Mutter - Selby Preschool

Monthly
President’s Report
Mutter
June 2015
Hard to believe we are almost half way through the year, the months seem to pass so
quickly these days. We have had a very busy term 2 thus far, Marita and the team have
been working very hard to compete all outstanding issue’s arising from our recent audit.
This is now complete and lodged with the department. Marita, Dee and Katherine have
also been working hard on the 4yr program to minimise any disruption to the kids,
modifying / improving systems and strategies to make every day a new experience for
the kids. A very big thank you from us all for the dedication they continue to show.
Issue 4 – June 2015
Selby Pre-School ~ February 2014
Presidents Report
Selby Pre-School
15 Lyons Drive
Selby 3159
Ph: 9754 2744
Selby.kin@kindergarten.vic.gov.au
www.selbypreschool.com.au
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We have recently advertised for teaching positions and held interviews Thursday the 11
June 2015, on our panel was Justin Butler (school Principal), Sara Powell (committee
member), Darlene Elders (Cockatoo Preschool Director) and myself. We had a busy
afternoon with 5 people interviewed including our own Marita Marshall. At the
conclusion, it was agreed Marita was the best candidate for the role and was offered and
accepted the position of 4yr Teacher and Director at Selby Pre School. Our
congratulations to Marita, we are all looking forward to make Selby Kinder the place to
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be! We have since interviewed for a 3yr teacher on Monday 15 June. Our panel
consisted of Justin Butler, Marita Marshall and myself and we interviewed 4 candidates.
We were excited to be able to offer the position to Wendy Miller. She has a wealth of
experience in teaching 3 year olds and will be a fabulous addition to our team.
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We had a very successful Bunning’s BBQ on the 23 May 2015. Our roster was full and
we almost sold out of our 75Kg of sausages. We made $1500 profit on the day, a big
thank you to all helpers on the day and very special thank you to Bec Millikins for her
kind donation of drinks and sauces. Also a very big thank you to Sarah McLachlan and
Bec Hobson for their hard work prior ordering sausages / bread and onions. I’m sure we
are all looking forward to putting this money to good use purchasing equipment for the
kinder.
We are now coming up to Enrolment time, with teacher / student ratio’s changing next
year ( 1:11 ). Offer’s will be sent out next week, full payment and forms will have a tight
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deadline to allow for 2 round offers if we have any. Any queries please contact Mary
Fitzgerald.
I hope everyone enjoys their mid year break if you’re lucky enough to get away ( maybe
somewhere warm ). We look forward to catch you all for the start of term 3.
EMERGENCY
MOBILE
0477 758 916
Selby Kinder
NUMBER
Cheers,
Toby
Issue 4 2015
Director’s Report
COMPLIANCE
Over the last 6 weeks I have been slowly working my way through the non compliance issues that needed to be addressed after the
visit from Pamela Hollins from the Department. There were many areas that needed to be covered and often one couldn’t be done
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until information from another area was completed. However I emailed through what I had on Tuesday 9 June and received an
email from Pamela last Friday with some areas for clarification which I am following up now. She is also sending out some
information for me and some suggestions of people I can see in the local area who will be able to offer me advice.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLAN
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As our EMP requires we have completed evacuation drills for both groups. The 3’s was practiced on Monday 4 May and the 4’s
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was practiced on Friday 5 June. We have completed a checklist that ascertains areas that we need to amend and we are in the
process of doing that now.
PHILOSOPHY
Over the next two weeks we will be talking to the children about their opinions on kinder. What they like, how they feel when they
come to kinder is there anything they would like to do at kinder, what don’t they like about kinder. This will add the children’s voice
to the information that we already have from the families and then it will be a matter of sitting down with all the staff to gather our
thoughts and put our philosophy together. From this point we can then put together our quality improvement plan and this will
then lead us to achieving high standards across all compliance areas.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
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AUSTRALIAS BIGGEST MORNING TEA (13 June)
Thank you to those that came to kinder on Saturday to enjoy some delicious morning tea. We were able to raise a whopping
$452.00 for the Cancer council. Better than that though, we came together as a community to honour Simone and her family. It
was a beautiful day and the food was exceptional. Thank you for providing such a delicious array of treats to share. Brent’s Mum
Rhonda came up with the idea of putting together a cookbook as a fundraiser as many the parents spoke fondly of the treats they
had made. We think this would be a great idea and are more than happy to make a start on it this term by getting out some
information to the parents to have a think about in the holidays. What do you think?
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BELGRAVE LANTERN PARADE (20 JUNE)
Both the 3 and 4’s have been busy making beautiful lanterns for the Belgrave lantern parade that is taking place this Saturday. Bek
and Adam from Hugs for Kids have kindly offered to display our lanterns in their shop window and the 3’s lanterns are already down
there and the 4’s will go down after the session on Wednesday. We have encouraged any families that would like to join the lantern
parade that Dee , Margaret and myself will be at the shop between 4.30 – 5.15 to hand out the children’s lanterns. They can then
join the parade with their families and friends! Thanks to Bek and Adam!
WORK EXPERIENCE
We have Sami from Upwey High with us this week and then next week Josephine and Amy from Emerald Secondary College next
week. They will be valuable assests at this time of year and we hope they enjoy their stay with us!
RECRUITMENT
It is such a thrill to be formally offered the position of Director and 4 year old kinder teacher last Thursday. It is such a nerve
wracking experience being interviewed by the people that you talk to all the time however it was an experience that had a great
outcome. Although it means transitioning away from my little 3’s I know that they will be absolutely fine with Margaret and her
new co-worker! Lucky for them and for me I hang around a bit so we will make it a smooth transition and they won’t even know I’m
gone. And the best bit is I get to play with them again next year! The support I have had through this process has been amazing –
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015
Justin and Toby have led from the front and loads of past and present families have contacted me to offer their support. Margaret,
Dee and Katherine have all been incredible with their advice and support and I certainly am lucky to be working with an inspirational
team. Even with lots of work to be done I have loads of faith in us all that we will do the kinder proud!
PD
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I attended a presentation about becoming registered with the VIT (Victorian Institute of Teaching) on Tuesday 6 June in Ringwood.
We have received loads of info about becoming registered and it all seems a seamless process which begins in July 2015. All I need
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is a formal letter from my employer that provides evidence of having worked in an early childhood role between 1 Oct 2013 and 30
September 2015. A template for this letter is available on the VIT website. Thanks!
KINDER PHOTOS
Thanks to all the families for returning the kinder photos. Rose has collected them and the orders should arrive back any day now!
If you would like to contact Rose about anything please use the website…Strike A Pose Photography
Kinder @ 4
Marita’s
Report
Susie’s
Report
Four Year Old Report
We have been trialling a new programming style that suits the range of interests and the flexibility required when working with a
larger group of children with varied interests for many, many hours! The web programming is going to allow us to really capture the
learning the children are involved and present it in an easy to understand format. At this point, as the relief teacher, we have
started with the very basics of web programming and next term we will be incorporating all the information required from the
framework to improve our communication to you and to allow for the best outcomes for the children. As of next term we will have
access to both iPads and our documentation will be the best it’s ever been!
Our areas of interest have been many and varied...we’ve had interest in snakes, space, houses, dragons,
the zoo, turtles, aboriginal culture, tornadoes and dinosaurs.
The children are working well within the “rhythm of their day” and are incredibly engaged and busy both indoors and outdoors.
They are working really well in the small groups where our intentional teaching is guided by the children’s interests and needs.
These groups have written and acted out stories, learnt new dances and songs, revived an absolute love of obstacle courses and
helped to instil a real sense of belonging and importance to each and every child. They all have a chance to be listened to and
involved and we are seeing renewed confidence, better abilities at coping within social situations and happy children (most of the
time!) Our mat times, where all the children are together, are increasingly more productive and they are really enjoying acting out
songs, dancing together and even be able to have group conversations where we are listening and patiently waiting for a turn to
talk. Well done!
Our rest times have improved dramatically after we purchased small pillows for each child. The screen printed bags are valued and
they take pride in looking after their own pillow and bag. It was lovely to watch each child being presented with their bag....great
for the self confidence! Thanks to Katherine for the time she spent with each child talking to them and guiding them as they drew
their picture.
Dee has been leading the way as the paper mache queen – working with the children to make a lantern for the parade in Belgrave
on Saturday night! This is a job that requires great effort and persistence and is not at all helped by the dodgy balloons going down
over the weekend!!!! The lanterns are looking fabulous and the children are very proud of them. They will be on display and
available to you for pick up from Hugs for Kids between 4.30 and 5.15.
Thanks to all the parents that have come in on duty. The roster for next term will be out next week. Your help is brilliant! Thanks to
Aichling for preparing and baking sourdough bread with the children…we all loved it!
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015
Next week is our last week at kinder for term two and we will be saying goodbye to Katherine who has been an amazing support to
Dee and I and the children. We would like to thank Katherine for all her work at kinder in guiding and encouraging the children to
grow and develop. We wish her every success in finding a position that showcases her talents and hope that she is able to pop in
every now and then to play with us.
Thanks also to Margaret and Dee who have put in many, many extra hours supporting me and the programs at Selby Preschool.
Kinder @ 3
Marita’s Report
The children are continuing to find out all the wonderful options that they have to play at kinder. They are also noticing each other
a little more and are developing some good play with guidance from us. Transforming the verandah to our café gave the children
wonderful opportunities for play alongside and with each other with many conversations about food, ordering, taking turns and
helping each other taking place. This play was extended by adding a shop and the children loved the concept of shopping and
especially loved all the bags available for them to use. There was money changing hands and many items purchased for use in the
café.
The puzzles have really been a big hit this month and also the children are now using the drawing table to write letters to put in
envelopes. It was at this table that they started to draw around their hands which led us to drawing around their body if they
wanted too. It was a big job for them to then paint those bodies and they really worked hard looking at what they were wearing
and trying to replicate that onto their painted bodies. This job took them a lot longer than they were used too but they persevered
and were very impressed with their efforts!
Outside some children have enjoyed making cubby houses out of the outdoor blocks and have added bits of material to cover them
up and then they crawl inside and they sit! We are watching this play to see where it leads the children and are providing
suggestions as they go. The little yellow diggers have been an interest area as well as lego and the wooden blocks.
Our two possum puppets are enjoying their adventures to the children’s homes and we have loved listening to the stories from the
children. Talking in front of a group can be a tricky thing to do but it offers so much not only to the child talking but also to the
group that are listening!
The children have also been busy preparing the kinder for our morning tea to support the Cancer Council. We chatted to them
about what we were doing and they accepted that information without question. They created colourful bunting using wool and
paint and they loved this technique so much that we have continued with this as an art activity. They have also created beautiful
lanterns for the Belgrave lantern parade using a “magic” drawing technique. It’s not easy for a 3 /4 year old to draw with a white
crayon on white paper…”it’s not working!!” was the cry we heard …but then when they washed over the crayon with water
colours…WOW!!! Beading the handles was the best job ever and again this is another activity that we will extend on this week as
many children wanted to make themselves something with the beads! Such a fiddly job and brilliant for developing those little
finger muscles.
The start of this week has seen the children become interested in spider webs after coming across some intricate woollen webs
weaved in the playground by the 4’s! They too wanted to make their own webs and began weaving through the playground
structure with some colourful wool. We will look to extend this activity over our last sessions for this term!
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Our last day together for term two is Tuesday 23 June with term three starting on Monday 13 July.
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015
JUNE 2015
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Queens birthday
holiday (no
Kinder)
15
Biggest
morning tea
16
17
18
19
20
21
Belgrave
Lantern
Parade
22
23
24
25
Last day for
3YO group
29
26
27
28
Saturday
Sunday
Last day of
term 4 YO
group
30
JULY 2015
Monday
6
Tuesday
7
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
1
2
3
4
5
8
9
10
11
12
DUE DATE FOR FEES
13
14
Term 3 begins for 3 YO
group
15
16
17
18
19
25
26
Term 3 begins for 4 YO
group
Welcome Wendy!!!
20
21
22
23
24
27
28
29
30
31
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015
NEW SESSION TIMES FOR TERM 3
4 YEAR OLD GROUP will now be 9:15am to 2:15pm
Feedback, suggestions
or ideas
Our kinder is focussed on
being committed to families
and their children, so please
feel free to offer any
suggestions or ideas that you
may have to a committee
member to share at our next
meeting.
Do you like to cook???
One of our Selby families needs your
help. Please add your name to the list
on the board at kinder if you are able
to provide some meals for our Marshall
Meal Plan.
Thank you!!
We have been so lucky to have had our wonderful work
experience students helping at our kinder and we want to
pass on a big thanks to them for their time and energy.
Thank you Sami, Joey and Amy
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015
Have you seen our website? With lots of information and updates, it’s a great
place to find information and details about our kinder. Check it out at
www.selbypreschool.com.au
Thank you to all those people who were
able to help cook, sell and prepare for the
day! We made an amazing $1500 from the
day, which gets put straight back into our
Kinder. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015
Thank you so much to all those families who were able
to attend on the day. We had such a lovely morning and
raised…
$452.00 for the Cancer Council
The food donated was spectacular and we can’t thank you
enough for all the time and effort you put in.
http://us3.campaignarchive1.com/?u=58c06f80b4646d01a59eed3e7&id=4f23d
80eac&e=b5dabde6a4
Selby Kinder
Issue 4 2015