Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
Dear Families and Caregivers, We are drawing towards the end of term with only 2 weeks remaining. The term concludes on Friday
11th April with an early dismissal at 2:00pm.
Educators would like to thank Families and Caregivers for their support throughout the term. Support
has ranged from participating in the Harmony Day celebrations, cooking pancakes with children for
United Care Pancake Day, completing surveys, collecting resources for the preschool and attending B-7
assemblies.
Our centre has been nominated for a SA Excellence in Public Education Award. We have until 30th
April to provide supporting documentation to DECD and then we wait as regional and the state based
winners are announced. I am very proud of our Centre and staff's achievement in receiving this
nomination.
On 22nd March, 4 Preschool educators and one Junior Primary teacher attended an Early Childhood
Organisation Professional Development opportunity. 3 educators visited Blair Athol North B-7 Children's
Centre and Ingle Farm Children's Centre and the remaining educators visited St Mary Margaret School
and Il Nido Children's Centre to view inspiring early childhood settings.
Following the visits all educators in our Children's Centre have viewed slide shows of images from
these sites and are currently mindmapping and developing their individual commitment to indoor
environmental change. The areas educators have selected to change are dramatic play, preschool
storage and puzzles, Science presentation area, redesign of the Occasional Care space, increased
natural foliage indoors, review and redevelopment of the sites Literacy Packs, inclusion of nature
throughout the Children's Centre and the inclusion of beautiful objects in the environment.
We hope you will notice and appreciate the work individual educators have committed to . We want
our indoor learning environment to be beautiful as well as functional.
We continue to monitor individual children's attendance at Preschool as part of our Action plan for
our sites Attendance Improvement Plan. Within the first 3 weeks of next term, DECD will once again
run a Data Collection process to determine our Preschool staffing for Term 2 based on the number of
children attending each day. Can we please reinforce how vitally important your child's attendance is
during these weeks as it is every day of every term.
2 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
Collect natural materials for children to use at preschool. Items could include-pine cones, seed
pods -bigger than a 50 cent piece (to avoid choking hazard),sea shells -bigger than a 50 cent
piece (to avoid choking hazard),interesting rocks and pebbles- bigger than a 50 cent piece (to
avoid choking hazard),wood, sticks ,leaves and flowers (fresh or dried). We thank Dakota Saville
and her family for the generous donations already.
Assistance with end of term clean up- all the preschool tables, children's chairs,
painting easels and art drying racks need scrubbing after a busy term.
One family to volunteer to wrap up the Easter Raffle prizes by the end of this
week Friday 4/4/14. The raffle is drawn Monday 7/4/14.
Children from both groups of preschool have sessions once a fortnight at the Resource Centre at the
school
Group 1 has Library time Thursday mornings 9:30AM-10:00AM
Group 2 has Library visits Tuesday afternoon 1:50PM-2:20PM
We have a Return Library Book box on top of the lockers near the entrance door.
It is great to see so many children borrowing Literacy kits regularly. It is however sad that some kits
are being returned with pieces missing or broken. We ask you all to please show great care for these
kits and their contents.
Lynda Barclay and Debra McGuiness are using 2014 to review and update old Literacy kits and
develop new Literacy kits.
Carrying on from our community focus in Term 4, we were
lucky to have Dawn and her Guide dog Lilly visit our Centre
Thursday morning. Dawn discussed the role of Guide dogs in the
community with Occasional Care and Preschool children. She
also discussed safe dog handling and gave children the
opportunity to share aspects of children’s pets at home.
Due to work commitments, Dawn was unable to stay for the
afternoon session. We hope to arrange an afternoon session visit
from Dawn and her Guide dog in the future.
3 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
is a free parenting app from ZERO TO THREE with fun
activities, organized by age and routine, for parents to use to support their young child’s early
learning - Download from iTunes or Google Play Store
Follow this link http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/play/tips-and-tools-play.html
Quality Area 2- Health and Safety
Child and Youth Health Screening checks This term the C&YHS nurse visited our site to screen 12 children in the preschool. They will return to
the centre each term to continue checking children. The next visit is Monday 2nd June. Educators will
approach families next term to book appointments.
Healthy FoodWe remind all families that our centre supports healthy and nutritious food choices. There are a
number of children attending whose snack falls outside the Healthy Food choices of our Nutritious
Food Policy. Over this term educators have been talking with children about healthy and unhealthy
foods. We will continue to support their development of understanding through free play and small
group experiences. We are working with individual families to raise their awareness of healthy food
choices.
From next term, educators will place a slip into the lunchbox of children with unhealthy food choices.
We will identify the foods which are unhealthy and supply a list of alternatives the family may
consider sending to preschool instead.
Next term, educators will introduce Healthy Lunch Box awards to children who consistently bring
healthy food choices to preschool.
These foods are great to send for healthy lunch or snack
All fruits sandwiches yoghurt all vegetables savoury biscuits cheese and crackers
Wraps water
4 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
No Peanut butter at Preschool Please remember we ask that families refrain from sending Peanut Butter sandwiches and other
peanut based products to preschool. We are working to exclude these products from the preschool due
to link between peanut based products and severe allergic reactions in some children.
Birthdays at Preschool In line with our Healthy Food and Nutrition Policy we request that parents refrain from bringing in
cakes and sweets for birthdays. We are now just about at Centre capacity with nearly 90 preschool
children enrolled. As you could imagine, it would be a huge amount of sweet treats coming into the
building. We celebrate children’s birthdays by singing Happy Birthday.
Medication Please ensure all medication is handed to an educator on arrival. No medication is to be left in
children's bags for safety reasons.
Quality area 6 – Collaborative partnerships
with families and communities
We welcome new adult students to our centre.
Ashlee is a University of SA Early Childhood trainee teacher. Ashlee will complete a number of
single days then a 4 week block placement finishing in June.
Kimberley is a Diploma of Children's Services student from TAFE Elizabeth. Kimberley will
work on placement Wednesday and Thursday until mid June.
Achol is a Certificate 3 Student from Workplace Australia. Achol will complete part of her 100
hours of voluntary work in our centre
Jamee-Lee is a Year 11 student from Paralowie R-12 school. Jaymee -Lee will be with us for
the final 2 weeks of this term.
Kathryn - currently working in our Centre for Occasional Care and Preschool Support will
complete a placement commencing next term as she works towards her Diploma of Children's
Services.
We hope you will welcome all of our students into the centre and take time to say hello.
5 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
Help Wanted!
We are seeking any parents who would be interested in volunteering on our Windemere
. We have many jobs to suit depending on how much time Community Market Committeeyou would like to share. We have so much fun and any volunteer work you do counts towards work
experience.
Currently we need support with:
Letter box drops (closer to the market)
Planning committee
Setting up and packing up on the day
Advertising
Grant applications
And lots more!
If you are interested and would like to be a part of this fabulous community event, contact Nicky the
Community Development Coordinator.
Quality Area 7 – Leadership and service
management
Preschool banking Our banking days are Tuesday and Thursday. For further information, please see Kim
at the Reception desk. Children will be given a gift when they open an account.
Preschool Fees Thank you to all families who have finalised their preschool fee payment already. For families with
outstanding fees we remind you that your fees are overdue. Please settle your account by Friday
11/4/14. Thank you.
Preschool Photos in Term 2 The photographer will, be in the centre on the following dates next term to photograph all, preschool
children. They will visit:
Group 1 - Wednesday 14/5/14
Group 2- Tuesday 6/5/14
The photo packs will be $30. Individual photos can be purchased and prices will be advertised next
term.
We will put up visual reminders at the beginning of next term in the foyer area.
6 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
Reminders
Please ensure you check your child’s communication pocket daily. The pockets are located in
the hallway adjacent to the Reception desk.
Car Parking- We wish to advise you that the car park at the centre is for staff and DECD
personnel use only.
If you have recently moved or changed phone numbers, could you please update these details
with Kim our Receptionist. Thank you.
Love your heart Heart Foundation Walking Group is back! All abilities welcome
Every Friday from 2.00pm – 3.00pm
For more information contact Nicky the Community Development Coordinator
7 Uraidla Avenue Salisbury North, SA 5108 Ph: 8258 0666 Fax: 8281 5850 Email: [email protected]
We wish you all a safe holiday period and look forward to welcoming
you all back in Term 2 which commences on Monday 28th April.
From Children’s Centre Team
