Post expires at 4:15am on Monday June 24th, 2013

2013 promises to be another eventful year for the centre, educators, families and for the Committee of Management.  The Annual General meeting was held in November.  The newly elected Committee are: Lewis (President), Emma (Vice President), Cathy (Secretary), Amanda (Treasurer), Roslyn (Staffing), Danni (Policy), Carolyn (Website), Andrea (Social/community), Sophie (Kinder), Nicole (General), Eve (General), Ruby (General), Cate (General) and Matt (General).

We still have one convenor position vacant- we are looking for a parent (or can be shared with two) to lead the environment subcommittee (see plans below), if you are interested see Anna in the office. Our first working bee is scheduled for Saturday 20 April, hope to see you there. Watch out for information which will be emailed to you a few weeks before.

If you would like to be involved in Committee activities, but do not wish to be on the Committee of Management, a Sub-Committee may be more to your liking.  These are not elected positions; anyone can join the Staffing, Policy, Environment, and Social/Community Sub-Committees.

We have some major plans this year that we would like to get off the ground such as, evaluating the children’s outdoor spaces, developing a community garden on Bastings St at the front of the centre and investigating building works in the kinder room. In order to achieve these goals we need parent involvement- your ideas, assistance to investigate grants/funding etc. Firstly, we will establish a working party consisting of myself, educators and parents. If you would like to be involved with this, please come and speak to me directly. Part of this process will involve asking your children for their ideas about what they think about their play spaces.

Congratulations to the 2012 rainbow room, lead by Ariel, she won the R.E.S.P.E.C.T Award (Recognition of Excellent Sustainable Practice in Early Childhood Teaching) from Environment Education in Early Childhood (EEEC). The name of the project was called ‘Making sustainability relevant and meaningful in the kindergarten program’. The project explored the children’s understandings and feelings towards ‘the environment’, using books, conversations, visual arts and hands on experiences with the children. Part of the award is a free Waterscape consultation and design service which includes a site assessment, consultation, drawings of a waterscape with an indigenous plant guide. In April, we will host a sustainability visit through the EEEC, an opportunity for early childhood professionals to network and hear about our programs and our centre.

The first of two Parent surveys scheduled for the year will be sent out next month; the survey results obtained each year assists the centre to improve in our daily practices, communication, relationships with families and children and forms part of Quality Improvement Plan (QIP). The surveys are web based through SurveyMonkey and are completely anonymous.

I have placed a Parent Rep notice near each sign in/out book in all the rooms, inviting one or two parents to be the Parent Rep for your child’s educational program .This initiative builds on the successful model from previous years.  The Parent Rep will organise social functions for their child’s program, such as a picnic in the park, so that the children and their families can get to know each other a bit better, or coffee mornings etc while the children are in kinder/childcare. These connections are particularly helpful as friendships develop and children want to see each other outside Annie Dennis. 
Finally the Parent Rep can help organise participation in events staged by the Social/Community Sub-Committee.

Thank you to parents who have already volunteered to be Parent Reps, we still need a Rep/Reps for the Possums, Grasshoppers and Pre Kinder.

Our website is continually evolving. Please login to www.anniedennis.org and have a look.  Even better, subscribe!  The website creates a profile for Annie Dennis outside the Centre and has resources for parents.  You will notice that we post notices to families via email or on the website, so that we reduce the amount of paper being used for notices in pockets. 

You are all invited to the Annie Dennis Welcome Night on Friday 22 March at 6.00pm in the Bastings Street yard.  There will be food, entertainment and drinks.  It’s a good chance to meet staff and other families that are new to the centre.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Lastly, I would like to welcome a new educator to our staff team, Dimitra will commence on Tuesday 5 March, in the role of teabreak/lunchbreak relief educator working from Tuesday to Friday.

Lara Bamundo
Director

Post expires at 11:18am on Sunday June 30th, 2013

1. DIRECT DEBIT

You may arrange with your bank for your fees to be automatically transferred from your account to Annie Dennis Children’s Centre’s account on a fortnightly basis. You will need to provide your bank with ADCC’s account details which can be obtained from the office.

2. INTERNET BANKING

You may transfer your fees directly from your account to ADCC’s account via internet banking. It is possible to set it up so your fees are transferred automatically each fortnight. You will need ADCC’s account details and please put your children’s name or your family name in the “description of transfer” field.

3. CHEQUE

You may write a cheque out to Annie Dennis Children’s Centre Inc each fortnight. The cheque should be placed in the locked box mounted on the wall near the office. Please write your child’s name on the back.

4. MONEY ORDER

You may pay your fees by money order, purchased at the Post Office. The Money Order must be made out to Annie Dennis Children’s Centre Inc and have your details written on the back.

IDENTIFY YOUR PAYMENT

Payments made by Direct Debit or Internet banking must be identified with your or your child’s name. Unidentified payments cannot be processed. If your payment for fees does not appear on your invoice it may not have been processed. Please check with the office.

Other areas of focus for the COM have been:

• developing and updating policies to be in line with the National Quality Standards
• working on the memorandum of understanding with staff
• negotiating the lease with Darebin Council
• organising the recent working bee. Thank you to everyone who attended the working bee and has made the yards look fantastic.

This tops off a really productive year where the COM has achieved some great new initiatives for the centre such as the sub-committee structure and the parent and staff satisfaction surveys.

The AGM is just around the corner now so if you have been thinking about getting involved on the Committee or if you’re keen to find out more about how Annie Dennis runs, please come along to the AGM. Beforehand please feel free to talk to myself, Lara and Anna or any current members about the various Committee roles if you have any questions.

I was thinking a little while ago what I have personally got out of being on the COM. Being a member for the last 5 years has been an absolute privilege. The highlights for me have been:

-          Being a part of making management and leadership decisions which children and families who attend ADCC benefit from;

-          Meeting so many amazing, skilled, professional and knowledgeable people who I have learnt so much from and who we all share a common goal for ADCC and that is to make it the best quality education and care service for our children;

-          A real sense of community, as I have contributed to the centre in a powerful and meaningful way by making management decisions;

-          Contributing to the decision making that has seen ADCC have an integrated kinder, a staff satisfaction survey, a highly qualified staff team, high level of parent participation and input into ideas;

-          Getting to know the staff team better and each and every one of our staff team is passionate, professional and committed not only to ADCC but the industry and we are lucky to have them working at ADCC providing families with the highest quality education and care;

-          Opportunity to work with Lara and Anna closely which has given me a new perspective on leading a centre. The amount of dedication that they both have for ADCC is brilliant.

As this will be my last newsletter report as President of ADCC, I want to take this opportunity to thank each member of the COM for their support, hard work and commitment over the last 12 months. Without your commitment and contribution ADCC can not operate as a successful committee managed and owned centre. Everyone has contributed and work as a team and it has been wonderful working with all of you.

I would like to lastly thank Lara, Anna and the staff team who are so dedicated, passionate, hard working and true professionals. I look forward to seeing as many of you at the AGM.

Leanne Giardina

As we head towards Christmas, we become busier more so than usual. During the final few months of the year there are room lists to finalise, the end of year celebration to plan, new families to welcome and everything else that happens on a day-by-day basis with the children and educational programs.

The centre has been a buzz with events, the most significant being the Family Fun Day and the working bee. The Family Fun Day was a huge success, a big thank you to the families who helped out on the day. The highlight for the children was obviously the face painting and the art/craft area. Not forgetting, Max the Magician and ‘digging for treasure’ in the sand pit, the gourmet pizzas and coffees (we drank 120 coffees and ate over 100 pizzas!). A special thank you to Alison (Zak’s mum from the rainbow room) for making the amazing, colourful, and creative biscuits.

The end of year celebration will be on Friday 30 November, we will need people to help out on the night but also leading up to and organising the event. So, please drop by the office and we can direct you to Rochelle and Emily from the social subcommittee.

Thank you to the families who took the time to complete the parent survey in July. Your responses have provided us with an opportunity to assess our current practices relating to our educational programs, your relationship with educators and the overall management of the centre. On the whole, your responses and comments acknowledged the warm and positive relationships the educators have with the children and their families and how children are supported and assisted to feel secure and included not only in their program but in the centre. I have had the opportunity to go through the individual program surveys results with the all the educators, focusing on the positives but also looking at how our current practices can be improved or done differently. The educators have developed action plans with specific changes to work towards.

Some of the changes educators are working towards in the programs are:

• Discussion boards for parent comments/ideas
• Emailing parents information about what is happening in the educational programs
• Portfolio week- an opportunity to invite families to reflect on their child’s learning and how parents can contribute to their child’s educational program
• Ensuring portfolios are accessible to parents at all times
• Improve verbal communication with parents and encourage parents to meet with room leaders to establish expectations and understand parents aspirations for their child
• Family nights for the educational programs

We encourage all parents to approach their child’s room leader to share their ideas/comments on further changes/improvements that can be made in the educational programs or within the centre.

Allocating childcare places is always a busy time for us and this year has been no exception.  It is an anxious time for families in the centre and families on the waiting list. The process does take time and we do the best we can in allocating extra days.

The central waitlist office has been notified of our available places for 2013 and they will contact families to offer places.

As we approach the final months of the year, the children will start visiting their new educational programs in preparation for 2013. Moving to a new room with new educators can be an anxious time, for children and parents. We will do all we can to make the transition time as stress free as possible for both children and parents. The children will have regular visits to their new educational programs accompanied by one of their current educators to explore their new environment. Parents are welcome to join in too. The dates for this will be displayed in the foyer. Families will be notified by the end of October of their child’s educators for 2013.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the families that are leaving the centre; we hope that you and your children will take some fond memories of the time spent at Annie Dennis. We wish you all the best as your enter a new and exciting phase in your lives.

Lastly, I would like to thank the committee of management, sub committee members and families who have generously given their time and expertise to help with all the behind the scenes, tasks and responsibilities relating to social nights, staffing, policy development, environment, working bees and maintaining our website and all the other many things that take place at Annie Dennis. I hope to see you at our AGM.

Lara Bamundo

This year the day was organised into three parts:

First, we undertook a session conducted by the organisation Child Wise. This focused on the indicators and effects of various forms of child abuse and the importance of early detection. Whilst this is can be an upsetting and confronting topic, we have a duty of care as Early Childhood Professionals to be vigilant and informed advocates in the protection of all children.

Next, we got some fresh air and fresh ideas through a tour of CERES Environment Park. As a centre we are always seeking new and innovative ways to continue and develop our commitment to sustainability. It is also important for us to make connections to local community organisations that are relevant to the lives of our children and families. We enjoyed a lovely organic lunch at the new low-impact restaurant, and managed to fit in a coffee and cake as well.

To finish off the day, we focused on an important topic – team work and communication. As a centre, Annie Dennis strives for excellence and innovation, and with such a large staff body it is essential to have common goals and an understanding of how we will reach them. This session encouraged us to develop self-awareness and positive communication and conflict resolution strategies. This is extremely relevant to our daily and long-term success and filters into relationships between staff as well as those with families and children.