Annie Dennis

Don’t forget the Centre will be closed this Friday for staff development day.Staff will be undertaking a range of activities, including team-building, to enhance their skills.If your child/children attend on Fridays you will not be charged fees for this day.  

On Friday 12 July we had our Staff Development Day, which began at the Royal Botanic Gardens in the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden. All rugged up, we participated in a workshop on sustainable gardening. We began by discussing some of our own childhood memories about outdoor play and interactions with gardening when we were kids. This reinforced how important these types of hands-on, outdoor experiences are for young children. This got our minds racing as we took a walk around the gardens, through the bamboo forest, up to the secret look-out, sniffing and smelling through the herb garden and, as we held hands, round and round the lavender labyrinth.

After this we explored worms and learnt how to set up a worm farm, much to the disgust of some staff members. We then observed and discussed the pros and cons of creating open or closed compost systems. Finishing up with the hands-on experience of propagating a sage cutting and planting a pea seed to bring back to the centre with us.

We then travelled to Lygon Street for a beautiful lunch and then went back to the centre for a brainstorming session to develop some short- and long-term goals for our outdoor environments:

Short-Term Goals
- potato garden
- planting established trees
- large boulders for sandpit
- greenhouse for propagation
- wind socks, rain gauges
- planting bamboo forest
- mosaic stepping stones
- adult outdoor furniture
- worm farms, compost
communal garden drop off box for families to donate cuttings, seeds, plants, general gardening items

Long-Term Goals
- roof over sandpits
- decking
- pathways with pavers
- creating different heights in yards
- dry creek bed (tanks)
- hills with grass
- planter boxes
- veggie patches

There was lots of positive feedback about the day from staff. A few comments included:
‘Great choice of topic, relevant for staff, motivating and inspiring, great to leave centre and be outdoors, gave staff confidence to attempt gardening, the best one yet, provided lots of ideas to begin implementing into outdoor spaces.’

‘The first few short-term goals are already starting by getting our closed compost bins going again and looking at acquiring some worm farms. Overall the day was fantastic and has really inspired staff to begin, continue and extend on the outdoor play spaces.’

‘As well as being inspirational and educational, the day also provided staff with the chance to socialise, relax with each other and enjoy each others company outside of our usual environment. It was a fantastic day!’

The Centre flung open its doors on Wednesday 9 January to welcome in families returning for 2008 and new families joining the Centre for the first time.  The building has been scrubbed clean, the gardens watered and “Wombat” the guinea pig is well rested and ready for a big year.  Over the next few weeks children will be settled into their new rooms, getting to know their carers, making new friends and renewing old acquaintances.  The staff and Committee of Management welcome everyone to the Centre and look forward to a fun year.