CHILDRENS CENTRE
June/July Newsletter
News from the committee.......
Hello again. Hasn’t it been cold and soggy lately. This time of year brings up all sorts of new
challenges with children with a few more bugs than usual and also being stuck inside when
it’s too wet outside. You will have seen a few communications go out over the last couple of
weeks regarding the policy at Brenbeal for sick children (see more from Jane below). Having
these policies and adhering to these policies is what ensures that Brenbeal remains a high
quality childcare centre. As a parent, I know it can be very difficult to make arrangements for
sick children that can’t be at Brenbeal, but we need to do this to ensure that the spread of
these bugs to other children and staff is ‘shut-down’ as quickly as possible. Thank you in
advance for your cooperation in this area.
Brenbeal turns 20 in September and we are keen to do something to mark the occasion so if
you have any ideas please pass them on to Jane or someone from the committee.
I would also like to formally pass on our congratulations and thanks to John for his time at
Brenbeal. John, it’s been great having you as part of the community at Brenbeal, thank you
for providing great meals and a happy greeting to our children every day over many years and
we wish you all the best for your retirement and your move back to Chiltern.
We have not had much news from Council regarding the proposed Carpark on the old works
site. The desired plan at this stage is still for it to be accessed via existing hospital roads and
infrastructure but this is yet to be confirmed. We will update further once we know more.
The committee has agreed to start pulling together a Strategic Plan for Brenbeal. This will
encompass all sorts of things from the Vision and Purpose of Brenbeal right through to parent
participation, fundraising, and staffing. There is a ‘vibe’ on the committee that is difficult to
summarise .. but if I was to try and summarise it .. it seems to be about creating a community
that delivers high quality care and education in a relaxed and positive environment by
employing and developing the best people. We want to make sure that this ‘vibe’ is clearly
captured and developed into a long-term plan that provides an enduring framework for
everyone involved with the centre for the next 20 years. If you have any thoughts or
comments please pass them on to a committee member or Jane.
Thanks, Terry Cumming (0410308023)
Office news.......
Sadly we will be saying goodbye to John at the end of June. John has decided to retire and we
are sure he will have a well deserved rest! Please join us in thanking John for all of his hard
work with cooking on Friday 28th June when we will host an afternoon tea from 3-5pm. We
are currently on the search for someone to replace John and will let you know as soon as we
have a suitable candidate.
Reminder for parents to please bring in their child’s health record so we can update
immunisations on our enrolment form. This is very important for children in the seals room
and the kinder room. Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated.
Sick Children
Please do not bring in your child when they are sick. Staying healthy in child care clearly
states that if a child is not well enough to participate in activities contact parents and send
them home. As educators we care for the children in our group every day, we are therefore
familiar with how they look and behave when they are healthy. We understand the pressure
that many parents are under with work commitments so if you are extremely busy or are
unable to come when called it would be great if you could have a backup plan in place. This
will enable everyone to stay as healthy as possible especially during the winter months. If
your child is well I am sure you would appreciate sick children not being at the centre. It also
places pressure on the staff and we have had many staff absent due to illness. Please also note
that the exclusion period for diarrhoea is 24 hours from the last bowel motion. If a child is
sent home with gastro symptoms one day they will not be able to return the following day.
All of our policies are on the website for parents to read. Please also note that when signing
the enrolment form you “agree to collect or make arrangements for the collection of the child
referred to in this enrolment form if he/ she becomes unwell at the service within one (1) hour
of being notified”.
Important datesThursday 20th June- Staff meeting please collect your child as close to 6pm as possible so
we can get a prompt start.
Friday 21st June- Pyjama day and a gold coin donation to the pyjama foundation to help
foster children
Friday 28th June- Farewell afternoon tea for John from 3-5pm.
Monday 1st July- Friday 12th July- School holidays, sessional kinder will be closed during
this time. If you would like to utilise the long day care during these 2 weeks please see Jane.
July 8th and 10th- Photos for seals, dolphins and whales room. If you child does not attend
on this day you are welcome to come in for photos but must stay with your child.
July 15th and 17th- Photos for kinder room. If your child does not attend on this day you
are welcome to come in for photos but must stay with your child.
Thank you from JohnSadly the time has come to hang up the apron and bring a close to a career in catering which
has spanned over more than half a century. A career that has taken me from the shearing
sheds of Western NSW to country pubs and fine dining restaurants, five star hotels to
reception centres and finally a career at Brenbeal.
Many thanks to Jane and all the staff who’s kindness, friendship and assistance have made
this such an enjoyable job. Thanks also to the committee for this great job opportunity.
Thanks to the parents for their cheerful and friendly greeting each day and their interest in
what I have been doing and their patience with an old man’s stories from the past.
Finally thank you to the children who have constantly amazed and entertained me with their
questions and comments.
I wish everyone the best for the future.
Sincerely yours
John Vyner.
A warm winter hello to you all from the seals room!
We welcome Anett to our room as a permanent educator. Anett has great
experience and qualifications and with her sunny disposition and familiarity
with the children, she makes our room just that little bit more fabulous!
Welcome also to Dylan and his family and Leah and her family who are joining
our room this month. We look forward to getting to know you.
The children have been busting moves in our new disco, enjoying pure pop
from the eighties and showing us grown-ups just how it’s done on the dance
floor! Feel free to join us or bring in your favourite dance music from home.
We have also included the children’s portfolios in the room program. They
really enjoy getting out their own folder and looking over their stories,
sometimes sharing them at story time as well. They are near the couch and
we encourage you to sit with your child and view them together. You can even
bring in your own stories and photos from home about special events,
holidays and things you like to do at home to include. When families and
educators share their knowledge about their child, it leads to a richer
learning environment and better outcomes.
On a serious last note....
Our room has seen enough illness to last us for the rest of the year. We
strongly encourage you all to get into the habit of hand washing when you
arrive and then again when you leave the centre. Washing hands together
with your child teaches them good habits they will benefit from for life and will
ensure new germs don’t enter the room and you don’t take germs home to
the rest of your family. We really appreciate your help with this.....REALLY!
Carolyn, Donna, Anett.
We’d like to begin this
newsletter by welcoming Jaden from the Seals room and to say Goodbye to Paddy who has
recently moved up to Whales room. Hello Jaden, thank you for joining us in Dolphins room
and Paddy, we wish you all the best and we'll miss you.
Happy Birthday to Angus, Sarojin & Claire. They've all turned 2. Happy Birthday to
Adelaide & Paddy who both turned 3.
Thank you to the parents who attended our Mother’s Day evening last month. We had 10
mothers/families that attended. We really appreciated that you could come. It was lovely to
have the opportunity to sit down with your child and other families, and have a warm and
relaxing time together. Thanks also to John for making so much lovely food; that made our
evening a little more special.
Throughout the year, we have, and will continue to provide, a variety of events (Special
persons Day, Father’s Day evening and End of Year Party). These events provide more
opportunities for families and educators to come together as one.
We incorporate intentional teaching methods within our program. The children have been
learning about the importance of effective hand washing, wiping their runny noses with
tissues then putting the tissues in the bin, covering their mouths when they cough and
drinking plenty of water. We also model these practices for the children to see and learn
from. We talk to them about why we should wash our hands and why we should drink water
etc. We hope the children come to remember these important things and carry them on with
them throughout their lives.
Over the last three weeks, Kylie has been absent due to a car accident. We don't expect to see
her back until the start of July. Thanks to Aileen, Selam, Azam and Anett who have been
relieving Kylie during this time. We hope that Kylie continues to recover and is well enough
to come back to us soon.
With the cooler weather upon us, the children have choosing to spend more of their time
playing indoors. On wet and extremely cold days, we have been providing many craft related
activities to keep the children busy. So far we have made dreamcatchers and flowers which
are displayed around the room. It's been amazing to watch the children sit down patiently and
listen to our instructions as we role model how to make new things.
Most of the children enjoy doing art work and drawing. Each of the children have created at
least one piece of art work that's now displayed. Parents please be sure to stop and take a look
at and talk to your children about their work. Children can never have enough
acknowledgement and praise. We've been recording what the children have been saying
about their pictures.
We try to use many types of natural materials for the children to use with their art work and
to display within the room.
We believe in sustainability so we've been leading the children on the path of sustainable
practice. Reduce, reuse and recycle is what we continue to do. We would love any donations
of paper that is able to be used on at least one side for the children to use. Once it's been used
by the children, it'll be recycled if they don't choose to keep it. The children know which bins
are the recycle bins as we have a symbol depicting recycling.
To freshen up our room a little and to add some greenery, some little plants have been added.
The children have been looking at them and talking about them. We feel the plants offers
attractiveness to our room and an enjoyable space to play.
We thank you for reading our latest news and we hope you've enjoyed reading,
Mandy, Maggie, Kylie and Aileen
.
Whales Room
3-4 years
Firstly we would like to say a BIG Welcome to a new comer in the Whales room Paddy (who
was from the Dolphin’s Room). I hope he has a great time this year with us and feels
comfortable with his new friends in his room. Sadly we would like to say goodbye and good
luck to River, who has moved up from our room, into the Kinder and goodbye to Monty. By
the looks of things, River’s been enjoying his ‘new’ room but he still has a chance to see his
old friends during the afternoon sometimes. Monty- we wish you all the very best in life and
it’s been a great pleasure having you in the Whales room. We will be having a ‘new’ child
starting with us and his name is Sebastian- Welcome and we hope you have a memorable
time with us.
We would like to thank John (the centre’s chef) for all the wonderful meals that he has made
for the children and us. It will be sad to see him go on Friday the 28th of June and we will
miss his ‘gourmet’ food. Good luck and all the very best granddad xo
We would like to remind parents to please bring spare clothes for their children. At this age,
they tend to enjoy their play more and ignore the fact that they need to go to the toilet.
Children also love to get wet when they play with the water play. Can you please bring a coat
for your children because it’s going to start getting really cold and the children enjoy playing
outside.
Snez is going to be on leave for a month (9th July – 9th August). She is going on a tour around
Europe visiting 14 countries for 26 days, by herself. It will be an interesting experience and a
memorable one too. During this time Nuray will be in the room working with Lucy.
We could like kindly for parents to help us, to remind your child about agressive behaviours
and what is the right thing to do. If you could have a talk with your child about:
 Not hurting your friends
 That violence isn’t the right thing to do
 If you have been hurt by another child, to come and tell a educator
about it (don’t try and solve it by yourself)
The reason why we are asking you to do this is because we have noticed that they has been a
lot of hurting each other and at times leaving marks on each other’s faces
We would like to ask parents if your child isn’t well PLEASE don’t bring her/him in. It’s not
fair for the children that are well and it’s not fair for your unwell child because he/she needs
to recover and be at home (resting and getting the fluids up)
Happy Birthday to River who has turned 4!
Upcoming Events:
Friday the 21st of June- Pyjama Day- Children are invited to wear their favourite pyjamas and
bring in a gold coin donation for the Pyjama Foundation
Monday the 8th of July- 14th July- NAIDOC week
Lucy and Snez
KINDER ROOM
NEWSLETTER
It’s hard to believe there are only a few weeks to go until the end of Term 2. So far the term
has been pretty busy. We have hatched chickens, celebrated Mothers Day, had a visit from
Melbourne Museum and learned about gardening with the Mud Monsters. And there are still
a couple of special events to go. Important dates are:
 MONDAY 17 JUNE: Western Region Health Dental Screening
 FRIDAY 21 JUNE: Pyjama Day
 FRIDAY 28 JUNE: Last day of term
 MONDAY 15 JULY: Term 3 starts and PHOTO DAY!
 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY: PHOTO DAY!
 TUESDAY 23 JULY: Drama Toolbox workshop about Tiddalik the Frog
Some of you may have met Zach on Wednesdays. He is studying for a teaching degree, and
will be working with us every day for the next few weeks. Please make him feel welcome.
Over the last few weeks, we have been talking about our emotions. This is something we do
every year. Four-year-olds are still naturally egocentric, but are old enough to begin thinking
about how their own behaviour affects other people. And listening to stories and talking
about their emotions can help children learn to regulate their feelings and behaviour. Some of
the children have contributed pages to our group books about emotions. They are in the
Parent Corner for you to read. This was an optional activity, so not every child has
participated.
Our current focus at group times is on healthy eating. We are linking this to looking after our
teeth as part of the Smiles4Miles program. We do this each year to promote good oral health
in the children. The key messages we are looking at are about ‘Sometimes’ and ‘Everyday’
foods and drinks. We will talk about cleaning our teeth during Term 3.
Finally a reminder! Please pack a change of clothes and or/wet weather gear for your child.
We WILL GO OUTSIDE on cold damp days. Only very heavy rain will keep us indoors.
Thank you from the Kinder Room Staff
Linda, Ha, Renee and Krystyna
Please find attached an article by Maggie Dent that was in the New Beginnings newsletter in
February. It is about sibling rivalry so I thought some parents may find it useful.....
It is such a hot potato – no matter how many books parents read, no matter how much advice they ask and no
matter how many hours they spend working out ways to reduce this conflict – it keeps happening!
Firstly our families are our greatest classroom for learning how to get along with others. These relationships
are a microcosm of social systems that exist within schools and society. Children are children – not grownups in
little bodies – and so emotional and social competence is constantly being learned. Our emotional states come
from our thoughts and we all know how random our thoughts can be. When we perceive that the world is
unfair, or that we are excluded rather than embraced and valued, it triggers the primitive mind to perceive a
threat and that kicks our flight-fight response. For children this is very strong and given that they see the
world through very different eyes to adults who have a pre frontal cortex – they are sensitive to unloving
words and actions.
When conflict happens, the moment of conflict is not that the right time to explain how to behave better!
Imagine that all siblings will be in their ‘red room’ and they will need time to calm down. Later that day would
be a good time to explore the conflict and have them work out what happened and how they could do things
differently if it happens again.
Sibling rivalry can occur when there is a change in the state of the emotional worlds like when:

boredom sets in

hunger happens

thirst happens

body energy is built up from passivity

a power struggle happens

the game has run its course

there’s an imbalance of winning/losing dynamic.
Helping with conflict
Fighting siblings often need adult help to find a solution to the fighting. Essentially creating a return to a calm
and centred place should be the first step. You can help your children to learn a pattern for managing future
sibling conflict. There will be times when I suggest that you stay out of resolving sibling conflict – if you always
come to help them you may be setting up an expectation that they will always need your help. Sometimes,
once all kids have returned to the green room not the red room have them consider solutions to avoid the
same thing happening again. It helps if you alternate strategies rather than trying the same one all the time.
The most simple solution to a sibling war that breaks out is distraction – eg. “OK it’s time for morning tea,
let’s walk the dog, let’s build a cubby in the bedroom…”. My favourite method with my lads was that any
conflict meant whoever was involved was given 10 minutes outside. In a calm voice: “Everyone outside for
some cool off time … no I don’t want to know who started what, just some time outside…”. No need to work
out what happened – it was just a cooling off time, no blame, no-one’s fault – no raised voices. After 10
minutes I would come back and let them know that time was up – most times they did not come back in
because they had started a new game. After a while they would take themselves outside when conflict
happened – “we’re on our way outside Mum!”
Roosters and lambs in conflict
Our ‘rooster’ children often trigger sibling conflict because they are stronger personalities and have a
tendency to see themselves as most important. ‘Lambs’ are our gentle sensitive children and to be honest they
can develop strength by living with a rooster sibling. Hopefully the lamb will teach the rooster some empathy
and consideration for others. I feel it is important to have conversations with your children about treating
each other fairly – and in a way that we would be ok with. I often reminded my boys that their brothers will be
their best mates when they get older – and they have become that. I wonder if that would have happened
without lots of reminders of this possibility? Funny the two roosters who fought the most especially during
adolescence, ended up living together for 6 years after they left home and shopped together, surfed together
and lived like ‘dumb and dumber!’
Some of the things that need to be taken into account with children’s behaviour is that birth order can have an
impact on kids’ behaviour. Another is self-regulation patterns – some kids naturally have better ways of
managing their energy. Boys need a lot more physicality to keep their energy at a level where they will play
well and be more accommodating to other children’s behaviour. Girls are way more savvy at emotional
manipulation and using words – indeed often it’s the drowning in words and talking that can create conflict
with brothers that can get frustrated and want some peace!
Introverted children need some solo time to refill their energy and can become crabby if they cannot find
some solo space. Extroverted children fill their energy cup by chatting to others particularly older children or
adults. They get very frustrated when they cannot find an adult to share their cup filling!
Turning aggression into awareness
If there is physical aggression you need to instantly act in a firm voice: “NO! Hurting each other physically is
not acceptable in this house – ever. We use words to solve our problems not our bodies”. I would then separate
the siblings to allow them to cool down – and then individually reassure them of your love … and then help
them work out what emotions led to the hitting. It’s usually frustration, anger or feeling rejected. This is how
we build emotional awareness so that children know that sometimes big ugly emotions can make them lash
out. They are not bad just the choice they made!
Researchers have observed that siblings between the age of three and seven clash 3.5 times per hour on
average! They followed many siblings from childhood to adulthood and noted how they got along when older.
The secret to liking each other later is the balance between the conflict and the fun times they had together.
That made so much sense to me. I made sure my lads played heaps together – I replaced every lost basketball,
tennis ball, totem tennis set, skateboard, bike – we spent hours at the beach, the park or in the bush where
they played and had heaps of fun. So give this some thought especially in our screen-driven world – how much
fun are your kids having together?
The crucial role of best friends
Now be prepared to be stunned! The best predictor of how well your siblings are going to get on is determined
almost before birth in a way. The predictive factor is the quality of the relationship of the older child’s
relationship with his best friend.
“The kids who play in a reciprocal, mutual style with their best friend were the ones who had good rapport
with their younger siblings later.”
“Nurture Shock” by P O Bronson & Ashley Merryman
So essentially the older siblings practise on their friends and then apply what they know and have learnt to
their siblings. Now that’s a handy thing to know before you have kids but a bit late when they are all on deck
and fighting like hell!
Girl and boy sibling rivalry could have some instinctual influences at play that we simply do not want to
change. If the opposite genders fight a lot they won’t fall in love and want to breed! Now that may make you
feel a little better.
The common-sense take home message
I am not sure we need researchers to tell us that siblings will fight less if they enjoy each other’s presence and
create moments of friendship. It does seem pretty common sense to me. From my experiences and my
readings I would say sum up the five things that will help our siblings get along better as:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Ensure they feel loved, valued and accepted by the big people in their life.
Make sure children play lots and lots with children and have hours of fun.
Surround your children with children who belong to your best friends and family who love you.
Fill your house with your kids’ friends – there is always less sibling conflict when they have friends
around!
Accept that family life is a classroom for life and that both joy and conflict are great teachers for our
children.
Stop beating yourself up – and use novelty and laughter to lighten the environment - surprise your kids
with a bright pink wig, a cape, a tiara or a telly tubbie suit for the fun of it!
Until next time
Maggie