Ms Sands, can we have a goat?

Year 6 students have so many terrific opportunities - but the most amazing of the lot is the chance to travel to Tokyo in October and stay with a Japanese family and attend school there for a week. It is the excursion to end all excursions - and I love it.

For four years I've accompanied a group of bright eyed and bushytailed youngsters, many on their first international travel experience. And this year's group of seven boys and girls were no exception.

We had a fabulous week of fun and learning and making new friends. The trip included visits to Seioji Temple, Asakusa, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku Street, Mirikan, and the Monster Cafe. School days consisted of Lego Mindstorms, Music, English lessons, technology, art and science as well as calligraphy classes and tea ceremony.

All children formed strong bonds with their homestay families and embarked on a few excursions of their own - DisneyLand, Tokyo Sky Tree, Tokyo Tower, and just playing with Japanese kids in the streets.

I love listening to the children during the week as they reflect on their experience and recount funny and unusual stories - some want to go back to live, some are hooked on seeing the rest of the world, some have made friends for life, some have fallen in love with the food, some love the shopping, all are bug eyed at the culture and the friendliness of the people.

But the star of the show is really Vanilla, Sagami Women's University Elementary School's pet goat. She sat out on the oval during the day getting patted and munching on Autumn leave and the kids were besotted with her.

Every year there's someone who says 'Ms Sands, can we get a goat?'

Why I love my job...

It's not a job, it's actually a calling - a bit sappy maybe, but true. Parts of the job can be mundane, boring even. Things like Strategic Plans, budgets, balancing the books, wet Year 5 and 6 camps, and disgruntled customers isn't what gets me up in the morning.

I love my job because I get to see the wonder of learning on kids' faces and the feeling of pride they show in being part of a group. And then there's the Prep Christmas Songs at the local retirement village...

The sheer exuberance on the faces of our children and the joyful smiles of the residences was a sight to behold. It was so worth 'playing hookey' for an hour and getting away from planning, bills and end of year nonsense. Thank you, Preps - this is why I love my job!

Disclaimer: some classes are not represented in the photos due to media permissions for children

Reggio Emilia - a city built for its citizens

Reggio Emilia is in Northern Italy. It is beautiful, it is historic, it is cultured, it is another world. It is also the epicenter of some well known and revered educational thinking about child-centered learning.

As an early years teacher, Reggio Emilia is a place I've always wanted to see, a place where an international study tour is the stuff of dreams. But dream we did, and in November I was afforded the opportunity to take two of our Prep teachers to this inspirational city to learn about their work with Reggio children and see what links we could make to our own context back at Peregian Springs SS.

This stunning medieval city opens up its piazzas and squares to the people and children spend a lot of time in the piazzas learning how to map the spaces, know where they've come from, learn to be citizens of the city, help others, study the Literature and Mathematics of the past (amazingly relevant today) and drink in the beauty of their particular context which changes with the seasons. The week was a Journey into the Rights of Children and it was over too soon.

It was inspirational, and there will be a little bit of Reggio coming to our Prep classrooms in the near future.

The automation of human activity comes to Peregian Springs SS

The automation of human activity is happening before our eyes. And we're doing our best to keep up with this exciting era in human history.

Recently, two teams (the Peregian Programmers) ably coached by Sandy Neisler and Kent Campbell represented our school at a robotics tournament called First LEGO League. This is a global competition with competitors from over 80 countries.  The teams researched a real-world problem relating to the water cycle and were required to develop an innovative solution.  They also had to design, build and program a robot to autonomously complete various challenges.


Both teams had a lot of fun and learned a lot.  The Year 5 team successfully won the Strategy and Innovation Award.  This award recognises the team that uses solid engineering practices and a well-developed strategy to design and build an innovative, high performing robot.

These sort of challenges are the workplaces of the future. And the fact that our students are picking up first prizes in strategy and innovation means we're on the right track!

Those who can't, teach

'Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.' 'This quote is from George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. Whether intended as a harmless jab or not, it’s still just plain untrue.

Teachers are not simply passionate specialists in one or two chosen fields. Their list of base skills includes many other studies and passions. They require knowledge in educational psychology, interpersonal communications, and classroom management. Often they need emergency response training, depending on where they may work. They know budgeting, technology implementation, pedagogical theory, and the list goes on. This education continues throughout their entire career. They take recertification training, skill upgrades, and continuing professional development courses.

The quote was, of course, meant as an insult. Poor George must have been quite deluded about the skills teachers have - and he quite clearly hasn't met the teachers from Peregian Springs!

Amongst us we have

• multi linguists who have had careers in other places
• performers, singers and musicians who for the joy of it sing, play and act their hearts out on weekends
• carpenters
• tech specialists who can make their way around the back door of a laptop or desktop
• creative types who can turn a bit of other people's rubbish into something useful
• historians
• environmental activists
• wildlife carers
• amazing gardeners able to coax fruit and vegetables out of nothing
• literacy specialists with qualifications in librarianship 
• staff with high level medical and first aid response knowledge
• sports people who have achieved very highly in their fields (and still are)
• life savers
• robotics experts
• drone pilots
• mechanics

They didn't choose to teach because they couldn't get careers using these skills. They chose teaching because they want to use their passions to change and influence the world - and because they love children and can share their skills and knowledge with passion that ignites the future.