“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are” – E E Cummings
At the Children of Light Educare (COLT) Graduation ceremony this year we said farewell to ten of our children who are moving on to primary school. It is a big step moving into mainstream education and at our graduation it is symbolised by a beautiful spiral walk. Each child carries a lit candle into the spiral and chooses where to set it down. At the end of the ceremony the graduates who are leaving the Educare return to the spiral and extinguish their candles, symbolic of completing one phase of their education and preparing to move on to the next phase.
The festival concert was a true delight with all the children participating in the action songs and performing with such confidence in front of their parents. Talking about confidence!! – this year the children were not performing up on the stage, but right in front of their parents 3 metres away. Well done to our teachers for preparing the children to perform with such self–assurance! COLT friends in the audience who regularly attend the graduation each year also expressed how confident and attentive the parents seemed to be. Most of our parents completed a 10 week parent education program with Arise Family earlier this year and COLT staff are so proud of how much each one of them has grown personally. The teachers shone too, by making sure that the graduation ceremony ran smoothly and that all stakeholders were graciously acknowledged.
The following day all COLT children, current and past thoroughly enjoyed their Christmas party. The ‘silent disco yoga’ facilitated by 3 very energetic young ladies from Elevate was an absolute hit and had all the children and staff dancing lightheartedly around the hall with their headphones on! We are ever mindful that without our donors we would not have been able to provide our children with such a meaningful graduation and joyful Christmas party. Our heartfelt gratitude to our many donors who have continued to support our organisation over the past 7 years.
