General News

Family Update

Dear Families,

We wanted to say a big thank you those of you for taking the time to provide us with valuable feedback via the recent Family Feedback survey we sent out.

We are still working through and reflecting on some of the feedback in relation to how we might improve as a service however there are a few practices we can implement now that will hopefully support better communication around daily routine information and our curriculum / individual child planning.

Our Service Philosophy;

We noticed a consistency in the responses regarding what you and your children valued most about Early Childhood Education and Care highlighting; care, compassion, love, kindness, nurturing relationships, relationships with educators and peer friendships, happiness, fun, inclusiveness and safety. We will be highlighting these values in our updated service philosophy shortly and will send through via Story Park for your feedback.

Sharing of Daily Routine Information;

We will be working with the teams in implementing the following strategies;

Sharing a brief moment of the child’s day at pick up
The Joeys, Koala and Emu rooms will now have daily routine sheets that will include information about meal and rest times.
Each room will post their daily routine information on story park each day.
Where possible each room will also display the daily information near the entrance for families to read at pick up (please understand these will be available after afternoon tea to ensure they can be completed.

Weekly Menu;

Just a reminder that the menu is always displayed in the main entrance foyer
We have also now displayed it in the yoga hut for the kinder side.
You may have already noticed that we will also be posting the weekly menu on Story Park at the beginning of each week.

Documentation and learning

Each room will be sharing their curriculum plans with families (these will need to be viewed on a desk computer or laptop like the individual child plans)
We have asked each room to ensure their children’s individual plans have been shared with the family (attached is the guidance on ‘How to Access the Plans’)
We are currently reflecting on the possibility of implementing a day where we offer 10 minute parent teacher like phone meetings for families to book in who wish to know more about their child’s learning and development.

Opportunities for families to provide feedback

We will continue to use survey monkey and email as your preferred method for providing feedback regarding service decisions and improvement.

Kind regards,

Elise Weber

Quality & Compliance

Erina Kindergarten

Book Week

Our wonderful educators and preschoolers dressing up for book week!

Red Nose Day

Red noses today at #erina #kindergarten raising much needed funds to support further education, research & bereavement services. Thanking our families for donating to this worthy cause!

All Smiles

Terrigal Dental came to visit the preschool children and gumnuts this week for a dental talk and left a goodie bag for the children.

An rare action shot of our extensively qualified & totally awesome management team at Erina kindergarten! We are so incredibly proud of the commitment & dedication of our management team in advocating children’s rights & continuing to excel in our practices of providing excellent care at Erina kindergarten.

Our management team is incredibly passionate about leading our growing team towards continued excellence in supporting each child’s values & providing ongoing support to each child in their own learning journeys. We will continue to support our staffs in their journey of continuous improvement towards exceeding the the national quality standards with the provision of Early Childhood education and care for children in our care at Erina kindergarten.

Child & Family Health

It’s really important to keep up with your child’s developmental checks. You can find these check-lists in your Blue Book.

Our free Child and Family Health services are open and safe for you and your child to attend to complete these checks.

Find your local Child and Family Health Clinic here.

Learn More

Playing IT Safe

Playing IT Safe has been designed to help parents and carers support their child’s learning in early learning settings, by providing access to resources and online play-based activities that they can play with their child.

Research and advice suggests that co-viewing and co-playing with children helps to keep them safe online because parents and carers are taking an active role in what children are doing online, providing modelling of safe practices and being able to talk to them about it.

Playing IT Safe provides parents, carers and their children with a safe platform to play online and learn about the internet. It is important that parents and carers undertake these activities with their child to build trust and an understanding of their role in supervising and approving the content children see and how they interact online (both now, and as they get older).

Online safety education needs to start at a young age to set up a foundation for safer experiences and interactions. When everyone is open and transparent about what they are doing online, they are able to talk and support each other.

The resources below, including our play-based activities area, are where parents and carers can begin the process of supporting their children to play online in a safe way.

For further resources and information to help keep children safe online, visit the ThinkUKnow, eSafety and AMF websites.

Learn More

Central Coast Covid Free

😷 COAST COVID-FREE 😷

For the first time since the pandemic started, the Central Coast has no known active coronavirus cases.

The Central Coast Local Health District says all 117 cases have been released from daily follow up.

Over 16,100 tests have been carried out.

What a great achievement, Coasties! Lets keep up that social distancing.

People with even the slightest symptoms are being urged to get tested.

Welcome Elise

Hi everyone,

Now that I have an email address I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself as I know many of you have noticed me floating around .

A bit about myself, I grew up in Melbourne however have lived on the coast for the past 17 years with my husband and now two children Emma 12 and Jude 7.

My journey working within the early childhood sector began back in 1994 when I worked as an assistant educator in an Out of School Hours Care program. As my passion for working with children grew, I studied to complete my Diploma and in 2005 completed the Bachelor of Teaching Early Childhood Studies. Over the years I have had the pleasure and experience working as Lead Educator, Early Childhood Teacher, Hospital Play Therapist, Professional Development Facilitator for Gowrie NSW and Manager across a vast range of children services.

The key roles throughout my career have helped me to grow and evolve into a strong advocate for children’s rights and exceeding early childhood practices that support both the emotional and spiritual development of children. I am passionate about leading teams towards developing an early childhood curriculum and environment that values each child as capable and competent and as an individual supporting them on their own learning journeys.

I am looking forward to meeting and working closely with each of you, in supporting your journey of continuous improvement towards exceeding the National Quality Standards with the provision of Early Childhood Education and Care for children.

Shape Dominos

Engaging shape dominos games with Miss Wendy in the #emus room at #erina #kindergarten. The wonderful Miss Wendy & Miss Kiara are always actively engages in with the students to help to build a bond with the children and strengthen their sense of belonging and identity. Great job team #emus!