August Newsletter

From the Centre Manager 

Welcome everyone to our latest newsletter edition. 

We have had a very busy month. There have been many events happening and winter has displayed her full force with the cold weather and some sniffles and snuffles.

Our room educators have been very busy with their curriculum's and working towards children achieving many developmental goals. When you are in the centre please take the time to stop and read the learning stories on the room curriculum walls. These will inform you of the learning that has occurred throughout the day and which goals from the Early Years Learning Framework are being developed. Our room leaders spend a lot of time organizing, evaluating and observing for their programs and displaying them for you to see. 

Also dont forget that we love parent and family input for our program so if you have any ideas, special events, stories about the weekend or special practices that you would like to share, please do so. Some of you have hidden talents that we did not know of. Can you play an instrument? Cook a special dish? Read a story? We would love to invite you into our classrooms to share with the children. 

​Whats been happening! 

 Last month our Senior Kindy and Pre-school children traveled to the Queensland Museum on an excursion. This was a wonderful experience and needless to say a very tiring day. The educators and children bought home a lot of information and ideas to include in the program. Dinosaurs have been a popular theme in both rooms and you will see the children's displays around the walls. Our children were wonderfully behaved and we are all very proud of them. Thank you to all of our parent helpers who came along on the day. Without you the excursion may not have gone ahead. We hope you all had a wonderful day as well. 

We have also had Ross and Belinda from Revolution Learning come into the centre with their magical musical experiences. The children were introduced to many different instruments and learnt about mindful movement, meditation and story telling. These were awesome experiences for all age groups and the children thoroughly enjoyed these incursions. 

We also had staff from our local Bunnings come out and explain how our new worm farm works and help us set it up properly. This is a permanent fixture now in our outdoor area and the children will all take part in caring for our worm farm. This is in turn will produce natural fertiliser for our back garden to help it grow.  

Our Book week parade has been one of our major events this month with most of the children coming along in costume as their favourite storybook character.  Our parade was spectacular and the children received special awards for their costume efforts. we would like to thank our parents who of course had a huge part to play in this. A special thank-you to our parent judges on the day who had the hard task of deciding overall winners.

 We have also had our centre school photos in the past weeks. These should be back very soon for you all. 

Upcoming Events 

Staffing!  

It is with great sadness that we inform our families that one of our much loved educators will be leaving our team. Miss Melissa will be saying goodbye to us to pursue a new life in Darwin. Her last day will be Friday 14th September. We are heartbroken to be losing her but also happy for her to be taking on a new adventure in life and wish her every bit of happiness! She will be dearly missed at the centre. 

​We are currently advertising and interviewing for a new Lead Educator. In the meantime Miss Pamela will step up into the Lead Educator role in the toddler room.

​Long Service Leave: Kelly will be on long service leave from 3rd December 2018 until 19th January 2019. Miss Sarah is currently training in the office so she can help you with any inquiries. Miss Kathryn will be assisting her while Kelly is away.

Did you know that we have several staff who have been at the centre for almost 10 years? Miss Kan has been here for 10 years, Miss Sarah has been with us 9 years, Miss Gordana has been with us 10 years and Miss Kathryn has also been with us for 9 years. 

Centre Policies

Delivery and Collection Policy. Please be reminded that parents are required to deliver children to a staff member upon drop off and also to make contact with staff upon pick up. There are times when staff are busy with children, other parents and centre procedures so please make yourself known to staff when dropping and collecting your children. 

Illness and Infectious Disease Policy. It is distressing to find out that children have been given Panadol or Nurofen in the morning to reduce a fever and then dropped off at the centre.  A fever is generally a sign of an underlying problem and children should be kept at home until they are well. We would also like to express our concern with the number of children being bought into the centre with signs and symptoms of illness. This does not help eradicate germs, more so it spreads them not only to children but also staff and puts others at risk of serious illness. Once again we request that you keep children at home if they are unwell. Our Illness policy outlines that children will not be admitted to the centre when displaying symptoms of ill health. 

 Photos and Social Media

As you are all aware we have cameras throughout the centre and take photographs of the children for observations, learning stories and media posts. Please be aware that due to the number of children, the time they arrive and depart, the events of the day and your responses on your media permission forms- not all children will be a part of learning stories or posts on a daily basis. In the rooms, staff endeavor to incorporate all children in photographs over the week however cannot always display a photo of every child every day. We appreciate your understanding of this. 

Re-enrolments for 2019 

In the coming weeks our re-enrolment forms will be going out to families for 2019. As Kelly will be out of the office from December through to next January we request that you please return these as soon as possible with your requested days and any holidays in order to secure your child's enrolment. We will send out emails and post on our blog when these are available. 

 Last of all , from everyone here at the centre we would like to wish all of our Dads, Uncles and Granddads a Happy Fathers Day! We hope you have a wonderful day and are totally spoilt by your families.