Mascot takes flight at launch party

CONNECTIONS • WINTER 2018 1

ON DEMAND

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FDC TIME CAPSULE

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There’s plenty of interest in naming the new Greater Hume Children Services’ mascot after the service recently unveiled its new branding and called for entries in the naming competition and colouring-in competition.

Greater Hume Children Services (GHCS) acting Manager, Deanne Burr said the launch celebrations brought the mascot to life and educators, families and children have embraced it. Staff, educators, children, families and community members were in attendance at a special community playgroup to unveil the new brand.

“We have already received some fun name suggestions; both competitions have really captured our families’ attention. The new brand reflects our priorities of fun and learning through play, incorporating the natural environment,” Mrs Burr said.

“We’ve been providing family day care and playgroups for 24 years. The service continues to grow and we now support Educators and families throughout Greater Hume, southern NSW and north east Victoria, so we felt it was time to

modernise our brand,” she said.

“It reflects our philosophy of providing a supportive play environment for children. We know children need to explore, discover, imagine, create and challenge themselves and each other’s thinking. We believe that the play environment should reflect this, by providing children with the opportunity

to make their own choices, discover, take risks, investigate, express their ideas, and solve problems. We believe the environment, should be unhurried, fun, enriching and supportive.”

Mrs Burr said community is an important part of the service. GHCS serves both urban and rural children and families and is focused on giving both equal opportunities.

“Part of this is to provide flexible childcare options. We cater for full-time, part-time, casual, overnight care, weekend care, before and after school and vacation care.

Curious to know which name won? Look on the Greater Hume Children Services website: www.ghchildren.com.au or Facebook page: www.facebook.com/greaterhumechildrenservices

NSW FAMILY DAY CARE ASSOCIATION AND PEAK TRAINING NEWSLETTER WINTER 2018

Mascot takes flight at launch party

2 WINTER 2018 • CONNECTIONS

WELCOME Anita Jovanovski, CEO

Hello everyone and welcome to the winter edition of Connections for 2018. As the whole early childhood education and care sector is gearing up towards the new Child Care Package from 2 July 2018, we are assisting our members to make the transition as smooth as possible. The last of a series of seven information brochures about the new Child Care Package has been sent to member services. If you wish to read or distribute these brochures again; the whole series is available in the membership section on our website.

By now Family Day Care services should have completed the following three steps and associated tasks:

+ Complete the online transition form + Set up your third-party software + Updated provider/service details, updated or created enrolments and linked personnel

Family Day Care Educators must complete their PRODA registration in order for Child Care Subsidy to be paid for the care they provide to their families after 2 July 2018. Families must complete their activity test before 2 July as well. If you have any questions in regards to the transition to Child Care Subsidy or the new Child Care Package in general, have a look at the Australian Government Department of Education’s transition website: www.education.gov.au/transitioning-new-child-care-package Or give our Family Day Care support team a call on 02 9779 9999 and press 2.

I’m happy to report that NSWFDCA has been successful in the tender application for In Home Care Agency in NSW and South Australia. At the moment, it’s all hand on deck transitioning families to the new In Home Care Program under the new Child Care Package, coming into effect on 2 July 2018.

The Family Day Care Services Education and Support Project is promoting the Government transition website and the suite of Family Day Care educator brochures, translated into 11 community languages, to these communities Australia wide. We are also updating the project website and resource materials to reflect the changes related to the new Child Care Package.

Happy reading!

New Child Protection Training RequirementsFollowing changes to the National Law from 1 October 2017, new child protection training requirements have been introduced nationally for nominated supervisors and for the “person in day-to-day charge” at early childhood services.The NSW approved courses on child protection training have not changed. Prior to the latest changes to the National Law, NSW was the only jurisdiction that had a specific provision requiring nominated supervisors to have completed an approved child protection course. However, this requirement has now been applied nationally.This means that the update to note for NSW is that both persons in day-to-day charge, and all nominated supervisors, must complete an approved child protection course.

PEAK Training offers high quality child protection refresher webinars and full accredited units at competitive prices. For more information and to enrol, go to www.nswfdc.org.au/peak or call

02 9779 9999.

ACECQA Snapshot National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshots provide an overview of the Australian children’s education and care sector, including the progress and results of quality assessment and rating against the National Quality Standard (NQS). There are currently 259 Family Day Care services in NSW and 807 FDC services Australia wide. This is a decrease of 16% compared to the same quarter last year. Centre-based services (Long day care, preschool, kindergarten and outside school hours care) make up the vast majority with 95% and FDC is 5% of the total number of ECEC services in Australia. The NQF Snapshot for Quarter 1 is available on the ACECQA website www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/snapshots as PDF, Excel spreadsheet and interactive tool.

News in brief

Regulations Info

CONNECTIONS • WINTER 2018 3

Association NewsPEAK TrainingOn demand webinarsWe heard you! PEAK Training is now offering recordings of our most popular live webinars. Our ‘on demand’ sessions offer you the opportunity to participate a webinar at a time that suits you. Unlike calendared sessions, access to on demand webinars are granted from the day they are purchased (if purchased between business hours) or the next working day (if purchased after hours, over the weekend or on a public holiday).

You can access the on demand webinars at your leisure for 5 days! You can pause, rewind and forward at any time to go over specific information and take notes to share them with your team.

Register online and an email will be sent to you with instructions on how to log in along with the PDF handout of the presentation. If you wish to obtain a certificate, make sure you click on the corresponding button to let us know that you have viewed it. See below what’s currently available. Once you know what you want, search for it amongst our Short Courses online and enrol. It’s that simple! www.nswfdc.org.au/peak

For EC staff and educators• Exploring Risky Play• QIP: An Overview• Sustainability in Early Childhood settings• Supporting the Inclusion of Children with

Additional NeedsCost: Members – $40 pp

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA1.Educational Program & Practice

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA2.Children’s Health & Safety

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA3.Physical Environment

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA4.Staffing Arrangements

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA5.Relationships with Children

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA6.Collaborative Partnerships with Families& Communities

• QIP: The ‘Who, How & When’ QA7.Governance and Leadership

Cost: Members – $30 pp

Topics for service providers• FDC Business Development: Diagnosing

the business• FDC Business Development: Preparing

the budget

• FDC Business Development: Preparingthe business plan

Cost: Members – $25 pp

For the broader community• Community Child Protection Training (for

non-mandatory reporters only)Cost: $20 pp

Kidsafe National Playspace Design Awards The 2018 Kidsafe National Playspace Design Awards recognise excellence and innovation in the provision of safe, creative playspaces. The awards are open to playground owners, service providers, design professionals, students, and landscapers from across Australia. A great opportunity to showcase your playspace design in action! The awards aim to promote inspirational, innovative, best practice play facilities that encourage healthy participation in recreational activities for all children. More information: kidsafe.com.au/national-playspace-design-awards

Entries close AEST 5pm Friday 27 July 2018 Winners announced 29 November 2018

Photo: waxdesign.com.au

Photo: play-scapes.com

4 WINTER 2018 • CONNECTIONS

Disclaimer This newsletter is provided for information only and should not be used in place of professional advice. The NSW Family Day Care Association Inc. and PEAK Training, the author/s and any other person/s associated in any way with the development and or production of this newsletter expressly disclaim all and any liability (both in contract and for negligence) to any person or organisation whatsoever in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person or organisation in reliance upon any part of the text or any inference drawn from the text appearing in this material.

CALL 02 9779 9999

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NSW FDC ASSOCIATION

Anita Jovanovski CEOJenny Hoang AccountantKate Tran Accounts AssistantMagda Jansen Membership and Communications

PEAK TRAINING

Robyn Jurd Student Support Officer Kathy Nguyen AdministratorAraceli Abarca Support and AdministratorTreena Allen Support and Administrator

IN HOME CARE SUPPORT AGENCY

Rose Todd Manager Bridget Charter Family and Service Facilitator Louise Rooney Family and Service Facilitator

NSW IN HOME CHILDCARE SERVICES

Maria Fazio ManagerAndrea Manzo-Dong Family Liaison OfficerRosalba Tipaldo Family Liaison Facilitator Vicki Jones Family Liaison Officer - Central CoastDusanka Romic Senior AdministratorAnne Bentley Administrator Cathy Lowndes Administrator

ADDRESS

1 Sloane Street, Summer Hill NSW 2130PO Box 386, Summer Hill NSW 2130T: (02) 9779 9999 F: (02) 9779 9998E: [email protected] www.facebook.com/NSWFDC

The environment as a teacher

NSWFDCA was invited to present at the recent International Early Childhood Symposium. Dalene Eadie from Collective FDC accepted NSWFDCA’s invitation to present at the symposium held in the new International Convention Centre in Darling Harbour, alongside other inspirational national and international presenters.

Dale previously worked as an educator in Blacktown Council’s Puzzles Family Day Care before becoming the Nominated Supervisor for Collective FDC and has received numerous awards including the 2015 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards: National Educator of the Year, as well as the regional and state awards. She strongly believes that children learn through their interactions, relationships and experiences with others and the environment and advocates the use of the environment as the third teacher. In her role as an educator Dale provided exciting, sustainable, rich play environments as a strategy for intentional teaching.

Dale is passionate about sharing her ideas and set up a very well received stimulating, thought provoking display at the Symposium. As educators began to first trickle and then, as word went around, pour into the room, they were invited to look, touch, smell, photograph and discuss the resources in order to engage with the ambience, textures, aromas and visual effects. It became clear from the expressions of ‘oohs’,’aahs’ and ‘wows’, how inspired and excited they became and how their imaginations were reignited by the countless possibilities.

The presentation included discussions around sustainable practices, small world setups, storage solutions as well as using the environment as a strategy for intentional teaching. The message that your environment reflects your philosophy so much more than the written word truly resonated with delegates.

Dalene Eadie (right) with NSWFDCA staff

NSW FAMILY DAY CARE ASSOCIATION RESOURCE SHEET WINTER 2018

Hopes and Visions

Some of you may remember being part of the NSWFDCA’s 2012 Annual Professional Development and Networking Forum. The theme of the forum was ‘Celebrating Our Future Together’. Part of the explorations of this theme was the creation of a Family Day Care time capsule, where attendees would share their ‘hopes and visions for Family Day Care in five years’. At the February State Meeting this year, the time capsule was opened and the hopes and vision were shared. It is amazing to see how much has changed, how much has not changed, which people are still active in the sector and which people have moved on. Here is a selection of the entries of the 2012 time capsule.

My hopes and visions for Family Day Care in five years are…

Family Day Care Time Capsule Opened

Family Day Care will be recognised as leaders in quality childcare both by other professional in all children’s services and parents and families.

Rose Nauer, Greater Hume Children’s Services

More indigenous educators to support the changing needs of indigenous children within our scheme. Plus having additional support for these educators to retain them within Family Day Care.

Jenni Porter Wyong Children’s Services

that the majority of Family Day Care services embrace and acknowledge the In Home Care sector and see the benefits of working together. Julie Paul, Taree & Great Lakes Childcare Services

that educators get more recognition of the importance of their job in our society by people not in our sector.

Kristy Elks, Northern Rivers Children’s Services

the embracement of EYLF and its evolution beyond today’s level of high quality.

Sylivia Perdikaris, Leichhardt Family Day Care

that children are still our first priority, always!

Jacky Heckendorf, Inverell and District Family Day Care

ratios to remain 1 to 5, that Family Day Care continues to be a viable form of childcare offering families choice and that Family Day Care is a well-known form of quality childcare.

Raewyn van den Haspel, Illawarra Family Day Care

that educators and coordination unit staff can work collaboratively to break down barriers and ensure that Family Day Care is publicly seen as a professional childcare option that is best placed to ensure very positive social and learning outcomes for children in care.

Sue Evans, Armidale and District Family Day Care

NSW FAMILY DAY CARE ASSOCIATION RESOURCE SHEET WINTER 2018

“On Saturday 7 April 2018, we held our annual Family Day Care Educator Expo at our Family Day Care service: Bathurst Family Day Care. We developed this compulsory event specifically for our educators to provide them resources, informa-tion and ideas to utilise in their Family Day Care homes. It is also an opportunity to take a break, enjoy morning tea and network with other educa-tors and community members in a relaxed environment.

The service put together nine stalls featuring the following:

• Fiona Howle – Upcycling with householditems

• Maree from Fifty8 George – Branding &Advertising for Small Businesses

• Louise from Gowrie – Information onInclusion Support

• Science Table – Simple, practical hands-on experiments by Matilda

• Sandra from EzyEd – Educationalresources for early learning

• Reflective diaries and programmingwithin the early childhood industry

• Ocean Theme - by one of our educatorsKaren Burgoyne

• Transition to school

• 3 Funky Lizards and Creative WishesOnline

A big thank you goes to Monique from Travis Dental Surgery for providing dental packs for each of our educators, to the events team, Caro Wig-gins from the environment section at Bathurst Re-gional Council for all the fabulous resources and to everyone else who contributed and came along to our successful event.

Each educator received an educational bag filled with resources for their Family Day Care, along with a special appreciation gift for their continued dedication and commitment in caring and educat-ing our most precious resource – our children.”

By Priscilla Rouland, Bathurst Family Day Care

Educator Event

Bathurst Family Day Care Expo 2018