Our QA5 Strengths
Our Small Friends are greeted at the door by our Assistant Directors and 2ICs, and it is our priority to ensure that they always feel welcome when they’re dropped off to our house and are ready to start their day and are farewelled at the end of the day with a smile. We truly believe that having a smile to greet you and farewell each day allows us to build strong relationships not only with our Small Friends, but their families and members of our community who pop in for a visit.
New Small Friends are buddied with a Team member to help them to settle in. If they are a little unsettled to start with, we always let the family know who their Buddy Teacher is so that we can keep conversations going beyond our doors to ensure that the first few weeks in our house runs smoothly for our Small Friend and their family. Having a Buddy Teacher allows our Small Friend to gain confidence within the routine of our day and supports them to engage in a space and with other children as they know that they always have a Buddy Teacher they can seek out if they’re a little bit unsure about part of their day.
We aim to provide a learning environment that allows our Small Friends to experience the natural world in our wonderful backyard and out in our Bunny Den, and a world that mirrors their own home inside our house. Every space in our world considers children’s interests, and we endeavour to always include spaces that inspires their imagination and creativity, and encourages spontaneous, play and learning.
Our Team ratio on any given day is above the regulated level of supervision that is expected, and we are always one over on our roster. Having one extra Team member on the floor for most of our day means that we can always focus on our Small Friends reactions to their learning and play spaces and make changes through the day to ensure that all our spaces are engaging, for all of our children.
Practice Is Embedded In Service Operations
Our Small Friends At all times the decisions we make as a Team for in our world revolve around what is best for the children in our care.
Our Team interact with our Small Friends in a warm and caring manner that builds positive relationships with our children and their families, and our free flow space allows all 40 children to get to know the 6 staff members that are working each day.
Our Team rosters are developed to provide a consistency of Educators for children across our work week.
Small Friends that are struggling to settle are allocated a Buddy Teacher who helps them to feel more comfortable and confident with our transitions and routines throughout the day.
Consistent and non-judgemental language is used by our Team to address unsafe and unsettled behaviours of children. When children become upset or display unsafe behaviours our Team use positive language to guide choices with a focus on deescalating the situation, redirecting and reengaging children into their day.
Our Small Friends are taught strategies to communicate with others, manage social situations and respond to unwanted or behaviours. This is modelled be staff, supported by visuals and reinforced through interactions. Our Team sit with our Small Friends during mealtimes to promote conversations about healthy eating and general ‘chat’ that show that mealtimes are a social part of a child’s day.
Our Small Friends are provided with long periods of time to engage in self-directed play with their friends and 6 mat sessions break up our day to allow for routines and transitions to naturally become part of our day and a chance to learn from others who become positive role models for these particular parts of our program.
Our Team support all children in our care to engage in play activities and respectfully invite other children to join in to model and encourage shared play. Our Small Friends are supported to communicate with other children in respectful safe ways through both verbal and nonverbal communication, and those that may need extra support in developing relationships with other children are supported by our Team to do so.
Small Friends who require additional support to regulate their emotions and behaviours maybe considered for an inclusion support plan, with funding sourced to help implement a support plan to address their individual needs and support them in confident and comfortable with all aspects of the day. The Inclusion Support Program is accessed to help support children with identified additional needs and those that may be waiting to be diagnosed. Children with additional needs who we deem need assistance to engage with our space will have a support plan with identified goals and strategies to help them to engage in our space with full confidence. We will always endeavour to give support in the most effective manner that aims to enhance a Small Friends involvement in our program and individual development.
Our Space The unique free flow of house allows us is to optimise the space we have to ensure engaging learning areas and opportunities are prioritised in our work week.
Consideration is given to the layout of the learning spaces to ensure all Small Friends have access to spaces and resources to meet their interests and needs, and to inspire their imagination and creativity.
Daily routines are taught in a consistent manner, encouraging children to develop their independence to assist with the movement of all 40 Small Friends through routines and transitions of our day.
Toileting support is provided to assist Small Friends who are working at becoming independent in this area.
Practice Is Informed By Critical Reflection
Our Team know how to balance stepping in and supporting our Small Friends, and when to step back and observe. Our free flow space allows all 6 staff members to observe the program and how it’s working with specific groups of Small Friends,
Our daily observations of how our Small Friends are engaging in our spaces allows us to reflect constantly on how activities are being received. We always say that when our Small Friends are focused on the positive B word Busy then the other B word Bored is not part of our day.
Many opportunities are created for our Team to engage in professional discussions to ensure clarity of understanding, gathering of perspective and agreement on approaches to our program and how it may or may not be working for our Small Friends.
Practice Is Shaped By Meaningful Engagement With Families, And/Or Community
Support for separating from families is handled sensitively and in close collaboration with families. We work with our own Buddy Teacher plan to help new Small Friends settle into our house and let our families know who their child’s Buddy Teacher is so that they can include that persons name in conversations they have at home to help with the connection between home and Small Friends.
All of our Team respect the diversity of the community and engages in respectful relationships with families. Our Small Friends participate in a variety of incursions, learning opportunities to develop their awareness and understanding of cultural diversity. We pride ourselves on having resources available and on display in our house that immerse children in diversity, rather than teaching it as an explicit content session which we do not believe is appropriate for children of our age group. Exposure at a natural level is beneficial to children who at their age have no judgement of race, gender, age or ability.
Our Team is open to working with support services such as Clinical Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapist to support children who have additional needs. They will work collaboratively with health professionals to help families and children access support, and are more than happy to implement any cognitive and/or physical programs or strategies provided by health professionals to assist with a Small Friend’s development.
Meetings are held with families to support them to access further services, and to help families develop an understanding of their Small Friend’s needs, and to inform them of progress, and Natassja is happy to help families with getting in contact with the support services their child may need to address any concerns they may have with regard to their child’s development, and/or their transition to Kindy.