It is also time to reflect on the year that was. So much has happened this year at Choklits, including-
A BIG thank you to Jade and Matt who have put in a lot of time and effort to make the Centre what it is today. They have been very patient as not all things went to plan.
The children are loving the new areas in the yard, watching our vegetables and plants grow in the garden and bundling things up for the parents to take home.
Choklits has been a fun place to come to this year and we are looking forward to another exciting year in 2109.
The educators over the next few months will be taking holidays, including myself. I will be taking a couple of weeks off to relax with family and friends and will return to Choklits on Monday, January 7th.
We hope you have all had a lovely year with us at Choklits and noticed the growth, wonder and joy your children have developed over the time they have been with us.
A big thank you to all the educators and staff for the wonderful care they have provided to the children this year. We have some fabulous early childhood educators on board who really have the best interests of the children at heart.
We look forward to seeing you again in 2019 for another fun and exciting year.
Until next time,
Sue
A big welcome to all our new families to Choklits, especially those new to early learning. We look forward to getting to know you over the next few weeks and months. As always, there will be some settling in periods across the centre as new children join us and as many children change rooms and settle into their new surroundings for 2019. For those children who are a little unsettled, please persevere and make drop off a quick and short goodbye in the mornings. We have found over the years that this works best for the child, the parents and the educator. You can ring us anytime to check how your child’s day is going and check how they settled in after drop off.
Enrolment updates – if you have changed address, phone numbers, contacts or email addresses in 2018 please let us know so we can update our records and ensure you get important Choklits updates.
Immunisations – when your child has a new vaccination please remember to bring in the immunisation history statement into Choklits for our records, your CCS will be affected if these details are not updated.
Notice periods – Choklits has standard 4 weeks notice whenever you are requesting to withdraw your child from care or reducing your child’s days so please keep this in mind when planning. We also have a minimum two-day enrolment requirement per child as attending for two days or more per week helps children to settle in quickly and to get the most out of our curriculum, programs and extra activities.
Pickups and drop-offs – if your child needs to be picked up by someone new, please let us know the day before. Every new face will be required to provide us with photo ID on arrival. And remember, please do not give them the door code or your pin for our Choklits sign-in system to anyone (for obvious security reasons), please have them ring the bell when they arrive and a Choklits team member will take them through the process of picking up for the first time.
Medicine – if your child requires medicine prescribed by a doctor during the day, it must be in its original bottle and clearly labelled with your child’s name. The medicine must be handed to one of our educator’s members on arrival at the centre. It must not be left in your child’s bag and please remember to fill in your child’s medication form.
As you all know, throughout 2018 we really focused on reducing our carbon footprint. We have-
We are very excited and committed to our sustainability journey and loved enjoying the spoils of our “Plant to Plate” project, with many of the children already enjoying the crops in their weekly meals. Many of our parents have also been able to take home fresh vegetables and herbs from our garden. We look forward to continuing this journey with our next sustainability project getting underway in late January, installing water tanks!
As always, we’ll keep you posted, there’ll be plenty of updates on our Choklits Facebook Page and Instagram Page too.
Stay tuned for other sustainability updates throughout the year. If you have any recycling or sustainability tips please let us know by email.
We would like to acknowledge all our staff and educators at Choklits for all their wonderful work this year in caring and educating all the children and being flexible and supportive amongst all the renovation changes. Looking back, we achieved a lot as a community this year and our entire team have been there every step of the way. It would have been very easy to think of all the action as a big inconvenience, but we chose to think of it as a fantastic opportunity to learn. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love hammers, shovels, diggers and cranes? Well done everyone, the Choklits community thanks you.
Since the launch of Storypark as our communication platform in 2018, we have had an overwhelming response. We now use this medium as our main form of communication to ensure your child receives the best support possible and to ensure that you are involved and up-to-date with your child’s development. Please make sure you check it regularly as we love you to be involved, read and comment on your child’s learning goals and developmental milestones. We find your input most valuable in supporting your child and your family.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. Over the next few months we will be reviewing our excursion, waterplay and safe sleep guidelines. For more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please follow us on Instagram. We are posting stories there every day so it’s the best way to keep up-to-date with all the activities at Choklits! We love when you get involved and include us in your posts, here’s one of our recent favourites-
And, please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to see the latest happenings at Choklits including features, stories, events, recipes and special incursions. This post has been one of our favourites.
Parent Feedback and Input
All our staff at Choklits Child Care in Ringwood welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Choklits Families,
Wow, so much has happened since our last newsletter at Choklits. The days are flying by as they say “time fly’s when you’re having fun”. We have welcomed some new families to Choklits and look forward to sharing their experiences with us and to see their children grow and develop and have fun while they are at Choklits.
We have had many additional incursions happen over the last couple of months, we thank Lily’s dad for bringing his ambulance to the centre for all the children to explore and hear about what our paramedics do. We had a woodwork incursion, which the older children were very excited to make their own wooden master pieces to take home, plus we also had a cultural incursion to celebrate NADIOC week where the children learned about the custodians of the land, the history of the aboriginal people and how to use a didgeridoo.
We love seeing and hearing your comments and interactions each day through Storypark and through conversations about your child’s learning journey at Choklits. Its great to be able to make your child’s learning visible and interactive.
When Should You Keep Your Child Home?
A lot of families have been asking when their child should stay at home. Like adults, children sometimes wake in the morning wishing they could have a day off from the usual routine. And again like adults by the time breakfast is over, they are feeling better and are ready to face the day’s activities. On occasions, however, children should stay home, in their own interest and the interest of the other children.
You should keep your child home if he/she has a high temperature In the morning or feels feverish; has signs of conjunctivitis-red and/or inflamed eyes with discharge; has any rash or skin irritation; has impetigo -school sores; has diarrhoea; has been vomiting during the night; is unusually tired, pale, irritable or lethargic; has an eye ear or throat infection and is on antibiotics. Your child should stay home until they have had the medication for at least 24 hours. Ask yourself – “Would I go to work today if I was as off colour as my child?”
If you have changed an of your details recently like your email address, phone number, address or if your child has recently had their immunisations, please let us know so we can update our records.
As always if you have any concerns, queries or suggestions about anything that involves your child/children at Choklits. Please don’t hesitate to contact either myself, the room leaders or any other educator.
Until next time,
Sue
As many of our Choklits community would be aware we have been doing lots of exciting works at Choklits upgrading and expanding our classrooms, yard and resources. We are pleased to announce we are finally finished and are so excited that all of our community can now enjoy the hard work. We thank you all for your patience and tolerance while the building works where completed which has included-
Diggers, cranes, shovels, tools and anyone in hi-vis are always very popular at Choklits. We’ve put this together for all our little learners who have loved all the action throughout our recent renovations…
This Is A Look At Our Centre Renovations, Jan-June 2018!
Here’s a Look Inside Our New Room, This Was Our Grand Opening!
All this hard work has also meant we have more usable space and have been granted an extension of our license to accept more children into our precious Choklits Community!
To celebrate our completed works, we have decided to offer something special for our Choklits Community in August!
August
13th to 20th Science Week
17th to 24th Book Week (Dress up day is the 21st of August)
31st of August is our annual Fathers Day Afternoon tea.
September
5th Wednesday is Early Childhood Educators Day
24th to 27th is AFL week the children can dress up all week
28th Friday is Grand Final Public Holiday
October
22nd to 26th Children’s Week Activities
22nd to the 26th Children’s Photos will be taken by Allure
November
6th Tuesday Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
7th Wednesday we will be celebrating Diwali
8th Thursday annual animal farm visit
December
11th Tuesday Choklits Annual Christmas Concert and BBQ.
We have now planted our second vegetable, fruit and herb garden next to our new building which we established as part of National Plant a Tree Day. Plus, we have also just started our own worm farm with the help of Natasha from The Sage Garden. We are very excited and committed to our sustainability journey and are starting to enjoy the spoils of our “Plant to Plate” project, with many of the children already enjoying some of our crops in their weekly meals. If you have any ideas for us we would love to hear them.
As always, we’ll keep you posted, there’ll be plenty of updates on our Choklits Facebook Page and Instagram Page too.
Here’s how we planted our new garden, in less than 15 seconds-
Stay tuned for other sustainability updates throughout the year. If you have any recycling or sustainability tips please let us know by email.
The end of July marks the first month of the new child care subsidy and all in all it has gone relatively smoothly. There are still some issues the government is working through and if you have any questions please contact us, we’ll help as much as we can. Please remember all entitlements are calculated based on the information you provide to the government. If you feel there are any issues or your entitlement does not seem correct you need to contact them directly.
Here is the most current information that should assist you.
Phone: 136 150
This month we would like to acknowledge four wonderful educators Sue Brewer, Talia Waters, Diane Collard and Christine Picone. Diane and Christine have both completed their Diploma and Certificate 111 in Early Childhood Education and Care respectively and did it while working full time. Well done to you both and what a wonderful achievement. Talia is also currently studying for her Diploma and is really shining in her educator role in the nursery, developing some beautiful relationships with the children. Finally, Sue Brewer our director has been working tirelessly over the last few months to support the centre and our Choklits community through the Child Care Subsidy changes, she has spent many hours liaising with many government departments ensuring we have the most up to date information for our families. Well done Sue, the Choklits community thanks you.
We love sharing your child’s learnings through Storypark and find your comments and interactions very helpful in supporting your children, understanding your family and your preferences. Please keep the interactions coming so we can support your child’s education in partnership. We are also using Storypark more and more as our communication platform so please make sure you are checking the community boards regularly. Head to the Storypark website
We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. For more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please follow us on Instagram. We are posting stories there every day so it’s the best way to keep up-to-date with all the activities at Choklits!
And, please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to see the latest happenings at Choklits including features, stories, events, recipes and special incursions. This post has been one of our favourites.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
We recently had a wonderful few days at Choklits celebrating NAIDOC Week.
To embrace and acknowledge Aboriginal Australia in a meaningful way, we invited Henny who is from Didgeridoo Australia to Choklits for a fun and interactive tutorial. Henny talked about the Wurundjeri people including how they make their living in nature.
We all had a very close look at different tools and objects that Aboriginal people used for their hunting and living. The children were very impressed by the very soft kangaroo skins, the long and sharp spears for catching fish, natural paints as well as the returning boomerangs…
Dear Choklits Families,
As you read this I will have left Australia and be relaxing on a fantastic holiday with family and friends. I hope you all enjoyed a break over Easter and spent some family time together. March has yet again been a very busy month, we planted our sustainability garden which was such a fantastic activity for all the children and educators. We are really excited to watch all our plants grow and thrive with the help of our green thumb early learners. We had a wonderful lead up to Easter and finished the month off with a Hot Cross Bun and Easter Hunt extravaganza which lots of fun.
As we move into April it’s the end of daylight saving and the end of our SunSmart season which means it is not a requirement for the children to wear their hats or sunscreen now until October. As the seasons change so do the clothes you dress and pack for the children when they come to Choklits. Time to pack the jackets, long sleeves, socks and long pants.
As the seasons change so comes the dreaded cold and therefore an emphasis on hygiene and diet is important to keep your child healthy. At Choklits we are committed to providing good nutrition for your child.
Why is good nutrition important for your child? It is important your child has nutritious food to give them all the nutrients their bodies need to grow, and to develop and reach their physical and mental potential. Here are some simple guidelines to ensure your nutritional needs be met.
The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia recommends children and adolescents maintain a varied diet, which includes the five main food groups. Children need to be encouraged to eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, cereals (including breads, rice, pasta and noodles).
A healthy diet includes lean meat, fish, poultry, milk, yogurts, cheeses, limited servings of saturated fats, margarine, butter and oils. The balance of these five groups is essential for maintaining your child’s health and wellbeing. Children are encouraged to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Healthy morning and afternoon teas will also help maintain your child’s energy level.
We have now started our Autumn menu, and Helen has added some wonderful new healthy options. You can check all our menus here.
We have children at Choklits who have allergies, anaphylaxis as well as dietary restrictions, due to this we cannot have food brought into the centre from home.
Please make sure to note your child’s name down as the reference when making a direct deposit payment for fees. This is to ensure we apply the payment to the correct account and will minimalise any confusion.
Hope you all have a wonderful month ahead, and I will look forward to seeing you all again at the start of May when I return to Choklits.
Until next time,
Sue
We have now planted our wonderful sustainability garden. Once again, thank you to everyone who helped us out with suggestions and tips. We had such a wonderful experience with Natasha from The Sage Garden who came out to Choklits to help guide us through planting our first crops! As always, we’ll keep you posted, there’ll be plenty of updates on our Choklits Facebook Page too.
Here’s how we planted our new garden, in less than 1 minute-
Stay tuned for other sustainability updates throughout the year including the installation of our new water tank. If you have any recycling or sustainability tips please let us know by email.
The Australian government is introducing a new child care package from July 2nd, 2018. The existing Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate will be replaced by a new Child Care Subsidy. Under the new package, the amount of subsidy paid by the government to help cover a family’s child care fees will change for many people. It is important to know about the changes now, so you can make informed decisions about your future. The easiest way to work out how much subsidy you are eligible for is through the “Family Child Care Subsidy Estimator” located at education.gov.au/childcare. It’s easy to use and only takes a few minutes to fill out.
We have been very pleased with the introduction of our Storypark communication platform and we have seen some wonderful meaningful interactions with our community. Over the last two months, the interaction with this app based system has seen over 2000 stories posted about the children and over 70% parent engagement. We are all still learning the functionality of the app and the features it has.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our Inclusion Policy, for more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including features, stories, events, recipes and special incursions. This post has been one of our favourites.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Choklits Families,
February has come and gone as has summer. Autumn is a lovely time of year, with warm days, leaves falling and still the opportunity to enjoy indoor/outdoor activities in all the rooms. This month all of our incursions for 2018 are now back!
Ready Steady Go sessions on Monday afternoons, Rhythm & Moves music sessions on Wednesday mornings and yoga sessions on Friday mornings. Our library visits to the Salvation Army complex for this year are now alternating between Monday mornings and Thursday mornings weekly.
Our educators are implementing many stimulating experiences to our learning environment for children to gain knowledge from our interesting topics. The children celebrated Chinese New Year, Holi the Indian colour festival, they talked about the Winter Olympics, and washed tables and chairs and picked up rubbish for Clean Up Australia Day.
Jodi, our educational leader, has been busy this month, providing support, direction, mentoring and support all the educators with our curriculum to ensure each child is supported to achieve the outcomes of the approved learning framework. As a team, we will be focusing on our strengths and working on our weaknesses while working towards the goals we have set.
Changes to the National Quality Framework
Changes to the National Quality Standard (NQS) started from the 1st of February, 2018. These are aimed at continuing promotion of quality education and care at child care centres Australia wide.
The changes relate to the seven quality areas under the NQS that child cares are assessed against-
We will be reviewing our QIP (Quality Improvement Plan) over the next few months and are always looking for feedback and suggestions, please email us with input you have.
From February the governments ‘No Jab No Play’ means no child can start in child care without an up to date immunisation history.
Last year Choklits participated in the ‘Earn and Learn’ program with Woolworths and Modern Teaching Aids. We collected over $6,000 worth of stickers, which enabled us to purchase some new equipment for the centre. We thank all those families who helped collect the stickers.
A reminder we are a SunSmart centre right up until the start of April. We apply sunscreen regularly during the day and all wear our hats when outside. Please dress your children appropriately, ensuring shoulders and the tops of arms covered.
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter! Our door is always open and we value family participation across all aspects of our program.
Until next time,
Sue
In March we will be receiving our new recycling bin. At Choklits, we are committed to lowering our carbon footprint and doing our part in helping the environment. You will see new bins in all the rooms for the separation of rubbish and there will be a lot of dialogue with the children around recycling.
In addition to our sustainability and social responsibility plan, we have changed our staff toilet paper and tissue products to the brand called “Who Gives A Crap”. This company is determined to prove that toilet paper is about more than just wiping bums. They make all of their products with environmentally friendly materials, and donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets for those in need. To date, they’ve donated over $1,250,000 and saved a heck of a lot of trees, water and energy.
For more information and to get to know the founder of this organisation, please listen to this podcast –
Links to listen to the podcast via iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud can be found here. We will be swapping the children over to Who Gives A Crap products in the coming months.
During March, we will be planting out our sustainability garden. Thank you to everyone who helped us out with suggestions and tips. We have tracked down The Sage Garden who are coming out to Choklits to help guide us through planting our first crops! As always, we’ll keep you posted, there’ll be plenty of updates on our Choklits Facebook Page too.
Here’s how we built the garden, in less than 1 minute-
Stay tuned for other sustainability updates throughout the year including the installation of our new water tank. If you have any recycling or sustainability tips please let us know by email.
Sage Garden Incursion to help get our sustainability garden planted
Lots of Easter activities, including our famous Easter Egg Hunt.
This month we would like to acknowledge both Sue Brewer and Tracey Perkins for helping manage access to the centre through the back gate in both the mornings and afternoons. They ensured everyone was safe and even gave out umbrellas to those who needed them on rainy days. Sue and Tracey are very valued and hardworking team members at Choklits, thank you both!
We have had an overwhelming response to the platform so far, if you haven’t already signed up or would like more information please, speak to the educators in your room or head to the Storypark website
What do you need to do now? We have created and invite you to your child’s Storypark community. All you need to do is accept the invite and participate.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our Health and Volunteering Policy, for more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including events, recipes and special incursions.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Choklits Families,
Welcome to our January newsletter, WOW! This year has certainly started with great speed.
Hope you all enjoyed a happy new year and for those who had time away on holidays that you had a nice relaxing time.
A big welcome to all our new families to Choklits Child Care especially those families experiencing childcare for the first time we look forward to getting to know you over the next few months. With the room changes this year all the children are settling in well and enjoying their new surroundings. For those children who are still a little unsettled, please preserve and make drop off a quick short goodbye in the mornings. We have found over the years that this works best for the child, the parents and the educator. You can ring anytime to check how your child’s day has gone after your drop off.
We have now said goodbye to all the kindergarten children who are starting school this year. It is sad to see them go but we know they will love being at school, meeting new friends and enjoying lots of new experiences.
Enrolment updates – if you have changed addresses, phone numbers, contacts or email addresses in 2017 please let us know so we can update our records.
Immunisations – when your child has a new vaccination please bring in the immunisation history statement for our records, your CCB and CCR will be affected if these details are not updated.
Notice periods – 4 weeks notice whenever you are requesting to withdraw your child from care or reducing your child’s days. We have a minimum of 2 days care.
Pickups and drop-offs – If your child needs to be picked up by someone new, please let the centre know prior every new face will be required to provide us with photo ID on arrival.
Medicine – If your child requires medicine prescribed by a doctor during the day, it must be in its original bottle and clearly labelled with your child’s name. The medicine must be handed to one of our educator’s members on arrival at the centre. It must not be left in your child’s bag and then please fill in your child’s medication form.
Until next time,
Sue.
This month we would like to acknowledge Kirsten Moran our wonderful educator in our Pre-Kinder/Kinder room. She has love calm and organised approach to her teaching style and keeps the children engaged. Kirsten’s warm approach with the children is lovely to watch and the children respond to her very well. Great work Kirsten and Thank You.
We are excited to announce that we will be implementing Storypark – a secure, private online space to ensure your child receives the best support possible and that you are involved and up-to-date with your child’s development. Storypark provides each child with an online community, which you (their parent/guardian) own and control who has access to, at no cost, for as long as you wish.
We have had an overwhelming response to the platform so far, if you haven’t already signed up or would like more information please, speak to the educators in your room or head to the Storypark website
What do you need to do now? We have created and invite you to your child’s Storypark community. All you need to do is accept the invite and participate.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing an even more responsive, innovative and valuable experience for you and your child.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our Cyber Safety Policy and Storypark Policy, for more information or if you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including events, recipes and special incursions.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Choklits Families,
Wow! Here we are again at the end of another year at Choklits!!! What a year we have had and its always a good time to pause and reflect, review policies and procedures, look at staff placements and ponder the year ahead. We are looking forward to another exciting year at Choklits.
The Christmas concert was a huge success with lots of parents, grandparents, friends and family attending. Phoebe played some beautiful music while everyone was arriving and the children did a wonderful job singing some of their favourite songs. Despite the very hot day, it was a lovely afternoon, thank you to all those who came and shared the event with us.
Santa flew in and out of the centre in December and the children got really excited when they heard the carols including Bells Jingling and Ho Ho Ho. Some children were a little tentative when it was time to receive their gift but most of them were very keen.
Our music, sport and yoga programs will all continue again in 2018, and loads of events are already planned for next year which you will hear about very soon.
A big thank you to our wonderful staff who are committed to the educational care and welfare of the children. We are looking forward to another exciting year in 2018 and we continue to improve the centre
We hope you have all had a lovely year with us at Choklits and noticed the growth, wonder and joy your children have developed in the last 12 months. We hope you have a safe and Happy New Year and are just as excited as we are about 2018!!
Until next time,
Sue.
This month we would like to acknowledge Leanne Mullens our wonderful Kindergarten Teacher. Leanne has made a wonderful contribution to our centre and has put in so much love and dedication to the Kindergarten program and the children. We sadly say goodbye to Leanne at the end of December so she can spend some much needed time with her family in 2018. Leanne will be missed and promises to come and visit us next year.
From January 2018 your child will be commencing in their new classroom. Depending on their age group this may mean no change of room for your child. Between the week of the 27th of December and the 5th of January, the educators will be making some changes to the rooms and setting these up for the beginning of the year, so there will be a lot of re-organising during this time.
All families should have received an email about these changes and the room your children will be in for the year, plus some information for families to fill in and return to their child’s room by the 15th of January.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our Water Safety Policy, Inclusion and Educator Professionalism and Ethics Policy. If you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including events, recipes and special incursions.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Choklits Families,
November was full of highlights including some crazy weather. The start of December signals the festive season and all the rooms are busy creating and decorating. And, we have heard that Santa will soon be on his way!
We had Leigh’s farmyard friends come for a visit with farmer Kevin, always a highlight of the year, with each room spending time with the animals feeding, patting and cuddling them. We had a day off for Melbourne Cup day, which was nice to have a break during the week. The children enjoyed some great days of water play this month with even the staff getting all wet to keep cool too!!
In the last couple of weeks, we have conducted a fire drill and a lockdown here a Choklits. Windows and doors were closed, everything was turned off, emergency bags were grabbed and both staff and children went through the procedures in a calm and professional manner.
It’s a very busy time of year now until Christmas at Choklits. I want to remind parents to hold their children’s hands in the car park when you arrive and leave the centre. The car park can be a busy place and as we all know, cars and children don’t mix. Remember, after you sign your child out at the end of the day you are responsible for them until they leave the centre.
If your child has had their immunisations recently please provide us the history immunisation statement from the Australian immunisation register or through Medicare of MyGov. We can no longer use the maternal health books as evidence of your child’s immunisation.
We love and encourage all our families to provide new and interesting ideas to the centre’s programming. This can be in the form of photo’s, information about what you have done on the weekends, family celebrations, visit to attractions or general information on a topic your child is interested in.
Sadly, at the end of the year, some of our Kindergarten children leave us to go onto primary school. It never gets any easier saying goodbye but we wish them all the best with their journey and hope they will come back to visit us in their new school uniforms.
Christmas is a bumper time for family-friendly events and activities! To find some of the best on what’s on in Australia this Christmas, head to www.kidspot.com.au for some good ideas.
Please remember that fees and final accounts need to be up to date by the end of the year or the last day your child attends. Don’t forget to look out for further information on our new website, Facebook, throughout the centre and via email.
Enjoy the festive season, until next time,
Sue.
The Australian government is introducing a new child care package from July 2nd 2018. The existing Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate will be replaced by a new Child Care Subsidy. Under the new package, the amount of subsidy paid by the government to help cover a family’s child care fees will change for many people. It is important to know about the changes now, so you can make informed decisions about your future. The easiest way to work out how much subsidy you are eligible for is through the “Family Child Care Subsidy Estimator” located at www.education.gov.au/childcare. It’s easy to use and only takes a few minutes to fill out.
This month we would like to acknowledge Jodi McVea our wonderful Nursery Room Leader and Educational Leader. Jodi, over the last 18 months, has been busily extending her studies and has successfully completed her Diploma in Early Childhood Education. This is a wonderful achievement to have been able to complete while working full time work and taking care of 4 children of her own. We are very proud of Jodi, congratulations and thank you for your continued dedication and all of your great work!
Choklits is really excited to once again host our wonderful Christmas Party and BBQ for all our families to enjoy. The children are busy preparing a wonderful show for you all. The concert will be held on Wednesday, The 13th of December from 4pm to 6pm.
This year we will be drawing a raffle with some wonderful prizes these will be displayed in the foyer along with the ticket book this week.
You are free to purchase, as many tickets as you like and these are available for purchase in the paint room in the centre and all proceeds will go to the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal.
Individual tickets $2.50
5 tickets for $10
10 tickets for $20
Good Luck!!!
From 8th of January 2018 your child will be commencing in their new classroom. Depending on their age group this my mean no change of room for your child. Between the week of the 27th of December and the 5th of January, the educators will be making some changes to the rooms and setting these up for the beginning of the year.
We will email all families on the week of the 18th of December informing them of their child’s room for 2018.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our Child Protection Policy. If you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including events, recipes and special incursions.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Choklits Families,
What a busy month at Choklits, there has been so much happening to support the program in each room. Some of the highlights this month have included the Wiggerly Worm Dance and Drama incursions, commencement of our weekly yoga program, a visit from the photographer taking amazing photos of your children, learning about how to look after our pets through the responsible pet incursion and how to be safe around water safety incursion.
Children’s Week is a national program recognising the talents, skills, achievements and rights of young people and ran between the 21st to the 29th of October. The 2017 theme is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 29 – Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children to respect their parents, their cultures and other cultures. Choklits was proud to support children’s week, we discussed respect and what that means for each child and their family in line with the theme of the week.
I cannot believe there are only 8 weeks until Christmas, which means lots of more exciting things happening at Choklits over the next few months. Please look out for further information on our new website, Facebook, throughout the centre and via email.
Until next time,
Sue.
Enrolments for 2018 will close on the 3rd of November, all families will receive an email confirmation on the week of the 6th of November, we will do out best to accommodate everyone’s first choices, however, over the last few months we have had many new children start (or about to start) at Choklits and requests for a place on our waitlist for 2018 is already strong. There will be little room for movement between days so if you have specific requirements please act quickly as we will begin allocating places in the order enrolments are received.
If you do want to pick up extra days for next year or would like to enrol a second child please submit those requests together (one form per child) as existing children and new siblings will be given first preference over new enrollees. Places for 2018 will be offered on Monday the 6th of November and will need to be accepted by Friday the 10th of November to guarantee your spot.
A number of our wonderful parents have referred many families to Choklits over the years and we would like to ensure we continue to accommodate those enquiries in 2018. Given we are approaching full capacity of the centre please ensure any friends or families contact us ASAP so we can continue to support our Choklits Parents and Friends Community.
If your child has been immunised lately please email us a copy of your child’s immunisation statement from the website so we can keep our records up to date. This is a regulatory requirement and without current records, could jeopardise your child’s place at the centre and your current rebates you receive.
Please also, provide any other changes in your family details for our records such as phone numbers and emergency contacts.
As you are all aware Choklits Early Learning runs 52 days of the year, however, this is usually a time of year where many of our families enjoy a well-earned break and spend some time away from Choklits. If you could please let us know if your child will be away for any time during December and January via email it would be greatly appreciated so we can ensure everyone is accounted for.
Choklits have been notified that we will be going through an accreditation process for two days between, November 27th to December 28th. This will also mean that November will be a very busy month as we review our Quality Improvement Plan and keep working on continuous improvement with our curriculum. As always, we invite any participation or feedback from the families, please email us your thoughts.
At Choklits we enjoy the many positive interactions with parents, grandparents, guardians, friends, aunts and uncles each day, whether it be morning greetings, evening goodbyes or discussions about the children and their day.
We encourage participation from families and educators in all aspects of our centre including the development of the curriculum. Building a partnership with families allows us to bridge the gap between home and care. The centre is open to parents at any time during opening hours. A high level of parent participation is important in realising a child’s potential. Providing the best quality care is only possible by using all resources available including the participation and information of families and staff.
Also as the year comes to a close it is time to develop our calendar of events for 2018! We love fresh new ideas for events and celebrations so please email us any suggestions that you may have.
Have you seen our new menu? Please visit our Choklits blog for all recipes and menus. If you have any delicious recipes you would like us to know about please email them to us.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. This month we have been reviewing our hygiene policy and procedures. If you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue.
Please give our Facebook Page a like. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Choklits including events, recipes and special incursions.
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to us via email.
Dear Parents,
August has been a very cold month with crisp mornings and chilly nights. We have had our fair share of winter sniffles with both staff and children coming off second best. We all seem to be on the mend again now and are really looking forward to Spring. The snow has started melting, the days are getting longer and the weather warmer which means spring is in the air.
We have had a very busy month with book week, wild action rock pool creatures incursion, Father’s Day afternoon tea and lots more. We sprung a fire drill on the centre last week and were very impressed with the calmness of both the staff and children, especially how quickly we all left the building and gathered together at the top of the yard with everything and everyone accounted for.We do lots of singing at Choklits! We have our music program on Wednesday mornings with Tim from Rhythm and Moves and the staff facilitate lots of group time with the children to learn and practice different songs. Children derive great joy and satisfaction from singing.Through songs, children learn about themselves and the world around them. Singing is also a comfort for many children, it helps make whatever you are doing fun! A child will often listen and pay attention to a song when he or she won’t pay attention to words. Singing also helps the mind to focus and the body to relax. While singing, children develop listening and cooperative skills, coordination of the tongue and lips, gross and fine motor skills and learn self-control of their memory. While singing, children further learn vocabulary and grammar, story form, math, history, geography and science. So, don’t be shy to sing with your children wherever you are, because they love it!!! I came across this during the week and it made me smile.
If I want it, it’s mine If it looks like mine, it is mine If I give it to you and change my mind later, it’s mine If I can take it from you, it’s mine If it’s mine, it will never belong to anyone else, no matter what If I’m doing or building something, ALL the pieces are mine
Have a great month,
Sue
Choklits is excited to announce we are introducing another regular incursion to our service. Flexible Friends Yoga Classes are designed based on the interests and developmental stages of children. Yoga comes to life in the fun and creative classes designed to stimulate a young child’s growing curiosity. These classes help spark the children’s inner yogi while enhancing language development, motor coordination and play skills. Classes are an equal balance between active and passive poses. These classes will run every Friday morning, for more information please email [email protected] or drop into the office.
Keep up to date with news including incursions and excursions, yummy recipes and many of the achievements of our Choklits children on our new Facebook Page. So, don’t miss out on any of the action, including the announcement of the winner of the $100 Wish Voucher next week (read on for more details). Click
HERE to like, share and connect!
In the coming months you will see some new faces in your child’s classrooms. We are welcoming 3 students who are all doing their placements as part of their Child Services qualifications and will be working with and interacting with our early learners under the leadership and guidance of our educators. If you have any questions about the student placements please don’t hesitate to contact us in the office.
1st of September is the start of our SunSmart program. Our service aims to protect children and staff from too much UV to help minimise future skin cancer risk. We are a registered member of the Cancer Council Victoria’s SunSmart Program. Please help support our SunSmart membership by ensuring your child follows the SunSmart measures encouraged by educators. An information sheet was sent out recently explaining the slip, slop, slap philosophy and the appropriate clothing to wear during the warmer months.
This month we would like to acknowledge Neda Zivdar in our toddler room. Neda brings a wonderfully energetic and a caring nature to the room, she loves working with the children and the children can often be seen running up to her for a hug! Neda loves singing and dancing, and working music and movement into the program each day, which the children also love. Neda has over 7 years experience in the industry, is Diploma Qualified and has an Advanced Diploma in Community Sector Management, well done Neda!
As always, we love to get any feedback or menu suggestions so please email us at [email protected] or pop in and see our Chef Helen if you have anything to share.
Thank you too all the families for participating and supporting the Woolworths Earn and Learn program for Choklits, there is still a few more weeks to participate so keep shopping! Thank you for all your support.
We review different policies and procedures at Choklits every month. All of our policies and procedures are available for your review in the foyer of the centre and our educators are here to help with any questions. If you would like to have input into any of our policies please email Sue, [email protected].
We welcome any feedback from our families, if you would like to have a chat please come and see us in the office or send any questions or concerns to [email protected].
We recently sent out a survey to help collate everyone’s thoughts and ideas on the service we provide at Choklits, including input on many of the improvements we are currently working on. To go into the draw to win a $100 Wish Voucher (which is valid for redemption at Woolworths, Big W and Caltex) please fill out the survey and submit it by next Tuesday the 12th of September. We will announce the winner on our Facebook page next week!
