29 September 2023
ELC, Prep, Reception and Walford Anglican School for Girls students celebrated the change of season with our annual Spring Magic Festival. There was potion making, seed bombs, water runs, cubby building, and the giant hill to explore.
The boys in the Mulberry Room continued to create magical potions and spells this week, combining ingredients that dissolved, fizzed, melted, crunched, changed colour, shape and size.
Every time I see the boys actively engaging with the world and resources around them I am reminded of the work of Rachel Carson, biologist and writer, and think – how can we make this day at ELC wonderful?:
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years … the alienation from the sources of our strength.”
You can try to teach sustainability by training children to use the right bin. You can try to teach chemistry by sitting around a desk and watching the teacher do an experiment. You can try to teach Physics and impart the wisdom of Einstein by telling stories about apples. But… when a child discovers a fantastical flower or their spell comes alive when the bicarb finds the vinegar or the push and pull of forces adds adventure to their play when the tyre hurtles down the hill – then there is a spark! This is learning that transcends the moment and turns into a life long joy for sustainability, physics, chemistry…. knowledge that is experienced as a felt meaning and brings a sense of excitement every time it is drawn on.
Holly Baulderstone
Head of Early Years