Minnie Pwerle, an Australian Aboriginal artist was born in the 1920’s. Minnie began painting in 2000 at about the age of 80, and her pictures soon became popular and sought-after works of contemporary Indigenous Australian art. In the years after she took up painting on canvas until she died in 2006, Minnie's works were exhibited around Australia and collected by major galleries, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery. Minnie's style was spontaneous, and typified by "bold" and "vibrant" colour, executed with great freedom. Her paintings include two main design themes. The first is free-flowing and parallel lines in a pendulous outline, depicting the body painting designs used in women's ceremonies, and the second theme involves circular shapes, used to symbolise bush tomato, bush melon, and northern wild orange, among a number of forms of bushfood represented in her works.
Reception at Parkside
The EYFS curriculum sets out seven areas of learning and development that shape educational programmes in early years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and interconnected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These three areas, the prime areas, are:
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development.
At Parkside we also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design.
In Reception, children are given the opportunity to investigate and explore the learning environment both inside and outside. There is a balance of child-initiated and adult-led learning. Children are encouraged to find solutions to problems through experimentation and exploration but are also taught specific skills in small groups, pairs or 1:1.
We also focus on the basic skills of reading, writing and counting. Phonics is taught everyday through a systematic approach and parents are encouraged to play a large part in their child’s development of reading in partnership with staff.
At the end of the Reception year, children leave Foundation stage to start Key Stage 1 and each child is assessed in 17 areas of learning including Managing Feelings and Behaviour, Understanding the World, Being Imaginative and Technology.