MOTHER’S DAY MORNING TEA
We invite you to a special morning tea on Friday 12th May 9.30-10.30am.
An invitation has been sent to all families.
COOLER WEATHER
We do go outside in the cooler months – we ask for children to be dressed appropriately for outside play. We encourage active play outside to stay fit and healthy!
MENU REVIEW
We submitted two of our weekly menus for review to Munch and Move (NSW Health) They have been acknowledged and approved, covering dietary guidelines that support healthy eating.
We have added some different options to our menu to keep our menus current and interesting!
STAFF TRAINING
All of our team completed the Child Protection Refresher webinar in April.
Miss Jess and Miss Kim completed the Principles; Equity, Inclusion and high expectations webinar
Miss Shubhi and Miss Jo completed the Principle; Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander webinar
Miss Emily completed the Principle; Sustainability EYLF V2 webinar
Miss Emma, Miss Sophie, Miss Rokaya and Miss Brianna completed the Understanding the learning Framework ; Learning Outcomes webinar
Miss Chloe completed the Practices; EYLF V2 webinar
Miss Kim and Miss Shubhi participated in the Munch and Move refresher modules.
STAFF NEWS
Miss Allison will be taking Long Service leave throughout this year during the school holidays.
Miss Jess has her last day on Friday 28th April in preparation for her first baby due mid May. Miss Jess will return to Hunny Pots ELC in October 2023.
Welcome Miss Randeep to our team. Miss Randeep has been working casually at Hunny Pots ELC and commences a permanent part time role Monday to Friday 9am-3pm this year.
UPDATING OF POLICIES
We update our policies annually with staff and family feedback.
We updated our medical conditions policy in April and sent it to all families via our software Hub Hello.
INCURSIONS/RESOURCES/ FUNDING
We have been using our Start Strong funding for 3-4 years and 4-5 years for incursions and resources.
Throughout March and April, we had Ready Steady Go – physical activity, Bravehearts Child protection show, and the Crazy Scientist show come in!
We have loved following children’s interests, goals and intentional teaching leading up to our shows; then extending on these experiences after the show/activity.
We thank you for the positive parent feedback on the learning from home that you see from experiences that occur at Hunny Pots ELC.
We have booked lots more in for throughout the year!
SUSTAINABILITY
Thanks to all the families who are giving us verbal feedback and as well as through e-mails. We are so happy to teach sustainable practices to children and taking care of Dharug land. Our Banana Water project in Poohs Coner has been very successful with families and community. We have harvested pumpkins from our vege garden and are teaching mathematical concepts, such as comparing sizes, counting, cooking, safety around plants to the children in a meaningful manner with hands on learning. Children are displaying more respect for the land through conversation and showing interest in learning to take care of the land in everyday life, such as telling each other to stop wasting paper, one paper to wipe our hands after washing, recycling materials in correct bins, feeding worms and composting on a regular basis etc.
WITHDRAWAL OF YOUR CHILD/REDUCING DAYS
Parents must give at least three weeks written notice to the Director before withdrawing their child from Hunny Pots. If the child does not attend the Centre during this period, fees are still payable (please see the below section: A child who has not yet received care or who has ceased receiving care) If the child is withdrawn without notice, three weeks full fees must be paid regardless.
Parents may reduce their child’s days of attendance by giving three weeks’ notice to the Director.
No notice period accepted in December and January for withdrawing or reducing days.
A child who has not yet received care or who has ceased receiving care
Below is from the Child Care Handbook Australian Government Department of Education and Training:
Child Care Subsidy will not be paid for absences where a provider charges a family to reserve a place for a child who has not yet physically started care.
If a child is booked in to start at a service on a particular date, and does not start on that day, no Child Care Subsidy will be paid until the child physically attends a session of care.
Similarly, a child care service is taken to have permanently ceased providing care for a child on the day the child last physically attends a session of care. This means that Child Care Subsidy will not be paid for absences submitted after a child last physically attends a session of care.
If a family has confirmed their child’s last day at a service, but that child does not attend their last booked sessions of care, no Child Care Subsidy will be paid for any days after the child’s last physical attendance at the service.
PLEASE ATTEND YOUR LAST DAY for child care subsidy reasons
If a provider continues to charge fees for sessions on days after a child has left the service because the family did not give the agreed period of notice, Child Care Subsidy will not be payable for these sessions of care. If absences are reported in the above circumstances and Child Care Subsidy is incorrectly paid, these amounts will be recovered from the service.
ILLNESS
A timely reminder to ensure all children with an illness stay at home to rest and recover.
A very big thank you to our families, for your proactive efforts in keeping your unwell children at home. We have certainly noticed many children absent due to colds and flu. By keeping your children home to rest and recover, you are helping your families and other children in our care and our team by not infecting others.
Please remember, if your child has Panadol or Nurofen in their system, they are not to come to Hunny Pots. You are only masking the symptoms and the illness will spread to other children and our educators.
We are able to administer prescribed antibiotics (after your child has been taking it for 24hours); you will need to complete a medication form (near the sign in/out sheets in foyer).
We are unable to administer any over the counter medication at Hunny Pots e.g.: cough mixtures etc.
We are only able to administer Panadol at Hunny Pots if a child has a temperature of 38 degrees or above and with parent consent/ once and arrange for pick up.
If your child presents any illness symptoms, we will call you to arrange an immediate pick up. Your child will not be able to attend for a full business day after being sent home – eg: sent home at 10am Wednesday, they can not return Thursday at all. This is to ensure the child is well and not passing on any infections.
We will also give you a courtesy call if your child is feeling “off” – no immediate pick up is needed.
Children are to stay home with any cold/flu symptoms. If they have a non contagious symptom; a clearance from the doctor is required.
These practices are in place to protect all children, families and our educators from the spread of illness. We are consistent with our policies for all families.
We thank you in advance for your cooperation.
IMMUNISATION = ENROLMENT
Please ensure that throughout the year if your child receives an immunisation e.g.: 12 months, 18months or 4years, you will need to provide your child’s immunisation status record to us.
Due to Government regulations, we are unable to enroll unimmunised children – failure to provide immunisation records = no enrolment.
You are required to keep your child at home for 24hours to monitor any side effects after immunisation/flu shot etc. (please see policy).
We appreciate your cooperation.
NATIONAL QUALITY FRAMEWORK – Quality Area 4: Focuses on the organisation and the professionalism of educators, staff and management. These standards are crucial to delivering quality outcomes for children under the National Quality Framework.
Professional and collaborative relationships between management, educators and staff support continuous improvement, leading to improved learning experiences and outcomes for children.
Balance of long-standing educators with new educators.
Careful organisation of staff contributes to the continuous support of each child’s learning and development in an effectively supervised environment.
Professional standards set quality benchmarks for educators’ practice and relationships.
At Hunny Pots Early Learning Centre:
* We do have a weekly roster outlining staffing arrangements for the week and this is informed to families via our Day books
* Fortnightly allocation of educator shifts; some educator’s/teachers have set shifts
* Our staffing arrangements also cover rotation of educators to provide a balance across all rooms/ages.
* Educators are placed in the rooms according to their skills, goals and ability to foster each child’s learning and care.
*Educators rostering and routines, support supervision of the children.
*Availability of higher qualifications staff and additional educators than required by the regulations.
*We ensure quality interactions with children and are not impacted with paper work requirements (ample time off the floor provided)
* Educators are well informed about ECA code of ethics, to establish professional standards to guide every practice.
* At Hunny Pots Early Learning Centre, the educators have input into the Quality improvement plan and Miss Allison our Educational Leader consistently updates the key practices to the self -assessment portal.
* Each room, has educators meeting the educator : child ratios. We have extra staff each day to accommodate for programming, time to reflect on questions, officer time, room release times. These are documented in the roster running sheets and can be seen in child’s portfolios, reflective books, this enriches our program for the children’s learning.
* We have a running sheet displayed on our notice board which shows the number of children in each room and the number of staff we have. We show how many trained staff we have which is over the 50% than needed.
* We have long standing staff which are very familiar with all our families, especially our returning families who have been attending Hunny Pots ELC for a long period of time.
* The staff roster is communicated with families in our Day book. It shows who is in the room their shift time and if staff are on annual leave /sick leave/long service leave. All staff write in our actively working with children folder writing their break times and if they have time off the floor programming etc.
RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN
Miss Jo did a zoom with Koori Curriculum on Aboriginal Art in Early Childhood
How do we use Aboriginal art and items from Aboriginal culture in our services? Thinking about, are we being respectful of the pieces we may have acquired and are we aware of the deep connection between art and country, identify and belonging to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders?
Aboriginal art is embedded with stories and traditional knowledge and often stories are expressed as art as a way of preserving these stories and knowledge for future generations and we should honour this in our education care services.
Aboriginal art is always linked to the family, the land and to the sea that have existed for thousands of years. It can just never be admired as ‘art’ outside of the context. An Aboriginal Artist’s practice is informed by their connection to country and their people’s history.
Aboriginal art can be taught through stories, music, loose parts, creating culturally inclusive play space, using symbol cards as provocation, using stones with different symbols. Don’t limit children exposure to just local art. We are encouraged to teach about the diversity of Aboriginal peoples and therefore use art provocations from the broader Australian Indigenous contexts.
EVENTS
May
Poohs Corner Excursion to Caddies Creek Public School Library – Tuesday 2nd May and Thursday 4th May.
Mother’s day Morning Tea – Friday 12th May 9.30am to 10.30am
EID – 12th May
National Families Week – 15th to 21st May – details to come
Road Safety week 15th – 21st May
Humpty Dumpty in a scrambled mess show – Friday 19th May Road Safety for 2-5 years 9.45am
Outdoor Classroom Day – 20th May
Music Show for Eeyores and Tiggers 25th May 10am to 11.30am
National Simultaneous Story time 25th May
National Sorry Day 26th May
National Reconciliation Week / Wear it Yellow 27th May – 3rd June
Sydney Zoo visit – Tuesday 30th May (connecting with Reconciliation Week)
June
World Environment day 5th June
Ocean day 8th June
Nyumbar Aboriginal Education – all rooms Tuesday 20th June 10am start
International Day of Yoga and Make Music day 21st June
Ready Steady Go incursion for Tiggers and Poohs Corner Wednesday 28th June 10.15-10.45/ 10.45-11.15
Save the dates:
Eye testing for 4 years – Tuesday 8th August and Friday 11th August (morning)
Re enrolments for 2024 – sent to all existing families August 2023.
Photos – Tuesday 22nd August and Thursday 24th August (morning)
Poohs Corner Graduation at Lollipops Playland – Friday 15th December
CLOSURE – This years closures dates are:
Last day Friday 22nd December 2023 – reopening Monday 8th January 2024.