SETTLING IN OF CHILDREN
All new and existing children are settling in to their rooms beautifully.
Please be aware of how normal it is to have some tears in the first few weeks. Even for the children moving rooms, it is normal to have a few tears throughout this transition time. We are very understanding of this and provide a lot of comfort to children settling in. If you have any concerns, please let us know.
Please know you are welcome to attend more orientation to help the break between attendance days e.g. Come and say hello on a day your child doesn’t attend for 30 minutes – you will need to stay. This does help in developing relationships, particularly with your child’s educators.
CAR PARK
Just a friendly reminder that our car park is for use only on the days your child attends.
Please use the car park for drop off and pick up times of your child attending Hunny Pots.
Due to the cameras, we have noticed many families are picking up their school age child (parking in the car park) and then returning a few hours later to pick up their child from Hunny Pots (parking in the car park) – whilst we would love to provide this service, it is not practical as it is taking up valuable car spaces for families who are picking up their child from Hunny Pots at this time.
You are welcome to park in our car park and drop off/collect your school age child whilst drop off/collecting your Hunny Pots child.
We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.
OUR MENU
We have an exciting menu offered to our children daily that has been planned to meet all the dietary requirements of children whilst in care.
We have had our menu approved by NSW Health Munch and Move.
Our children are constantly eating! Our meal times for each room are:
Eeyores:
Breakfast 7am-7.30am, Morning tea 9.15am, Lunch and second course 11.15am, afternoon tea 2.30pm, late snack 4.30pm.
Tiggers Place:
Breakfast 7am-7.30am, Progressive Morning tea 9.30am, Lunch and second course 11.30am, afternoon tea 2.15pm, late snack 4.30pm.
Poohs Corner:
Breakfast 7am-7.30am, Progressive Morning tea 9.30am, Lunch and second course 11.45am, afternoon tea 2.30pm, late snack 4.30pm.
Please look at our menu to see the healthy options that are available. We also include the meals offered in our emailed Daily diary.
Our morning tea is always a delicious fruit and vegetable platter with something else with it e.g : wholemeal crackers with spreads, wholemeal raisin toast, cheese cubes and crackers.
Our lunch options cover meat options as well as vegetarian meals. Did you know that we offer wholemeal pasta, breads and brown rice? Your children are eating well!
Afternoon tea is fruit and vegetable platters with a cup of milk.
Late snack is Lebanese bread with spreads. This late snack is not to fill your child up, it is a snack to tie them over to dinner – we hope they are hungry to have a lovely dinner.
DO TERRA OILS – PEACEFUL CHILD & MELLOW MUMMA ESSENTIALS WORKSHOP AT HUNNY POTS ELC
On Monday 12th February at 6.30pm we will have Gina from Do Terra Oils come to inform us with how oils can be used with children to assist with illness, behaviour etc.
Please RSVP on the RSVP sheet near the sign in/out.
We hope to see you there.
FRONT GATE
Please don’t allow your child to stand on our front gate.
When standing on it, it puts the gate out of balance to close properly.
We hope you can work with us to stop this from happening.
We are able to view through our security cameras children ‘riding’ on the gate.
OFFICE HOURS
Office hours are: 8am – 4.30pm.
INVOICES/ESTIMATING CHILD CARE BENEFIT AND REBATE
Please be aware that our software is linked with the family assistance office, it estimates what your gap fee is each week.
This can change if you have updated your income or have exceeded your child care rebate.
It is not something we manually enter – it comes from the child care management system.
- Please note iPay direct debit will only take out what is owing. If you have any credit etc it will be adjusted accordingly.
IMMUNISATION = ENROLMENT
Please ensure that throughout the year if your child receives an immunisation eg: 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 enrol unimmunised children – failure to provide immunisation records = no enrolment.
We appreciate your cooperation.
LOCKERS FOR YOUR CHILDREN’S BELONGINGS
Please ensure you check the room locker chart on a regular basis. We are constantly updating the locker charts to accommodate extra days, new children etc. Your child may have a different locker for different days. Please put your child’s bag in the correct allocated locker.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
COMMUNICATION WITH FAMILIES
We believe in communicating with our families and passing on as much information as possible to you – without overwhelming you! Throughout the day we write in our curriculum planner(on display in the foyer), complete eat/sleep charts, write a daily diary for each room (on display in the foyer), complete observations and try our best to inform you about your child’s day. We always endeavor to speak to you about your child’s day upon departure. Some parts of the afternoon are peak times, so please be aware that our teachers may not have great lengths of time to speak with you (due to supervision), but we do our best to inform you of any developmental changes, incidents and achievements.
ORIENTATION REVIEW
For families who have participated in our orientation program, we would love your feedback on how this may have assisted your child/family. What did you like? How did this help? What can we improve? Please send us an email with your feedback! Thank you.
GROUP CARE
Our Early Learning Centre is a Long Day Care Centre. This means we are open for a longer day and follow the Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011.
Long Day Care Services are a group care environment. This means we follow ratios of:
0-2 year olds – one teacher for every four children
2-3 year olds – one teacher for every five children
3-5 year olds – one teacher for every ten children
These ratios are for the teachers who are actively supervising the children.
Group care means that whilst we plan individually and have small group interactions, our care isn’t one to one.
If you have any questions about group care – please speak to Monique.
STAFF TRAINING
Miss Monique attended a webinar on “Preparing for the NQF” on Thursday 18th January.
Miss Monique will attend a course on Significant changes to the Privacy Act on Wednesday 14th February.
Miss Monique will attend a course on Inclusion support on Tuesday 20th February.
Miss Allison will attend a webinar on “School Readiness”
Miss Kayley will attend a webinar on “Rethinking rest time”
Miss Rupinder will attend a webinar on “Engaging communities”
Miss Jo will attend a webinar on “Community connections”
Miss Rhiannon will attend a webinar on “Learning opportunities for infants”
PROVIDING FRUIT
Children in Tiggers Place and Pooh’s Corner are required to bring in a piece of fruit or vegetable each day.
We are receiving a great variety of fruit and vegetables in our baskets this year. Thank you to our Tigger’s and Pooh’s Corner children for providing fruit and veges to enjoy! Keep it upJ
CLOTHING /HATS/ BELONGINGS
Please remember, our sun protection policy states for all children to wear a broad brimmed, legionaries style hat or bucket style hat – NO BASEBALL HATS ALLOWED!
Also, children should wear clothing that covers their shoulders – NO SINGLETS, STRAP DRESSES OR MUSCLE TOPS. NO THONGS ALLOWED.
This is to encourage lifelong sun protection skills for your child.
Please also dress your child appropriately for going to the toilet – no belts, buttons and not having lots of layers that need to be removed.
Please label EVERYTHING; we have many similar items eg: drink bottles, bags etc.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday 14th February – celebrating LOVE in the centre for the day (and all year round!)
Friday 16th February – Chinese New Year.
Tiggers and Poohs Corner children – Tuesday 6th March – Magic Craig “Preschool is magic” show. 10am start. $8 per child attending Tuesday.
Thursday 15th March – CRAZY HAIR DAY! Come with CRAZY hair, coloured, weird funny hairstyles!
Wednesday 21st March – Harmony Day – wear orange to symbolize Harmony.