CHILDRENS CENTRE
February Newsletter 2013
News from the committee.......
We are well into the year now and I hope everyone has settled in nicely. Thank you for
coming to the Welcome Picnic it was a very pleasant evening and I enjoyed meeting some
new parents and catching up with those I've met before.
Our Annual General Meeting will be held at 7pm on 25th March here at Brenbeal and I invite
all parents to attend as guests or participants. Nominations for roles on the committee will be
accepted on the night and there are some roles open that need filling as well as the roles of
general members of the committee. Executive roles in the committee consist of Chair, Deputy
Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. Other roles in the committee are assistant Treasurer, assistant
Secretary, and Staff Liaison. The minimum commitment for a general member of the
committee is to attend the monthly meeting on the 4th Monday of the month which run for
approx. 1.5hrs.
We are also seeking people who would like to contribute to the centre but cannot commit to
the committee to join a fundraising working group. Your contribution to this can be as much
as you are able to provide but ideally we would like one person to be a central point for coordination. If thats you, please let Jane know that you are interested. We aim to increase our
fundraising activities and seek out available grants in order to purchase more equipment for
the centre and to keep our fees down.
On behalf of the committee, welcome to Autumn
Tessa
Office news.......
We would like to welcome Kim to our staffing team. Kim will be working everyday from 12
noon until 5pm, she will cover staff lunch breaks and afternoon breaks. Please make Kim feel
welcome and introduce yourselves. Kim’s photo is on the notice board so you all know who
she is!
IMPORTANT DATES.
1st March- Jack and Molly show called “Green Grows My Garden” – for children who attend
on that day.
Centre closed on Monday 11th March for Labour Day public holiday. Centre closed on
Friday 29th March Good Friday and Monday 1st April for Easter Monday.
25th March- AGM at 7pm at Brenbeal
28th March- Easter egg hunt and children are invited to wear an Easter hat made at home, this
will enhance our partnerships with families and bring a connection between the centre and
home and we look forward to seeing the children’s creations.
School holidays begin on Friday 29th March till Monday 15th April. Sessional kinder children
do not attend during this time. If you would like to book any long day care during this period
please let Jane or Krystyna know.
Signing your children in and out ....
Please note that this is a requirement for your child care benefit as well as being important if
we need to evacuate! If we ever have an audit from DEEWR parents may lose their childcare
benefit if signatures are not present. Please remember to sign in and out.
Survey results.
Results from the survey carried out last year have been compiled. We have already
taken some of the feedback into account when planning for this year.
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The code for the front door was changed at the start of this year as it had not
been changed for many years, this will now happen annually.
The front door will not be snibbed open unless Jane or Krystyna are in the
office.
A year planner was distributed at the start of the year to all parents to inform
them of events that had been booked and meeting dates. The newsletter will
also include an important date section of upcoming events as a reminder.
Parent/ carer nights will be organised in the next 2 months and we will host
a more informal wine and cheese night later in the year hopefully. Parents
are encouraged to speak or make a time with staff at any time during the
year for any feedback or concerns. This does not only need to happen on
these nights.
These are just some of the items coming from the survey .. as others are developed we will let
you know.
STAFF NEWS.......
Congratulations to Renee and Zafer who are expecting their own little bundle of
joy. We look forward to watching Renee’s baby belly grow!
Congratulations to Selam and Zed on their recent wedding, we wish them all the
best for the future and great happiness.
Congratulations to Kylie for being accepted into the University of Ballarat to
study Bachelor of Early Childhood Development
Happy Birthday to Snezana for 5th March, it’s a big one that ends in a “0”- don’t
forget to say happy birthday! Best wishes also to Aileen who celebrates her
birthday on 16th March.
Extra Curricular activities
Dance began on 20th February and will be every fortnight on a Wednesday for the whales and
kinder children.
Music begins on 26th February each fortnight on a Tuesday for all rooms.
Sport begins on 28th February each fortnight on a Thursday for whales and kinder children.
Fundraising
Thank you to parents who purchased through Aussie Farmers Direct, you have raised another
$103.12 for the centre. If you use Aussie farmers Direct please see Jane on how to nominate
Brenbeal. You will soon see information arriving about our next fundraiser which is the
Entertainment Books. We make $13 on each book sold so we look forward to this being a
success. Additional books can be ordered if you know someone who would like to purchase
one. We are fundraising for some new equipment for the children.
Sessional kinder waiting list
Just a reminder that the waiting list for sessional kinder is the council responsibility. If you
are looking to swap over from long day care to sessional kindergarten next year or beyond
you must be registered at council for sessional kinder, we cannot swap you over. This is
council policy. You will be guaranteed a place in the kinder room for long day care if your
child currently attends.
Grants
If we have any parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents who work at Telstra, please let us know.
We may then be able to apply for the Telstra Kids Fund grants that are available. If any
parents hear about any other grants available please let us know!
Children’s Pockets
Please remember to check your child’s pocket on a regular basis, educators often place
notices or learning sheets in individual pockets.
Welcome picnic
It was great to see so many people at our welcome picnic. The animal farm was very popular
and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We hope you managed to meet someone you
didn’t know or someone from the committee.
Seals Room News
Hello from the seals room. Well it has been a busy time getting to know all our new families
and settling everyone familiar or not into a new environment. We have been quite impressed
with how fast most of the children have become familiar with the staff and the room. We are
now seeing new friendships being formed with children and educators sharing giggles and
cuddles as we spend our days together. We would love to include your children’s favourite
songs and stories into our program so mention these to us at next pick up or drop off time.
Please feel free to spend some time with us if you have any spare time as we would love to
get to know you all really well and also gain more information from you- your child’s
experts. The more we know the better we can provide for your child.
Carolyn, Donna, Selam and Mai
Dolphins news
Welcome back to Brenbeal!!!
It’s great to see the ‘Seals’ children from last year who have moved up to the Dolphins room
to join us. At first it was quite confusing for the children to become adjusted to coming
inside to the Dolphins room; most of the children would walk towards or into the Seals
room, but now they have become accustomed to which room is theirs. They have settled
into the room remarkably well and everyone now knows each other. We’d also like to take
this opportunity to warmly welcome our friends Lily, Hugo and Adelaide who are new to the
Dolphins room & to Brenbeal this year. They are becoming familiar with the centre, room
routines, with educators and with the other children. We’ve offered the children a sense of
belonging by incorporating something that they’re each interested in into our program for
them. They are a lovely group of children.
The children have been creating beautiful stars depicting their own photo and hand print.
The children like to look at these during sleep time and at other times throughout the day.
We’re all individuals but we’re part of a group as well so it’s a good feeling to be recognised
for who we are.
Thank you to the parents who have taken and returned the “All about Me” forms and to
those who have brought in photos. I had a copy of these forms available on USB but have
since lost the file so please take a print out of this. Ingrid (Ben’s mum) donated some
puppets and the Chinese New Year lucky money bags. All donations are accepted with
appreciation and the children really enjoy using the toys.
We encourage the parents to read our ‘Interactive Journal’ which is located next to the ‘sign
in’ book and to comment/write something else as well. What you did with your child on the
weekend, up and coming events, extra-curricular activities; these are just some of the topics
you may like to write about. Feel free to add photos to the journal as well. There are textas
and a glue stick ready and waiting for you! We benefit from any parent input as it helps us
to better understand your child and your family. We greatly appreciate all your support and
contributions.
We’ve been helping the children work towards becoming more independent. We
encourage them to assist with undressing at sleep time and pouring their own drinks at
meal times. We provide them with other opportunities for independence as well such as
spraying and wiping the tables after meal times and cleaning chairs. This can be a messy
experience but the children have a wonderful time while doing it. We are always close by to
offer assistance to the children that need it. Children all develop at different paces so not all
children may like to do everything for themselves at this time.
If you have anything that you’d like to share with us, please feel free to. A partnership with
you is very important to us and we love to hear from you.
We look forward to spending time with your children throughout the year in the Dolphins
room.
Thank you,
Kylie, Maggie, Mandy and Aileen.
Whales News
Good morning/Good afternoon to all our readers!
Firstly I would like to WELCOME our new faces in our room, Ned, River, Olive, Linh,
Jasper, Indigo, Thaddeus and still to get to know Monty (who is on leave of absence). I hope
your time here in the whales room is a great experience and we look forward to caring for
your child and encouraging them to learn, grow and develop in a fun and interactive way.
I would like to wish Hunter a happy 3rd birthday! On this special day, I wish you all the very
best, all the joy you can ever have and may you be blessed abundantly today, tomorrow and
the days to come! May you have a fantastic HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
CONGRUTALATIONS to Lily.R’s family on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl Eve.
The past couple of weeks have been really HOT, so we would like to remind parents to
PLEASE bring a hat, spare clothes (children enjoy water play a lot) and if you could please
put sun screen on your child before he/she comes to childcare, we greatly appreciate it.
We do our best to look after children’s comfort items for sleep time that come from home, as
we understand how important it is to them, however we cannot be responsible for extra toys
that are brought in. We are very busy performing our daily tasks as it is and looking for lost
items constantly distracts us from supervising the children and interrupts our program. It is
also very time consuming when parents come and they want us to find their child’s small toy
amongst all of our belongings. It is safer to leave toys at home.
The children have been really busy with what has been set up in the room-
 Construction area- building their own train tracks, building and fixing the
toys
 Home corner- cooking for one another. Role playing what they see at
home
 Book corner- children have enjoyed ‘me’ time with a quite book to look
at
 Art craft- Making things to take home, drawing pictures and painting
 Play dough- making different shapes and using the cut outs when they
roll the play dough out
 Puzzles- Some children are enjoying challenging themselves to do the
puzzles
Also a reminder to all parents to please bring in a family portrait so we can display it on
our family wall.
We would like to conclude this letter by letting parents know that lately we’ve been
experiencing difficulties with children’s challenging behaviours, we are well aware of the
situation and are doing our very best to monitor and guide these children positively, we
(Snez & Lucy) will be attending a conference on the 28th February to learn more about
children’s challenging behaviour and what strategies and guide lines can be used. If you
feel concerned about this situation and you feel the need to talk about it, please don’t
hesitate to approach a staff member from the whales room, we understand that sometimes
we may be really busy and it’s hard to talk so we’re happy to organise a mutual &
convenient time.
Thank you,
Lucy & Snez
KINDER ROOM
NEWSLETTER
This is our first newsletter for the year, so we would like to start by welcoming all the new
families who have started in our room this year. We look forward to getting to know you and
your children as the year progresses.
With more than twenty children new to the Centre, there have been a lot of tears shed in our
room, but we are happy to report that most children are coping well. There are still a few
children crying when their families leave, but they are quick to settle after you go.
At the moment the focus of our program is on ‘learning the ropes’. The children are getting
used to the routines of the room, as well as our expectations of them. So we are having
discussions about the ‘rules’ of the room, such as PLAY WITH TOYS WHERE YOU FIND
THEM and PACK UP WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED. We want the children to become
responsible members of our little community, and following the rules is a big part of this.
Another priority is for all the staff to get to know the children, and for the children to get to
know us. A trusting relationship between children and their teachers is essential. Children
who are unsure or unhappy at kinder will not learn as easily as those who are settled and
confident. So at the moment we are spending a lot of time playing and talking with the
children at different activities, keeping things simple and fun, until everyone in the room is
calm and happy to be here.
Over the next few weeks we will be doing lots of activities to help children realise that they
are valued members of our community. We have already displayed all the children’s faces in
the Photo Tree, and over the next few weeks we will ask all the children to draw a selfportrait to display in the room. We will also be sending home some ‘homework’ for you to do
with your child, so please check your pockets for a letter in the next few days.
We have a lot of budding artists in the Kinder Room, and one of our most popular activities is
drawing. Unfortunately we are running out of drawing paper, so if anyone has any scrap
paper they can donate, it would be greatly appreciated by all of us. Cardboard boxes and
other materials for construction are also needed.
We have noticed that a lot of children are bringing toys from home. Please be aware that we
are not doing Show and Tell at the moment. This is something we will do much later in the
year when all the children are ready to participate. We prefer children to leave their toys at
home. They often cause disputes, and distract children from the educational program we
provide. If children do bring toys from home, please understand that staff will not look after
them. We expect children in the room to be responsible for their belongings, and that includes
favourite toys from home.
Finally some reminders:
PLEASE PROVIDE A SUNHAT FOR YOUR CHILD EACH DAY. We are a Sunsmart
Centre, so if children do not have a hat we cannot let them play outside.
Also please send a water bottle for your child. We have cups and water available, but it is less
work for staff if children have their own bottle.
Also PLEASE LABEL YOUR CHILD’S CLOTHING, and provide a change of clothing for
them. In hot weather they often play with water, and we do not have enough spare clothing
for them at the Centre.
Thank you from the Kinder Room Staff
Linda, Ha, Renee and Krystyna