Newsletter February 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Important Dates Tuesday 24th Feb 7.30 : Guest Speaker for parents “Storytelling” Beth Cregan followed by AGM at the centre Friday 24th April : Centre Closure Professional Development Day for all Educators From the Committee Staff visiting other centres A warm welcome is extended to all parents to attend the upcoming Annual General Meeting. Don’t miss your chance to support our wonderful centre and take the opportunity to hear an excellent speaker. One of the benefits of being a member of our association is that you can take advantage of this event without any cost. Our guest speaker has been selected to provide content that will be of interest to all parents and support the enjoyment of your parenting. During our required closure morning last Friday, educators visited other services in small groups to observe and network with other professionals. Educators reported that it was a great opportunity to get a feel for how other like services were presented and how curriculum was undertaken. Educators from the services were invited to visit with us to continue extending professional networks in the surrounding areas. As many of you will be aware, EY@PP have been working closely with Stonnington council to resolve the cooling issues in the building. Outlined below are progress notes: Power upgrade has occurred to the site to enable installation of the secondary cooling system. Thank you to all impacted by the necessary closure for your understanding. Split system units have been installed in all children’s rooms, these are now in use. Evaporative cooling system continues to be tested for efficiency. Staff Professional Development A number of our staff have attended professional development training this week and others are booked in over the next few weeks. The centre were successful in receiving the LDCPD grant late last year which provides financial support to the centre to continue maintaining our educators at the high standard we expect at EY@PP. The training courses this week were : Infant and Toddler Pedagogy, and Making Learning Visible. Working Bee A reminder the first centre working bee for 2015 is on Tuesday 17th March 6.15-8.15pm. Families will be aware that there are four working bees set for the year, of which they are required to attend one per family in order to have their maintenance bond returned to them each year. The week before the working bee a reminder email will go out to families with the information on what work will be completed and what you need to bring. Food Safety Please be aware that we have a number of children enrolled in the centre who have serious and life threatening food allergies. Children in long day care rooms are not to bring in any food. We request sessional kindergarten families consider carefully what to pack in their child's snack box. Nuts and nut products are not permitted at the centre. Please provide healthy choices for your child's snack, such as fruit, vegetables, sandwiches, rice crackers, yoghurt and cheese. Children are taught not to share their meals. Birthday Cakes Please note that birthday cup cakes are provided by the centre in the long day care rooms and integrated room. If you wish to provide cupcakes in the sessional kinder for your child, please speak to your child’s teacher. If provided in sessional kinder a complete list of ingredients (or the cake mix box) must be provided for educators to be able to share them with the group. Signing in and out It is a requirement of the Department of Education and Training that at all children using the service are signed in and signed out accurately each day. Please remember when you bring your child to the centre, to mark the time of arrival and sign. When you come to pick up your child, please write the time you collected your child and sign. The sign in folders in every room contain sign in sheets (white), accident / illness records (pink), medication records (blue) and authority for other people to collect your child (yellow). Please ask a staff member if you need help to complete any of these sections. Parent Communication Files Each family has a file in the cane communication boxes located in the foyer area. Please check your file for any notices on a regular basis. Parents are only to access their own family file. If you have birthday invitations you wish distributed please see the office staff. Staff Team News We welcome Azumi to the permanent staff body, supporting the 4yr old sessional kinder group this year. Ayumi, who was on maternity leave during 2014 has resigned her position, we welcome Sue-Ann to the team, she has commenced work as Room Leader in room3. Ryo resigned his position to move into a school role, we welcome Stephanie who has commenced work in the 4yr old Kinder Integrated room as Kinder Teacher. Students Over the course of the year EY@PP hosts a number of students studying early childhood courses for varying periods of practical placement experience. The universities and colleges value the wealth of experience and high standards of education provided by our wonderful team. When students are on placements a sign is placed on the door of the relevant room to highlight their involvement in the program. Website www.eypp.org.au Please take the time to access the site and the information and policies available there. Front Gate and Door Safety Issue We have had the front safety gate repaired on many occasions and request families ensure their children do not swing on the gate. This is the main cause of damage and has resulted in the gate being stuck in the locked position on two occasions. At these times we have to put in measures of entry and exit through the playgroup room and raises concern around emergency access for emergency services or evacuation. A further concern is the front door being wedged open by adults or older siblings during departure. This is especially a concern during kinder arrival and departure times. Please only allow your own child through the front door and remind older siblings who may be running ahead of you not to open the door until you are ready. Thank you in anticipation, on these matters, in supporting us in keeping all children safe. Evacuation Practices An important part of any service is having procedures in place to safely evacuate from the centre in the event of an emergency. Staff regularly practice procedures with each group of children to ensure the children are familiar with the equipment (evacuation ropes, evacuation trolley for infants) and for staff to reflect on potential issues, improvements. During the regular practise, staff and children assemble at the yard gates. A full evacuation practice to external assembly points is practised once each year. EY@PP (QIP) Quality Improvement Plan The aim of the QIP is to self-assess performance in delivering quality education and care and to plan for future improvements. Simply, it helps us to recognise our strengths and recognises areas of improvement. Since our achievement of Exceeding the National Quality Standards last year we have continued to maintain this document as required. As part of our partnership with families we highlight a current goal/element in our newsletters. There is also a folder in the main foyer that provides an overview of our centre QIP. One of our Current Outcomes: Nappy Change stairs that more closely support OHS standards for staff and children Progress notes: Meetings with council staff Meeting with builder for designs to be drawn up and quote to council. Centrelink / Family Assistance Office There are a number of benefits families can apply to assist with fees. All programs offered at EYPP can be applied to the benefits. If you are applying, please do so ASAP, as it can be difficult to back date information. Both the FamilyReferenceNumber and ChildReferenceNumber are required by the centre. The centre does not have control on how much is refunded to each family. All benefits are assessed through Centrelink and Family Assistance Office. The attendance reports required by the FAO can only be sent through to them after the child has attended the centre. This is done on the Monday for the previous week. Therefore, if a rebate is due, it will come through on your next invoice. Hubworks (program used to invoice families) does estimate the rebate based on previous amount but it cannot take into account family changes that may have occurred since the last update. Hence differences do sometimes occur. Some families receive the same amount each week others often vary. The Fee policy provides further details. Sunhats A friendly reminder that children require a sunhat every day to enable their access to the outdoor play spaces. Whilst we do have some spare hats, these are just for the odd occasion. The UV levels are high everyday irrespective of the temperature and children need to be protected. What’s coming up… We will commence our incursions program shortly, we will have many of our favourite experiences return, if you have any suggestions to support the curriculum through incursions please send us an email. Asthma and Thunderstorms Summer storms are becoming more frequent throughout Australia. Thunderstorms can combine heavy rain, high humidity and strong winds. A European study found there are observations in favour of the possibility that thunderstorms disturb ground-level pollen grains, bursting the pollen grains and making the allergens small enough to be inhaled into the lungs. There is also evidence that after rain and during wet conditions there are a larger amount of fungal spores in the air. These can act as a trigger for asthma symptoms. What can you do?  Ensure preventer medication is taken as prescribed.  Have an up to date Asthma Care Plan.  If your asthma gets worse during thunderstorms try to stay indoors with the windows closed.  Always carry your reliever medication with you. For more information on Thunderstorms and asthma please see ww.asthmaaustralia.org.au