Our QA6 Strengths
Our Small Friends and their families are greeted and farewelled at our front door. This is face-to-face part of our day is an opportunity for our families to share information with our Team about anything that has happened in our Small Friends life e.g. illness, holidays, change of family circumstance.
Our Team is available to discuss any issues with families, and parents can have a chat with Natassja or an Assistant Director at pick up, or send an email to make a time to speak with Natassja in private.
Our News is emailed at the start of each term and includes general information about the centre; community events and/or courses that may be relevant to families; resources available to families i.e. ISS funding and local family support services. We encourage families to read our publications and contribute any ideas they may have for programming, incursions or outings.
Our social pages are updated regularly with house and community information, plus stories and photos of what we have been up to either in house or on an outing. We also update our website regularly so that families have easy access to information relating to vacancies, general information and our calendar. Photos are shared to our Instagram and Facebook pages.
We pass on relevant community information about groups such as WANSLEA, FIFO Playgroup, Relationships Australia, WA Mum’s Cottage, Maggie Dent , etc to our families via email or we published information within Our News.
We invite the Falcon Volunteer Fire and Rescue Team, Registered Nurse Bev Ramsay, Dr. Terrence and Nurse Tyrie of Your Mobile Vets, Selina from River Wren Rescue and other community members to help us run incursions during the year. We also love for our families to help us with incursions including our Time To Bath Baby visits in Term 4.
We proudly support :
Falcon Volunteer Fire & Rescue Crew - Natassja helps with graphic design work for station flyers and merchandise, and makes a monetary donation at Christmas to help the team with their Santa run around the neighbourhood.
The Lions Club Falcon - The team helps us with our Christmas Catch Up every December, cooking dinner for all of our families. Natassja and Duncan cover the cost of their donation plus more in the form of a gift card that the Lions Team can use together at a local restaurant/cafe.
Talk Like A Pirate Day Friday – our Small Friends and Team dress as pirates all week and take part in pirate activities. Families and our Team give a gold coin donation for the cause, and Natassja and Duncan match donations dollar for dollar.
The Foster Share Shed – we always pass on any donations we receive from our families and the community that maybe surplus to our needs, and we organise a Pay It Forward collection at Christmas to assist with their Christmas Party and FSS Promises Op Shop.
River Wren Rescue - Helping with rescue and rehabilitation through monetary donations from Natassja and Duncan plus annual collection with our families donating consumables to help the RWR team.
Practice Is Embedded In Service Operations
Our website is highly informative giving new families access to details about our program and the structure of environment with photos and links to our social pages giving a good visual representation of our space. Our Contact Us page allows them to send us an email that gives us enough information with regards to enrolment to start an electronic conversation about their child’s potential enrolment with us. We also use our website each year for our families to re-enrol their Small Friend doe the new year by filling in an online form mid September.
Our Facebook and Instagram pages allow new and current families an insight into how we are keeping busy and what we have planned in the weeks to come with plenty of current photos and access to our program and news for the term.
We have an effective introduction process for families, with new families encouraged to book a 10:30am Pop In time and visit us with their child to see how our space will work for them, and to allow the child to become familiar with our house. On visiting they will be informed on when we will be able to assist with enrolment and asked to scan a QR code to access our online information booklet and waitlist form. If they’re keen to start the enrolment process or secure a place on our waitlist, they are asked to complete a waitlist form within a week of their visit.
Once our occupancy is 100%, we choose to pause our Pop In times for tours of our house. Any new families pass this time in our year who wish to be on our waitlist are added to our Twilight opening guestlist, and closer to our date in November will receive an email from us inviting their family to join us at our Twilight opening for a tour of our house. This evening is for our current families and is an opportunity for our Small Friends to show their families around our world but creates a perfect opportunity for new families to have a look at our space; potentially make connections with current families to discuss why chose our world for their child, and then sit into a Welcome To Our World chat with our Management Team.
On their Small Friends first day, families are given a Your House To Our House profile. This document allows us to have a link with home, asking questions regarding the child’s interests; who their family members are; what they Can Do regarding general skill and abilities, and what they may need some help with.
Once enrolled, families receive an email from Natassja which includes a link to our Welcome New Villagers page on our website, This page includes all the information they need with regard to CCS, administrative procedures and policies including fee charging, and links to our cyberspaces which we encourage our new family to follow.
All appropriate information regarding enrolment is entered into the Child Care Subsidy System via our Xplor Office software.
Policies are always available for families to read through in our policy folder located in the foyer of our house.
Our families are encouraged to contact us at any time regarding their child, the service we offer, or anything else they wish to discuss.
Practice Is Informed By Critical Reflection
We pride ourselves on the relationship we have with inclusion support agencies such as WANSLEA and local health professionals, and Natassja feels comfortable in having conversations with families with regard to the fact that their child may have additional needs and need to access external agencies to support them in their educational journey beyond our house. On review of a Small Friend’s abilities and how they’re developing within our program, some children may benefit from an alternative pathway for their start to formal schooling. If this is the case Natassja will support families in accessing information and advice on the options available to their child, should they need to consider a more supportive educational setting other than state or private schools in the area that cannot support children with additional needs.
Practice Is Shaped By Meaningful Engagement With Families, And/Or Community
Clear information is given to families about how we can help their family unit. Management will endeavor to glean information before enrolment either through discussion during a Pop In visit, via a phone call or email regarding the family’s prior experiences with child care. Often our world is going to be the first time their child has been away from them, so we need to ensure everyone feels comfortable and confident about everything to do with our house.
Ongoing formal and informal processes are used to connect and communicate with families. Daily/weekly messages sent via email, Xplor Home and/or texts; Our News is published each team; direct conversations with families at pick up or flyer/poster/photo displays at our front door/foyer/bag area.
Families are valued as integral partners in the ever changing education of our world, and each family is respected as individuals and over the course of their Small Friend’s time in our care we value the relationships that evolve between families and our Team.
Our Team take time to talk and listen to families, and knowledge about families is respectfully shared by Management amongst our Team when deemed appropriate for the sake of the Small Friend’s wellbeing. Everyday intentional discussions with families about their Small Friend’s progress, interests and needs are something all of our Management Team strive to be confident and competent in to ensure that best practice to support the child and family is in place.
Professional learning in regard to child rearing and cultural awareness is part of professional learning options available to our Team, and we will reach out for support from groups such as WANSLEA if we requite support and/or professional development.
Families are invited our annual outings which include our Easter Hunt; Teddy Bears picnic in Pinjarra or a visit to River Wren Rescue in term three; our Twilight Opening in November, and of course the village favourite, our Christmas Catch Up! Each event not only recognises the connected celebration, but also our strength as a village of Small Friends, Families, Educators and Community Members.
Our reputation in the community is highly respected and not only do we receive referrals from past and current families, but health professionals we work with in-house and administration teams at our local schools also help us with word of mouth referrals. This level of referral is something we are proud of as it is part of the legacy of Small Friends in our local community.