January 2012 News
Country Kids
Early Learning Stanthorpe
January 2012
Welcome to the start of what we hope with be another year of fun, play, friendship and education for your children. Remember we are always happy and available to meet with parents at any time to discuss any matters. We also have a suggestion box in the foyer if you’d like to drop a note in!
Firstly, a warm welcome is extended to our new children:
· Chloe in Nursery
· Cheyenne and Cooper in Toddlers
Congratulations
Congratulations to Jaimee’s family on the birth of their beautiful little girl named Teagan Alice. She is just perfect!
Goodbye to Gunter and his family who are moving back to their home in NSW! Good luck and we will miss you.
Public Holiday
Thursday 26th January is a public holiday for Australia Day, and we will therefore be closed!
Goodbye & Goodluck
to all our Pre-Schoolers and their families. We really will miss you all. We wish you all the best for 2012 and thank you for allowing us to care for and educate your child. Graduation photos and DVD’s are available for collection in the front office, please see us if you don’t have yours yet.
Thank You
to Darius and Katie-lee’s Mum for donating some toys. New toys are always popular – thank you Anita!
BATHROOM/TOILETING AREAS
We request that parents do not walk through the bathrooms in the childrens rooms. This is for the personal safety and privacy of your child.
IMPORTANT SAFETY REMINDER
PLEASE CLOSE THE DOORS TO THE ROOMS behind you, even if you don’t see any children in the room.
When doors are left open, children are able to leave the room without staff knowing. We take child safety very seriously and hope that you support this.
Also, at drop off and pick up time, it is imperative that you let a staff member know that your child has arrived, and also when you take your child home.
JANUARY EVENTS
Monday 23rd January will be celebrating Chinese New Year.
Tuesday 24th to Friday 27th February is Australia Week.
Friday 27th we will be having a dress up day.
Please come dressed in Australian Outback theme.
Early Years Learning Framework
Staff have been working hard on their programs with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) becoming more and more familiar to them. The EYLF has been designed with the needs and interests of all children and families in mind. It is making Centre prorams more child interest based and putting more emphasis on carers gaining plenty of parent/familiy input. It would be much appreciated by all staff if guardians/families could talk staff about what is happening in their child’s lives as we can use this information in improving our programing for your child. EYLF is focused on what the child can do and building on that rather than what they can’t do and trying to fill the gap. Belonging, Being & Becoming – The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.
CHILD CARE REBATE – WOULD YOU LIKE LOWER CHILDCARE FEES? Remember that you can now elect to have your childcare rebate that you receive from Centrelink paid directly to us. What this means for you is that your gap fees will be considerably lower. You should have received information from Centrelink about this, if not please contact them to arrange this.
INCREASE IN FEES As previously advised, we have had an increase in fees (from 1st January 2012) of $1 per day.
SIGNATURES REQUIRED FOR ALL CHILD ABSENCES
Please remember that we require parents signatures on all your child’s absemt days, in the sign in books. Thank you.
NEWS FROM THE ROOMS:
Nursery A big warm hello to all the families in the Nursery. I look forward to sharing lots of exciting news about your children with you throughout the year.
We have been reading words, shapes and sound books, as well as having a lot of ‘floor play’. I have been busy getting to know each child’s needs and routines, and this should help me in planning exciting and developmental experiences to help each child grow to their full potential. Many thanks, Mel Zanatta.
Toddlers All the children have been enjoying lots of Christmas activities, painting, singing songs, and reading fun stories. They also decorated their own Christmas tree, and got a visit from Santa! The children have also been learning about their bodies, by naming their body parts and playing body parts games and songs. We have been enjoying singing “Bee Bee Bumblee”, where we learn each others names! Please do not hesitate to talk with me about your child! Nadia.
Junior Kindy A big ‘Happy New Year’ to all the children and their families in the Joey Room. We have been very busy learning our shapes and colours. We are all getting very good at finding the different shapes and colours in our room. The Joey Room children have been enjoying using their imagination through painting, collage and play dough. There has been an increased interest in the sandpit in the last couple of weeks, with the group getting enjoyment from making sandcastles and different shapes, as well as filling up the dump trucks.
We are also very good at singing songs and rhymes at group time.
Over the next few weeks we hope to continue work on using our manners and playing nicely with each other!
Senior Kindy We have enjoyed celebrating Christmas - pasting, cutting and painting many wonderful Christmas stencils. We have been singing and reading Christmas stories and songs. We had fun in our water play day, this was great jumping through sprinklers and driving our boats through the water in the water trough. A big welcome to all the new children, we are going to enjoy learning new songs, games and activities.
Pre-School It’s been a very busy few weeks with Christmas and New Year. With Miss Melinda and Miss Katie on holidays, Miss Rachael has been relief. We’ve done a lot of art and craft concentrating on decorating the pine Christmas tree (that Miss Melinda kindly brought in!) in the room. We also had a special visit from Santa who gave us presents. Everyone learnt a lot of Christmas Carols!. I’m sure everyone had a well deserved break over Christmas before starting the New Year. A big welcome to all the families from Senior Kindy joining our room for a fun 2012. We have also been making fireworks (not real ones!!!) with glitter and glue to celebrate New Years.
Needless to say we have been enjoying every moment of sunshine, and the children have been very good at remembering our sun safe skills. Happy New Year!!!
Thanks, from Rachael
POLICIES
Policies to be reviewed this month include:
· Record Keeping
· Evaluation
· Child Protection & Risk Management
· Staff Professional Development
· Supervision
· OHS
· Late Collection of Children
· Reporting of Harm
Any parent input/suggestions into the review of our policies would be welcome, and greatly appreciated. Policies are displayed on the notice board in the hallway.
Immunisations If your child has had an immunisation lately, could you please give a copy of this immunization to us, as we need to ensure that all immunisations are up to date. Thank you for your co-operation.
Thank you once again for giving us the privilege of caring and educating your beautiful children.
We hope you have a fantastic year in 2012
From Mel, Brian & the team at Country Kids
