2021 Early Childhood Educators Day

Member in the Spotlight:

Nature Play Kids World Gilston

If you had visited our service in 2018 you would have found us in the beginning of our Nature Play journey and the implementation of a program lead by our educator Kyra who is known in our community as the Nature Warrior.

We recognised her passion for being outdoors and the benefit it brings to the children. Our greater community of families were incredibly supportive and an integral part of informing our program. A questionnaire was sent home to parents asking what their first positive memory of being in the great outdoors was and with that memory in mind what would they like for their child’s nature play journey within our service. From this point, our program began to take shape. With the installation of a second mud pit, we found some children not wanting to play there for fear of getting in trouble for getting their clothes dirty. That was when the realisation came over our Nature warrior, she would have to show the children it’s ok to get dirty. The day continued with wet and muddy play with both children and educators covered in glorious mud, this was a key moment in our service, the freedom of nature play began to take hold and from there it has continued to grow. Forward to 2021 and you will find an expansive community garden where children can experience growth and their own influences on the natural world, they can experience healthy food and observe the ever-changing plants. Chickens and ducks who are instrumental in assisting those children who may need a few moments to calm and enjoy the company of animals while learning responsibility and care. An expansive natural bush setting that helps both children and educators learn how to care for country, play freely and explore the landscape in all its glory. Kangaroos that come to eat and relax in the paddock provide an opportunity for the children to sit calmly and discover how animals are so similar to humans, that they have family units and joey kangaroos at play are learning just like children do. Our latest addition has been the fruit orchard and now with the assistance provided by the Woolworths junior Landcare grant we can expand this area into a pollination and keystone species habitat. We will be installing a native beehive along with solitary bee homes and frog hotels. This project aims at helping our children learn that their small actions can create big change.

When people come to tour our service, it is often noted how calm and happy the children are, we attribute this to our brilliant educators and the availability of large natural landscapes where the children are free to play and learn in their own time and at their own pace. The children have demonstrated an increased intrinsic want to learn over the last three years. With the added benefit of risky play in our service we have seen the injury rate lower. By holding weeks where we open all our yards to make one, we have seen scaffolded learning at its best and improved relationships between children and educators. The children may say they are at play, but we know as Einstein said, “Play is the work of children”. They are learning how to regulate their emotions, gain confidence in their abilities, be creative, resilient, improve mental and physical health, handle change, observe their world, learn academically, and increase self-worth. There are so many more learning qualities that can be seen when children are at play. Happily, it is not only the children learning, but our educators are also developing resilience, calm and finding a reconnection with childhood by playing with the children when invited. We have learned to step back and not interfere with the children’s play, to allow them to invite us in.

Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will, and our job is to help them make something of it.

– Ken Robinson

The first five years we know is the most valuable in a child’s development. This development takes children into their next stage of learning and onto adulthood. Nature play gives the child an opportunity for self-directed learning, to play and learn the way that sparks interest in their soul. The fact is not all brains are made to be academic, if we all learnt the same then we wouldn’t have brilliant, creative and world-changing people. Nature is a place for all brain types to learn, academic and creative can all be submersed in the natural environment and thrive. We have no need to keep children in four walls, to sit them down and teach them, if we are going to give these children the best start to their journey, we need to let them learn naturally and when the occasion calls for it dance with them in the rain. We are there to offer care and guidance should they need it so they can feel safe and secure. These adventurous little people are capable and nature play allows them to grow, play and learn with all the benefits of childhood.

Imperfect action is the best place to start your own nature play journey, the children will love it regardless of how big or small.

– Nature warrior

2021 Early Childhood Educators Day

Robina First Early Learning Centre

At Robina First Early Learning Centre we take our appreciation for our educators very seriously as we believe they are the foundation of every centre.

Early Childhood Educators’ Day is a wonderful way to show our respect, thanks and kindness towards the people who take their time to care, love, educate and support our next generation. At Robina First Early Learning Centre we love to shower our educators on Early Childhood Educators’ Day with an abundance of their favourite things, for example, sweets, treats, coffee, flowers and a personalised poem. Every year we compose an appreciation certificate for each individual educator complete with a beautiful poem written just for them, to show how important they are to us. Words of wisdom and affirmation are stronger than some people realise and we believe just a few words for each individual educator incentivise them to continue being the best educators they can be. This year, our Director and Assistant Director organised a beautiful flower arrangement and poem for each educator and personally went around and thanked them for their hard work. It was amazing to see the smiles on each educators face with this surprise. Our centre licensees also treated our educators to a delicious dinner at a local restaurant to show how much they truly appreciated the hard work and dedication educators put in at our centre.

Hatchlings Early Learning Centre Rochedale

Early Educators’ Day is a time where we can focus on showing our educators just how special they are and how loved and valued they are for the tireless work they do every day.

This year’s theme “Rain or shine we’re here” was particularly relevant for services across Australia during this pandemic. It drove home how much we love the children in our care by putting our children and centre families above ourselves as we joined with centres across Australia in staying open to support essential workers keep Australia open for business. We wanted to show the staff how much our families appreciate the care and nurture shown to the children by secretly asking families to write an appreciation note that we added to the thank you wall. Our rain or shine backdrop provided a fun photo opportunity for staff and families to have some fun in the craziness of the world and to make some special memories to reflect on later in the year. Our centre has recently come on board with Scholars Consultancy Group and even though we haven’t been with them very long we were given a lovely box of appreciation goodies that we know took lots of time to prepare prior to the day. Our new owner also came with a little gift to give the staff to acknowledge and thank them for their commitment, love and dedication to families, children and centre. The celebrations continued into lunch with a pizza party, and we also want to give a huge shout out to our local coffee shop Thr33 who gave us 10% off for Educators’ Day and our daily supply of coffee! We also send our heartfelt love and prayers to centres across Australia who this year may have had to celebrate a lot differently than in previous years.