​From the Office:

Hi everyone, normally I don't do a segment from the office in the newsletter when the classes do theirs, but we have had a very exciting month here at Footprints and I just wanted to share with you all some of what has been happening.

Firstly at the end of July, we were fortunate to host a child care industry expert, Caroline Fewster to come to our centre and give us industry feedback on how we can work towards achieving a good result in our next round of assessment and rating. From this visit we have received a report and will be working closely on implementing the suggestions within the centre.

The first step that we have taken is by removing and purchasing new outdoor mats, these mats are eco friendly and easier to move and clean compared to the old mats we previously had. Room by room we will be doing the same. The Nursery classroom was the first classroom to receive new mats and we will work on the other rooms as the year goes by. This is just a start of what we are working on.

In the month of August we celebrated the centre's 8th birthday. We all enjoyed a combined centre birthday party to celebrate, complete with cake and balloons.

We hosted our popular movie night, where parents get to go and have a date night whilst we have fun watching movies. We all enjoyed the dinner and snacks that were provided as well, making Mums and Dad's jobs at getting the children here that evening much easier. Keep an eye out to see when our next one will be.

At the beginning of this month - Miss Shelly, Miss Alison, Miss Sharon and Miss Bernadette all completed their Auslan course that they have been attending every Tuesday night via Deaf Services Queensland. They have all enjoyed undertaking this course and the lessons and many signs they have learned from attending. Great work girls, we look forward to seeing you all demonstrate your signing skills.

At the beginning of this month, we hosted the a photographer who was here on behalf of the Department of Education and Training, who was taking photos of the children and educators (and even a few lucky parents), in the environment of a child care centre as we go through our day, these photos will be part of a campaign that they are putting together. Once the campaign is finalised and put together I look forward to sharing this with you all.

We also celebrated Early Childhood Educator's Day, thank you to all of the parents who took time to share messages on our Facebook page, the staff were just in awe of all your beautiful words. They truly help us to keep in check why we do what we do. Thank you.

Till next month, 

With a smile :-)

Glenda

 Please don't forget:

The centre has a Facebook page - please like and check this regularly as we find this is a great way to get information out to parents and the community quickly. Please feel free to interact with comments - we love to hear from you.

Parents, please also remember that in private groups on the Facebook page is your child's class. The daily reflection (the story of the day that the educators put up on their walls about the day with the pictures) is now available each day in these groups. This means you can read this and see the photos any time, anywhere - whether it be on the train home from work, or on the couch at midnight. To be able to see this, if you haven't already joined the group, you need to go to the main page, groups, find your child's group then send a join request.

Thank you to the parents who have shared such positive feedback in regards to having the daily reflections available online. We enjoy being able to share with you in more time friendly and accessible ways.

​Dates to remember:

​SEPTEMBER	​​OCTOBER
​Wednesday 6th - Early Childhood Educators Day	​Monday 2nd - Public Holiday, Centre Closed
​Wednesday 6th - Photo shoot with Department of Education and Training	​Wednesday 4th - World Animal Day - activities TBA
​Thursday 7th - Itty Bitty Stars Pirate Show	​Thursday 19th - Diwali Show and festivities

Next month we are looking forward to celebrating Diwali. Miss Amandeep and Miss Gurpal will be guiding these festivities as we will be celebrating a festival from their culture. One highlight of this is we have managed to secure a show on the celebration day to help make things more fun and festive. More information to come. Why do celebrate ? Who celebrates ? and how ? Read on to find out ...

Diwali or Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights celebrated every year in autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in southern hemisphere). It is an official holiday in Fiji, Guyana, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and recently Sindh Province in Pakistan. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, it spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair. Its celebration includes millions of lights shining on housetops, outside doors and windows, around temples and other buildings in the communities and countries where it is observed^. The festival preparations and rituals typically extend over a five-day period. In the Gregorian calendar, Diwali night falls between mid-October and mid-November. (WIKIPEDIA)

News from the Classrooms:

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Happy Reading ...

 Have a wonderful month everyone !