Footprints Celebrates its 12th birthday !
On Monday 24th August 2009 Footprints Sunnybank opened its doors to the first lot of children to begin taking steps into creating our Footprints Centre and Family and beginning to make it what it is today.
On day 1 - we had 4 children attend, 1 Nursery child, 1 Toddler, 1 Junior Kindy and 1 Senior Kindy, with Miss Glenda here the whole day and 4 other staff sharing shifts, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.
For those of you that are with us at the centre now and see how busy we are with so many children each day, can you just imagine the centre with just 4 children in the entire centre. Of course we were all only in the one room.
On days 2, 3 and 4 we grew to 6 and day 5 we had 3. At this stage we then had 2 classrooms open, and this stayed like this until mid October when we could finally open the 3rd classroom.
Early 2010 saw that then growing to be 4 classrooms needed to be in operation. March 2010 was when we were able to open the 5th and final classroom.
Now you see a busy 5 classrooms being open and the centre has 21 staff, when we opened we had a total of 9 staff employed. 2 ended up being needed desperately at one of our sister centres, so we moved them there. Growing from 1 classroom and 7 staff to 5 classrooms and 21 staff we have certainly travelled a long way. During this time too the centre has seen its 3 playgrounds all be renovated in 2019 and 2020 and this year the interior of the centre is getting a facelift, as will the exterior. It is like having a brand new centre again.
Dates to remember -
Date -
Wednesday 25/08/2021
Thursday & Friday 26 & 27/08/2021
Wednesday 1/09/2021
Event -
Book Week Celebration (dress up as your favourite book character)
Centre Photos
Early Childhood Educators Day
Staffing update -
Miss Sinead is leaving -
For those who have missed the news on EDUCA -
After 11 and a half years of working at Footprints, Miss Sinead will sadly be leaving us to move onto new employment, in another sector.
She is moving on to pursue her passion of working with people with disabilities.
It is an interest she discovered whilst working at Footprints. Sinead has had opportunities during her time here to work with both children and adults with disabilities and this has ignited her passion. We are excited for her and support her new career move, however of course, we are sad to see her leave.
She has been an amazing core educator here at the centre and I know she has made an impact in so many children's and families' lives over the course of her time here.
We wish her all the best and know that she will keep in touch.
Her last day here will be Friday 3rd of September, 2021.
Her replacement will be Miss Felicity.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask either Sinead or myself.
Thank you for your understanding and I know you will join with me in thanking Sinead for her amazing work.
We have appointed our first School based trainee -
Please welcome Larissa, our first school based trainee. You will see Larissa around the centre on Mondays during school terms. Please help make her feel welcome and say hi when you see her next.
Miss Song has had her baby -
We are happy to share with you all that Miss Song has had a healthy baby boy. She finished up with us on Friday 30th July and her waters broke on the following Sunday. How is that for timing ! Both mum and baby are doing well.
Miss Rupa is returning soon -
Miss Rupa is returning in a few weeks ! We cannot wait. For the remainder of 2021 Miss Rupa will be a float educator as she eases herself back into working life and learning how to be a working mum. We cant wait to see her when she comes back !
Renovations -
The renovations are underway and the changes that we can see to the centre so far are wonderful. Things are feeling bright and fresh. We hope you are liking the new look and want to say thank you for your patience during this time.
What a big difference a make over looks - Kindergarten for example, the room feels bigger and yet nothing was extended !
Let us know what you think 💖
Fun Smiles Dental Visit -
On Thursday 19th August, we hosted the Fun Smiles Dental Van. Participating children got to go out to the van with an educator and have their dental session. Some children were brave and breezed through the process, some needed a little extra love and care to get through the process.
After their visit the children were given a goodies bag, which contained an new toothbrush, colouring page, information about the visit for their parents, sticker, certificate. They were excited to come back and show us what they had got as well as tell us all about their adventure in the dental van.
Fun smiles ran a competition for all who attended for the chance to win an electric toothbrush and Ollie from our SK room was the lucky winner ! Congrats Ollie !
Fun smiles will be back in 6 months for routine check up/follow up - Wednesday 16th, Thursday 17th and Friday 18th February 2022. We look forward to seeing them when they come back.
Don't forget to sign in using the QR codes and do your part in keeping everyone safe.
Till next month,
Keep safe,
With a smile 😊
Glenda