Indigenous Acknowledgement: Here 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. Hand up, hands down. We are on Dharug ground. We see you Dharug people, We hear you Dharug people, And we thank you Dharug people
ENROLMENTS
We sincerely thank you for your ongoing enrolments at Hunny Pots ELC.
Enrolment confirmations have been sent to existing families.
New enrolment confirmations for 2026 to new families will be sent over September/October.
For existing families: Update of bonds are due by Tuesday 2nd September 2025 (via iPay, added to your invoice) to secure your child’s days of attendance for 2026.
Reducing confirmed days for 2026 after Tuesday 2nd September 2025 (eg: reducing days from 5 days to 2 days) will mean you to forfeit your bond for the days reduced.
Withdrawing your child’s enrolment for 2026 after Tuesday 2nd September will forfeit your full bond.
Your child’s current enrolment pattern (from September 2025) must be ongoing throughout 2025 to maintain your confirmed 2026 enrolment. Any notice / withdrawal / reduction will void this 2026 confirmation.
ORIENTATION
Over the coming months, children from Eeyores and Tiggers Place will be participating in orientation if they are moving up a room for 2026. We will do this in small groups to ensure ratios are being met. If your child has participated in orientation, we will let you know. We will be working closely with all families on any strategies to assist with our transitions.
New children starting in 2026, will have orientation in November & December.
SUN PROTECTION/CLOTHING
Heading into Spring, the change of season; Please remember, our Sun Protection Policy states for all children to wear a broad brimmed, legionnaire’s style hat, or bucket style hat – NO BASEBALL HATS ALOWED.
Also, children must wear clothing that covers their shoulders – NO SINGLETS, STRAP DRESSES, MUSCLE TOPS OR THONGS ALLOWED.
This is to encourage lifelong sun protection skills for your child.
TRANSITION TO SCHOOL STATEMENTS
We are continuing to implement Transition to School Statements for the children going to school next year. We are using the Digital format/ portal – consent forms have been sent to families.
These Transition to School Statements are for active Poohs Corner enrolments going to school in 2026.
Our Pooh’s Corner teachers will be working on the statements – with family consent, these statements will be sent to the school through the NSW Department of Education portal.
We are honored to be working again in partnership with families and schools to transition our children to school in 2026.
LUNCHBOX DAYS/CRUNCH AND SIP FOR POOHS CORNER
Coming up we have our Lunchbox and crunch and sip days in term 4. This is part of our school readiness program and vital for children and families. Information about this will be sent in a separate email.
PARENT /COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Over the last couple of months, we have provided lots of opportunities for families and our community to come in and participate in our curriculum. We invited families to come in and view their child’s portfolio to see all the learning your child has done throughout the year. This was a great opportunity to also ask families if they have any new goals for us to work on and to provide any new information regarding their child’s interests and strengths. During the portfolio viewing week we had families come in and read stories to the children, talk about their profession and just play. Another opportunity we gave families was in early learning matters week where we invited families to come and engage with their children and to see what learning occurs through different experiences. We love having families involved in our curriculum. We have an open-door policy where you are more than welcome to come at any time to read a story, do some craft or just be with your children.
Over the last couple of months, we have been engaging with our surrounding schools to help assist the children prepare for big school. We are so proud of the connections we have with Holy Cross and Caddies Creek. Some children have had the opportunity to participate in excursions to Holy Cross and Caddies Creek. We were also fortunate to have a small group of year 5 students participate in our science week program. All children loved engaging with the year 5 students. There was so much joy and laughter. We will endeavor to organise more excursions with both Caddies and Holy Cross. This is all dependent on the school’s availability.
STAFFING NEWS
Rokaya has just recently completed her Diploma. It is with sadness that Rokaya has decided to resign. Her last day will be Friday 26th September. It has been a pleasure watching Rokaya grow as an amazing educator. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors.
Paige has finished her certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education and Care and has been signed up to complete her Diploma traineeship.
Katelyn has started studying to become and Early Childhood Teacher – due to this, Katelyn’s working hours have been adjusted
Simran has also started studying for her graduate diploma, due to this her working hours have also been adjusted.
INTERGENERALTIONAL PROJECT
We are so excited to be a part of the intergenerational project. This started on Thursday 14th August. It will run every Thursday for 20 weeks. We have a group of 10 children participating in the program with a group of elderly. This will be such a beneficial project which we are so blessed to be a part of.
CHILD SAFE STANDARDS
As of recently all educators have been reviewing our documents relating to Child Safe Standards. This has included the ‘Commitment to Children’s Safety’, ‘Risk Management Plan’ and various policies and procedures. Through working in partnership with each other in the room and in collaboration with Child Safe Standard drivers and Management, each educator has refreshed their knowledge regarding children’s safety while gaining additional knowledge to implement daily which maintains a high level of children’s safety. Hunny Pots has also recently worked in partnership with the community (families) to incorporate various opinions, ideas and questions into these reviews to create a collaborative approach between all parties, prioritizing the children’s health, safety and wellbeing. Additionally, to educators refreshing their knowledge surrounding policies and procedures, educators have begun implementing a direct focus to Child Safe Standards in the curriculum, documenting this weekly to provide evidence to child safe practices within the rooms. This focus has linked to Child Safe Standard 10 – ‘Policies and procedures document how the organization is child safe’.
New child safety requirements
Changes to the national regulations come into effect on 1st September to better support the safety of children attending ECEC services.
Services must have policy and procedures in place for the safe use of digital technologies and online environments
Notifications timeframes for allegations or incidents of physical and sexual abuse will reduce from 7 days to 24 hours
Services must ensure environments are free from the use of vaping substances and devices.
Due to these changes we have updated our child safe policies which we have been emailing to our families each week.
SELF ASSESSMENT TOOL (SAT)
Over the last couple of months, the educators have been focusing on quality area 3 physical environment, looking at how we set up our environments, small groupings, risky play and inclusive environments. Educators have been reflecting on these and reading different articles to strengthen their knowledge. I have attached 2 links that the educators have been reading to give families an understanding of different articles we read.
https://kudisabilityinclusion.com.au/resources/sensory-processing-guidebook
https://kudisabilityinclusion.com.au/resources/emotional-regulation-guidebook
RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN (RAP)
Our RAP is due to be refreshed in September. Our educators have been working collaboratively to look at our existing goals and our progress notes to look at any new goals and if our existing goals we will carry over. We will let you know when our new version of RAP gets launched.
Door Tags
This is a reminder to make sure you have your door tag with you when dropping off and picking up your child. This is for child’s safety. If you do accidentally forget to have it, please call the centre and an educator will let you in. If you have lost your door tag, please let management know immediately.
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.
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.
You must attend the last day of care to receive child care subsidy on your last day.
UPCOMING EVENTS
September
- Pyjama Day Tuesday 2nd September
- Early Childhood Educators Day 3rd September WEDNESDAY
- Indigenous literacy day Wednesday 3rd September
- Show – Across the C’s with sailor Mcgee social development show and ‘becoming me with Miss FeatherBee’ child protection show 4th September THURSDAY
- Father’s day afternoon tea Thursday 4th September
- Jersey Day à Friday 5th September
- International Literacy Day 8th September MONDAY
- Child protection week – 7th September – 13th September
- R U OK? Day 11th September Thursday – wear yellow
- Bravehearts Day 12th September FRIDAY
October
- Day for Daniel Day 31st October FRIDAY – we invite children to wear red
- Recycling Man Show 28th October TUESDAY
CLOSURE DATES FOR 2025/2026 – Last day for 2025 Friday 19th December 2025 – we reopen Monday 5th January 2026.
Please click this link to download the child safety handbook. It a very informative which talks about all thing’s safety with children.
https://nsw.childsafetyhub.com.au/handbook/