October 2017

Fostering positive Mental Health Our mental health and that of our family is just as important as our physical health. October 8—14 was Mental Health Week highlighting a growing need for us all to take a holistic approach to wellbeing. A child’s family is the first and biggest influence on their mental health. Children can be taught how to cope with their emotions, to bounce back from problems, and to devel-op positive relationship from a very early age. All families can teach children these skills as early as possible in life – even from when they’re babies! Everyone is going to meet challenges in their life that creates risks for our mental health. Many of these challenges will be unexpected. By building a child’s protective factors they can have improved mental health. Protective factors help to balance out the risk of developing mental health difficulties and build resilience - the ability to cope with life’s difficulties. Some examples of children’s mental health protec-tive factors include: a stable and warm home environment having supportive parents or carers and early childhood services achieving developmental milestones having an ambition to overcome challenges routines and consistency in life having support from a wide circle of family, friends

and community members.

KidsMatter (https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/mental-health-matters) suggest the following strategies: Spend time with children by having fun playing games, going to the park or going somewhere to-

gether as a family. Try to maintain routines as much as possible. Routines and consistency help children feel secure. Build and maintain supportive relationships with family, friends and early childhood staff. Talk

with them about how they can best support you and your child during hard times. Tell staff about any concerning behaviour you are noticing at home.

Try to help children to understand and manage their feelings; this can help them develop coping skills.

Help children learn to cope with loss and change by providing support and reassurance, honesty and clarity. Help them also to understand that loss and stress are a normal part of life.

Acknowledge children’s feelings and try to understand and respect them, especially when they are going through a difficult time. Offer support and reassurance by asking questions and letting them talk about their feelings.

Try to support children in building their internal protective factors (eg good communication and problem-solving and social skills) by acknowledging and encouraging their skills when guiding their behaviour.

PARENT NEWSLETTER

Bookings, Transitions and Enrolments 2018 We are currently trying to plan for 2018 to ensure that as many families as possible can access their childcare requirements. We have a growing number of siblings to commence in Room 1, families who wish to increase their bookings and many new families wanting to enrol in 2018. In order to enable transitions between rooms in October several families made some temporary changes to their attendance days for term 4. This was required because we have different days in each room that have higher enrolments. We aim to support all families to achieve a work life balance by accessing their required childcare days. At the same time consistent booking patterns provide more equal enrolments across each day of the week, supporting more families to access their childcare needs. It has been especially difficult for families wishing to access full time childcare. Some external factors are impacting on the variation in enrolments across days of the week, particularly in Room 3, with a high demand for Fridays from preschool aged children as preschools in our the local and wider area do not offers sessions on a Friday. All families have been emailed a form regarding childcare needs for 2018. Please complete this form as soon as possible so we can confirm places for families wishing to increase days and new families wanting to enrol. Families requesting a change will be notified as earlier as possible if this is available. Our waiting list management procedure is as follows. When there is a vacancy at the Centre, priority for this place is given in the following order: Transitions of current children who are of the appropriate age and development to the next age

group. Families with current bookings who wish to increase their bookings. Siblings of current families. Families on the waiting list who are ready to commence. Places are offered to those families

who have been on the waiting list longest in relation to the days of childcare required and the age group in which vacancies occur.

Currently almost 50% of children attend 3 days with the majority on a booking pattern of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Wednesday Thursday, Friday.

Diary Dates: Please remember the following important dates: Early closure day—Tuesday 24th October WCCC will close at 4.30pm for educator professional development. End of year celebration Monday 18th December End of year closure Friday 22nd December 2017 at 1.00pm re-open Monday 8th January 2018 at 8.00am

Board and PAG Matters 2017 Adelaide University Childcare Services Inc (AUCS) meets on the last Monday of the month. Annelise Wiebkin is the WCCC parent member of AUCS. Meetings are at Waite till the end of the year. The Parent Advisory Group (PAG) meetings in 2017 continue to be the third Friday of the month. Beginning plans for the end of year celebration, and reviewing the Centre’s QIP are planned discussions.

PARENT NEWSLETTER

New Babes

Congratulations to to Christine, Shane, Finn (R3) and Nala (R1) on the birth of Elli

to Toby, Caarin and Ethan (R 2)on the birth of Avery; to Patricia, Paul and Lucas (R3) on the birth of Isabella,

to Bronya, Nigel, and Jasmine (R1) on the birth of Banjo; to Kema, Tymon and K’aui (R2)on the birth of Naia and Carina, Alexander and Aiden (R1) on the birth of Alecia

Building emotional resilience In order to manage our emotions we need to understand what these emotions are, how we night feel them in our bodies and how emotions are expressed During term 3 and continuing in term 4 programs in all rooms planned to explore children’s understanding of and expression of emotions. Children are encouraged to talk about how they are feeling and to observe how they and others express their different emotions. Children have been engaging with this in various ways with some delightful outcomes as they show their happy face or sad face, thoughtful face or grumpy face, puzzled or surprised face! As part of our program we are encouraging awareness of emotions as changeable and something we can self manage. For example, when children are sad because something is not happening as they hoped we acknowledge the feeling, describe the feeling, encourage them to breathe and relax and then think about how to change the situation and see how their feeling changes. Educators learning stories and learning entries in children’s portfolio’s will provide more detail of both individual and group experiences and learning. Can you pick the emotion on these faces?

Older children have also been exploring their understanding of emotions through drawing.

Key Outcomes 2017 How are we doing?

Our 2017 program and service review will begin at the end of November. Before then please think about our key goals for 2017 and what we have achieved Our outcomes for 2017 have focused on: Strengthening relationships, building positive education and enhancing engagement Children

Every child is supported to feel secure, confident and included (QA 1,5) A safe and vibrant learning environment supports the strengths interests and capabilities of

each child (QA 1, 2, 3, 5) Educators encourage, respect and respond to children’s voices and support children’s

agency (QA 1, 3, 5) Children’s wellbeing is supported through effective practices and procedures (QA 2, 3, 4) Healthy eating and physical activity are promoted through planned and spontaneous events

to foster healthy lifestyles (QA 2, 3) Families

Families and educators work in partnership through the development of positive relation-ships and open communication (QA5, 6, 7)

Children’s’ learning is visible to all families and they are regular readers of their child’s portfolio (QA1,5,6,7)

Sustainable living is integrated into the life of the Centre and actively engages families and educators. (QA 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6, 7)

Educators and staff Educators are leading Waite Campus Childrens Centre to learn and live positive education

(QA 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6, 7) WCCC recruits and maintains a diverse team of educators Educators critically reflect on room design and resources to provide an inviting and

engaging environment for all children at all times (QA 1,3,6) Educators have implemented strategies to ensure children’s learning is authentically,

consistently and regularly documented (QA 1,3,4, 5 6) Community

The Centre has strong links with the campus community and a range of local community groups (QA 4,5,6,7)

The service takes a leading role in supporting and promoting a sustainable future and actively supports others to contribute to a sustainable future (QA 4,5,6,7)

Building children’s capacity for school: The key for children’s success at school is having a positive attitude towards new things. There are also key personal, relationship and learning skills that will support a child’s transition to school. These include: The personal skills of looking after yourself and your belongings. Understanding that there are routines and rules that apply in different situations and being able to manage time and get tasks done. Relationship skills include joining in, sharing and taking turns and developing and maintaining friend-

ships. Learning how to talk with less familiar adults. The key learning skills include persistence, being able to keep going with a task; listening and following instructions and being able to ask and answer questions. It is worth noting that none of these key requirements involve writing or counting. Just as all children walk at a different age all children will learn to read, write and count at different ages. The key to a successful transition to school is that children are confident learners, willing and able to have a go. They need support from both parents and the school. Open communication and building relationships will be the key to not only the first year of school but ongoing success at school just as it has been the key to the your time at childcare.

WCCC Green Page

Take the Recycle Right challenge and improve your recycling skills All families, educators and staff are encouraged to complete the survey before 27th October: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WCCCrecycleright

Connecting to Place 2017

Many families experienced outdoor classroom day in September with all children starting their day in Pilyabilyangga on Thursday September 7th. For the past few years we have held a series of ‘connecting to place days' in Pilyabilyangga In 2017 these days are planned for: Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th November On these days the Centre building will not be accessible from the main entrance. All families will need to follow the path down the southern side of the building and educators will be waiting in Pilyabilyangga to assist with settling your child. For parents who are not familiar with this area your children will give you a tour of their favourite spots. All children have experience being in Pilyabilyangga so we trust this should not create any issues. Please discuss with educators if you have any questions, concerns or ideas. If you do not know about our outdoor classroom Pilyabilyangga please read about it on our website: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/childcare/waite/sustainability/The_making_of_Pilyabilyangga.pdf

Prepare for National Recycling Week…take our recycling challenge National recycling week, which began in 1996, is held in November each year. Planet Ark founded National Recycling Week to bring a national focus to the environmental benefits of recycling. The campaign continues to educate and stimulate behaviour change, by both promoting kerbside, industrial and community recycling initiatives and giving people the tools to minimise waste and manage material resources responsibly at home, work and school. National Recycling Week 2017 is Monday 13 to Sunday 19 November 2017 We would like to challenge you to recycle more and to share your stories and ideas on ways families and educators can improve their recycling. We have developed a recycle right survey to assist you with assessing your current recycling habits and strategies. We would like you to complete this by October 27th and, in the following weeks, we will provide you with tips and ideas on ways to recycle more. At the end of November we will have another survey to see the changes and improvements everyone has made. We will have a lucky draw with some great prizes for those who enter our challenge and of course our annual recycling quiz will be in the November news.

In the end, we will conserve only what we love,

we will love only what we understand, and we will understand

only what we experience. Baba Dioum, Senegalese environmentalist: