Acknowledgment to country
We see you Dharug people
We hear you Dharug people
We thank you Dharug people
Hear is the land, here is the sky, here are my friends and here am I. We thank you Dharug people for the land on which we learn and play. Hands up, hands down we are on Dharug ground
MOTHER’S DAY MORNING TEA
We invite you a special morning tea on Wednesday 7th May 9.30-10.30am.
An invitation has been sent to all families
STAFF NEWS
We welcome Miss Jess back from her maternity leave. Miss Jess will be working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. You will see Miss Jess in Poohs corner and Tiggers. We are excited to have her back.
STAFF TRAINING
| Name | Professional development |
| Jo | Child protection refresher 26/3/25
Narragunnawali Celebrate National Reconciliation week webinar 27/3/25 Numeracy and literacy |
| Allison | Mental health and wellbeing 26/3/25
Assessment and rating 1/4/25 child safety and self-assessment tool 1/4/25 Making an effective notification 8/4/25 |
| Emma | Safe sleep webinar 6/3/25
Team player 14/3 Child protection refresher 26/3/25 |
| Chloe | Safe sleep webinar 5/3/25
Child protection refresher 26/3/25 Child safe series from the OCG 1st April and 17th April
|
| Shubhi | Safe sleep webinar 6/3/25
Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Rokaya | Safe sleep webinar 5/3/25 |
| Jemma | Safe sleep webinar 5/3/25
Cooking with children 13/3 Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Annaliese | Understanding the learning framework practices 29/1/25
Safe sleep webinar 17/3/25 Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Sophie | Child led guiding the curriculum 6/3/25
Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Katelyn | Learning opportunities for preschoolers 29/1/25
Open ended learning opportunities 6/3/25 Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Paige | Observation webinar 29/1/25
Thinking holistically about play 6/3/25 Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Rupinder | Embedding school readiness int experiences 21/3/25
Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Rhiannon | Using descriptive language to help children to regulate 29/1/25
Aboriginal cultural safety framework 5-week series Critical reflection 21/3/25 Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Emily | Conducting research projects 7/3/25 |
| Brianna | Cooking with children webinar 21/2/25 |
| Amanda | Safe sleep webinar 13/4/25
Child protection refresher 26/3/25
|
| Simran | Safe sleep webinar 6/3/25 |
| Gaby | Engaging children during play 6/3/25
Rare, Accountability Rare, Cleaning Rare Engaging environments Rare Inclusion Rare Hygiene |
Lots of professional development completed; this is something we are passionate about- learning, growing, applying our learning to practice.
Mandatory reporters
Do you know that all our educators at Hunny Pots ELC are mandatory reporters. Our reporting authority is Department of communities and justice
Child protection helpline
Ph: 132111 (24 hours)
Online
Mandatory reporters with less serious concerns can use e reporting.
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!
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 unable to administer any over the counter medication at Hunny Pots e.g.: cough mixtures etc.
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 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 immediate 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 cannot 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; clearance from the doctor is required. Please see illness policy for all the details. (sent via email and in our policy folder in the foyer)
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.
CHILD SAFE STANDARDS
This month our child safe standard drivers Miss Sophie and Miss Chloe have been closely working alongside educators to continue to further our knowledge regarding the child safe standards. Miss Sophie and Miss Chloe this month have had educators focusing on standard 3- families and communities are informed and involved, prompting each room to write a blurb sharing how we involve families, for our Facebook page.
Standard 4- equity is upheld and diverse needs are taken into account, Miss Chloe and Miss Sophie found an informative article for educators to read, ‘How can education and care services and their organisations implement this Standard’, using this article to reflect on what we do and how we can improve. Miss Chloe and Miss Sophie for each standard love finding different ways to inform and develop educators’ knowledge about the standards, through sharing articles, informative videos, research, reflective questions for the educators to engage in and use their time off the floor to engage in these materials. Through us focusing on the child safe standards this helps educators to further adding layers to their preexisting knowledge which benefits engagement with children.
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 childcare 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 childcare 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 and families will have a Child Care Subsidy debt to pay.
CHILD CARE SUBSIDY
Each financial year (child care subsidy year) your child has 42 allowable absences – it’s families responsibilities to monitor their absences.
If you have exceeded absences and your child is unwell, you can provide a medical certificate to the centre to have documentation – this can assist in not claiming absence (only AFTER exceeding your absences this can be used)
Childcare subsidy rules are a Government regulation – decisions made regarding childcare subsidy is from the Government/ not a business policy.
We must comply and follow to pass on childcare subsidies to families.
Please see the link for more information
SELF ASSESSMENT TOOL
Every fortnight our educators get time off the floor to look through our self-assessment tool to look at, refine or add layers to our key practices that we embed on a daily basis. We are constantly researching and implementing new ideas for continuous improvement. We have currently been looking at our risk assessments we conduct daily and looking to see how we can include children in our risk assessments. We have added questions to ask the children to get their input. This is such a valuable learning experience for the children as they start looking at risk during their play and how we can control these risks.
RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN
For Rap this month the educators have been working on our RAP progress notes brainstorming and writing progress notes to advance and showcase our reconciliation journey on how Hunny Pots Early Learning Centre are meaningfully implementing the actions committed in our Reconciliation Action plan.
In the three rooms we have documented how we are embedding Torres Strait and Aboriginal Perspectives in our Curriculum, also through our projects linking them to 8 ways of learning framework.
We are also continuing to develop and strengthen our strong relationships within our community and outer community. Thank You Deadly Science for your donation of science resources books and Lego construction for Hunny Pots Early learning Centre as this has been a great resource for furthering our science skills.
We also liaised with Nabiac Early Learning Centre in Port Macquarie sharing our cultural learning and perspectives and looking forward to them sharing some vegetable seeds with us.
VEGGIE MONTH
Over the past month, we proudly celebrated Veggie Month across all of our rooms. Supported by the Munch and Move initiative, Veggie Month encourages children to explore and enjoy a wide variety of vegetables while engaging in daily physical activity. This year, we embraced the theme in creative and engaging ways, adapting experiences to suit each age group and developmental stage. Some of the experiences were taste testing, cooking, gardening, reading stories, singing songs, connecting to our community by inviting Holy Cross students to participate in cooking and gardening experiences. This was only a small snap shot of the amazing learning children were exposed to teach them the importance of eating veggies.
EVENTS
May-
- Composting week 4-10th May
- Outdoor Classroom Day 8th May THURSDAY
- Mother’s Day Wednesday 7th April
- National Family week 12 – 18th May – information about the fun experiences planned has been sent to families
- Road safety week 11th– 18th May
- National simultaneous Story-time 21ST May WEDNESDAY
- National reconciliation week May 27th – June 3rd
JUNE –
- World environmental day 5th June THURSDAY
- World ocean day 9th June MONDAY
- Show – Jack and Jill up bravery hill child protection show 18th June WEDNESDAY
- International Day of Yoga 20th June FRIDAY
- B Kinder Day June 23RD MONDAY
Save the dates:
Eye testing for 4 years – Tuesday 26th August – details to come
Re-enrolments for 2026 –will be sent to all existing families August 2025.
Photos – 19th and 21st August – details to come
CLOSURE – This year’s closures dates are:
Last day Friday 19th December 2025- reopening Monday 5th January 2026.