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
ORIENTATION
Children from Eeyores and Tiggers Place will be participating in orientation if they are moving up a room for 2025. We will do this in small groups to ensure ratios are being met. This will start from 10th November to the 17th December. If your child has participated in orientation, we will let you know.
New families are invited to attend orientation from the 17th November to 5th December. You may hear your children talking about new friends.
2026 ENROLMENTS
As stated in your confirmation email.
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 2025 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 2025 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.
POOH’S CORNER CHILDREN
All Pooh’s Corner enrolments finish on Friday 19th December 2025 (unless January care has already been arranged and confirmed with Monique). We will be refunding bonds mid January 2026. Please let us know via email the bank account you wish to have your bond refunded to.
POOHS CORNER GRADUATION
Poohs Corner Graduation will be on Thursday 27th November at Castle Hill Lollipops Playland 6pm-8pm.
An invitation has been sent to Poohs Corner families. We look forward to celebrating this wonderful milestone.
NATIONAL MODEL CODE
We have implemented the National Model code into our policies. Our educators are following these strategies exceptionally well.
For families; it means – no mobile phone or photo device usage whilst dropping off/picking up children. For events, we will have photo safe areas designated to capture child safe memories. We thank our families for their cooperation.
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 physically attend the last day of care (minimum one hour) to receive child care subsidy on your last day.
SELF ASSESSMENT TOOL (SAT)
We have been providing different opportunities for our educators to further develop their leadership skills. We are very lucky that we have long-standing staff which allows us to have continuity of staff but staff with high qualifications. For us to really nurture the educator’s skills we have given the educators time to walk through other rooms focusing on a quality area to give peer mentoring. This has been so beneficial to our rooms but also our educators doing the walk through. It is fostering their leadership skills, how to deliver feedback to the team and feeling confident. This challenge we have set for our educator’s links to quality area 4 and quality 7 of our quality standards.
REPORTS AND TRANSTION STATEMENTS
The educators are busy completing end of year reports and transitioning to school statements for the children. The educators have loved writing these reports as they can reflect on your child’s learning journey from the start of the year to now. These will be placed in your child’s portfolio which you can read when you are given your child’s portfolio at the end of the year. Regarding transition to school statements, these will be printed off for families to read before we send off to the school your child is attending.
Appraisals
In November, management will be conducting appraisals for all our educators. This is a time for our educators to reflect on their year; reflect on their goals and any future goals they want to work on for next year. Appraisals are a great time to really have a collaborative meeting to celebrate positives and to also continually improve, which we are passionate about.
RAP
In our RAP journey we are continuing to reflect on our current practices to explore meaningful ways to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into learning environments. At Hunny Pots Early Learning Centre, our educators are deeply committed to ongoing reflection and growth in our programs and practices. This month, we are focusing on strengthening our approach to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in meaningful and respectful ways. Through collaborative discussions, reflective tasks, resource exploration, research, and community engagement. We aim to deepen cultural understanding and foster a learning environment that celebrates diversity, honors First Nations cultures, and promotes inclusivity. By weaving cultural knowledge into everyday experiences, we empower children to develop empathy, respect, and a strong sense of belonging.
STAFF NEWS
We welcome Georgia our new trainee completing her certificate 3, please make her feel welcome. You will be seeing her in all rooms
SUMMARY OF THE YEAR
Eeyores
Over the year, the children in Eeyore’s have continued to grow and explore their unique personalities and sense of self-worth. Through engaging projects like dinosaurs, music and movement, books, transport, science-sensory play, and the home corner, each child has found different ways to express themselves and their interests age-appropriately. Their love for stories shines daily as all children often reach for books from the shelves around our room and also ask for “teacher books” throughout the day. The children are consistently asking for the Very Cranky Bear books, repeatedly asking for ‘bear books’ while recognizing the ‘different’ bears (sleepy bear, noisy bear, etc).
In both routine times and play-based learning, Eeyore’s ensure they have a baby doll by their side—following the care they observe educators giving to younger children and re-creating these practices such as patting and singing their ‘babies’ to sleep. While our older children use these traits, they have developed to help care for the younger children, ensuring they feel happy and loved by their older peers. These meaningful play-based learning experiences have supported each child in developing confidence and empathy while growing their sense of identity.
Tiggers
This year in Tigger’s, children have developed a wide range of learning skills across multiple developmental domains. Educators have fostered this growth through play-based learning and intentional teaching within their learning Projects. These Projects are inspired by topics the children show interest in, allowing educators to build on ideas and enrich learning experiences. Tigger’s 2025 Projects have included: Physical Movement, Re-Creating Stories, Zones of Regulation, Creativity, Sensory Exploration, and Dramatic/Role Play. Children have especially enjoyed engaging in water play, drawing, painting, writing, gardening, storytelling, singing, and dancing throughout these Projects.
Some funny quotes our Tigger’s children say that make their peers and educators LAUGH OUT LOUD!
- CHICKEN BANNANA- They all sing this together, with the biggest smiles
- Money With a Blue Bottom (Inclusivity Story)
- KAPISH (The children say this when they understand an instruction)
Poohs
This year in Pooh’s Corner, our educators have embraced a child-led approach, extending learning through interest-based experiences and attentive listening to children’s voices. The children have taken an active role in shaping the program, reflecting their learning through “assessment as learning” practices. Our key projects have included explorations of planets and planet Earth, dramatic play, music and movement, sustainability, gardening, reinventing stories, literacy and numeracy, science, construction and yarning circles. These rich experiences have sparked curiosity, creativity, and deep engagement across all areas of development.
Through our school train experiences and hands-on projects, children have strengthened their literacy, numeracy, social-emotional skills, and fine motor development. Through planting in the garden, dancing to rhythms, exploring cause and effect with different science experiments or retelling stories in new ways, each moment has been a celebration of growth, exploration and discovery. We are so proud of the children’s enthusiasm and the thoughtful ways they contribute to our learning community every day.
Listening to children’s voices on what they enjoyed this year is a wonderful way for the children to share their joy in learning moments reflecting on various experiences they enjoyed.
END OF YEAR EVENTS
Outdoor classroom day – Friday 7th November
Ranger Jamie for Poohs corner 7th November
National recycling week 10th – 16th November
Remembrance Day – Tuesday 11th November
Puddle Ducks Water safety talk – Wednesday 12th November
World Kindness day – Thursday 13th November
Living with dogs safety visit for Poohs corner Wednesday 19th November
Universal Children’s day – Thursday 20th November
December
Human rights day – Wednesday 10th December
Fun end of year activities at Hunny Pots ELC – 15th – 19th December – information coming later!
Tuesday 9th December 3.30pm-5pm– Hunny Pots ELC family Christmas party! Wear Christmas clothes!. Invitation sent to families
Poohs Corner Graduation – Lollipops Playland Castle Hill– Thursday 27th November 6pm-8pm. Invitation sent to Poohs Corner families
Centre Closure over the Christmas break
We will be operating up to and including Friday 19th December and reopening on Monday 5th January 2026. Simon and Monique will be appreciating a break and will be absent from emails/calls 20/12/25 to 4/1/26.