy blue) as part of our fabulous science kits. Full of bright ideas, intelligence and passion, Aahana Amand, Alice Bonar, Alexandra Pringle, Nikoo Rasheki, Charlize Howland, Stella Gray and Lorelei Zammit-Harris prepared enthusiastically, competed actively and engaged thoughtfully. They were complimented by organisers, authors and teachers for representing Wilderness School so well and would like to thank Ms Liz McCarthy for this opportunity.

There was an amazing cast of talented South Australian authors who gave up their time to work with our up-and-coming future creators. We would like to thank the following authors and illustrators who gave their all at the event; Andrew Joyner, Tania Ingram, Katrina Germein, Sally Heinrich, Marianne Musgrove, Mike Dumbleton, Adam Cece, Charlotte Barkla, Phil Cummings, Mandy Foot, Kristin Weidenbach and Jack Heath.

Congratulations girls for your outstanding participation in two wonderful events in the last week of Term 2.

Katie Silva
Teacher Librarian