NEWSLETTER Term 4 - 2014
The Teachers
Welcome to Term 4 newsletter for 2014! In This Issue:
Eliza
Jessica
Rebecca
Jessie
Kerri
Kellie
Kristy
Natalie 2
Presidents Report 4 Year Old Teachers’ Report 4 Year Old Photos
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From The President As president of Balcombe Preschool I have had the pleasure of working with a great parent committee and committed preschool staff. Without the generosity and ded¬ication of parents volunteering their time and skills the Preschool would not survive as a council community associated preschool. The past twelve months has been an exciting time at preschool. Early in the year we welcomed our new preschoolers and held a family night. Tis is always a great opportunity for our preschool families to meet each other. As the year progressed there were more opportunities for the preschool to come together. We had a mothers day and a late fathers day night which I fully enjoyed. These events were all fun and well attended. Fundraising efforts are an important part of preschool. They are an opportunity to engage with the wider community and money raised is used to provide the cream on top of the basic preschool experience such as new play equipment, upgrading our grounds, new in door out door area and progression on stages of the master plan. Our fundraising efforts over the past year have included Mother’s Day raffle, Bunnings BBQ in two weeks, Father’s day raffle, tea towels and plates with our children’s drawings and our fantastic Bogan Bingo night. We were fortunate to have benefitted from the State and federal Government funding a few years ago when we accomplished the 15 hour pilot program with this extra Money we have had enough to help run the 3 Year old Saturday Program for a few years. Now that the money has dried up the executive had to make to drastic decision in term 3 to cease this program. Federal Government budget cuts gave 2015 and onwards a bit of a scare with potential of going back to 10 hours. Hopefully the Government will wake up and commit on 2015 and beyond.
ANNUAL REPORT 2014 committee members being: Executive, Kate Robinson – Vice President , Linda Alexander as secretary, Anna Goss as treasurer. EJ Hassan our 4 year Old Enrolments officer, Vicky, Jo and Aaron on the maintenance committee, Fundraising and social Yvette, Julianne, Steve, Andrew and Bridgette. Tim Curtis - Website and IT General committee Caitlin, Deborah, Tracey and Geoff If I’ve missed any one you know who you are! This Committee has given generously of their time to contribute to the smooth running of the preschool. We have worked as a team with every member being important and the ideas and opinions of everyone being valued. During the past twelve months we have worked together collaboratively making all major decisions for the preschool Thank you to our fantastic staff, you are all so important in making our preschool what it is. Our teaching staff: Eliza, Jessica, Kerri, Rebecca, Jessie, Kristy, Natalie, Kelly and Kellie for enriching our children, AND Glenys turning chaos into management in our office. Finally thank you Eliza for your strong leadership and love of our preschool, not only do you juggle and manage the staff and the children, but also provide much needed guidance to the parent committee and the Team. The National Quality framework I discussed last year has just been ticking along Areas 1 – 7. Have improved our standards to be not just a good preschool but a GREAT PRESCHOOL Thankyou ELIZA AND JESSICA. On behalf of the preschool I extend a special thank you to all our parent volunteers for your generosity and support over the past year. It is the preschool families that make the preschool community what it is. Finally, we are very fortunate to be a council based preschool, run by dedicated parents on a committee with complete autonomy in making decisions that will benefit our children.
The Preschools future will only continue with the commitment Also the Council having the (KCR) Kindergarten Central Registration Process has in my opinion been a bit annoying. Every and involvement of our preschool families. Community based preschools are run by the parents (by way of a committee). We one has had there opinion???? I wont say any more about KCR therefore need parents to take on committee roles. Every year In September we held our Bogan Bingo night it was a great there is the daunting task of trying to find people to fill committee success thanks to our fantastic organising committee with Yvette roles. These are not difficult roles. They are responsible roles and at the helm well done and a big thanks to local businesses and past position holders will tell you of the satisfaction they have had families for our silent auction and the support and participation of from fulfilling these roles. If you want your children to have the preschool families and friends. unique experience that is Balcombe In the Term 2 and Term 3 holidays we undertook some upgrading Preschool (and we have a waiting list attesting to families works around the preschool resulting in old tunnel converted into a wanting that experience) then we need you as parents to become picnic area and Outdoor Pergola installed by Chris and his team involved. My hope is that Balcombe Preschool continues to from Low Key Constructions. prosper as a committee run Council Preschool providing the experiences for children and families that make it the unique place Our wonderful families also participated in maintenance work that it is. around the preschool renewing the sand in the sandpit, tree pruning, cleaning soft fall and concrete and several working bees On behalf of the outgoing parent committee thank you for your to weed and mulch gardens. Thanks Vicky, Jo and Aaron. support over the past twelve months and to the incoming parent committee enjoy the experience and we wish you every success. As you can see a lot of things have occurred during the past year. A lot of these would not have been possible without the I am proud to be part of this preschool community. My wife and enthusiasm and dedication of our experienced and dedicated I have made many friends and I am proud to tell others that my staff, and the generosity of our preschool families. Many things children attended Balcombe preschool. are done by staff out of hours including attending committee meetings and transition days, and many parents donate their time, Lets get the new roles filled right now for 2015 Committee skills and services for the betterment of the preschool. Christopher Britt I would like to extend my thanks to our parent management
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4 Year Old Teachers Report:
News from the Seals, Sea Stars, Penguins, Lobsters & Dolphins Wow . . . it’s hard to believe that our Pre-School year is already coming to an end! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun ☺ Term Four has kept us very busy . . . we have loved engaging in a range of special experiences and the children have recently become very excited about being ‘big school kids’ following their school orientation days. Many have already come to Pre-School dressed in their uniforms and using their school bags . . . talk about being prepared!!! Following the holidays, the children were very excited to participate in our “Dad’s Night” celebrations. As part of this special event, our Dad’s had the opportunity to experience a range of Pre-School activities (including; construction, clay and puzzles) whilst meeting their child’s friends, teachers and other Dads. Some Dads were even lucky enough to have their faces painted by the children (much to their horror!) For dinner, we cooked sausages on the Pre-School BBQ and had some juice to drink before singing some of our favourite songs together ☺
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At the beginning of Term Four, we celebrated “World Space Week” with mat-time discussions and a wide range of learning experiences relating to Space. We even transformed our dramatic play area into a Space Station (complete with a rocket and control headquarters)! Following our interest in Space, the children worked together to perform all sorts of interesting procedures in the Balcombe Pre-School Hospital . . . often (to their delight) on staff members or the lucky parent who was on duty each session! In response to the children’s interest in how we can care for our bodies, we had a special visit from Susan and Kim from Peninsula Health’s Community Dental Program and were very excited to have Breakfast at Kinder (with the children and staff arriving in their pajamas!) On this day, we were amazed to see Kerri sound asleep on the couch when we arrived at Pre-School in the morning! After waking Kerri up, we had to choose what we would like to eat from the “Balcombe Pre-School Breakfast Menu” (including scrambled eggs, toast, cereal, yoghurt or fruit) before getting changed into our kinder clothes and brushing our teeth . . . we enjoyed a delicious breakfast with our friends and had lots of fun in the process!
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4 Year Old Teachers Report:
News from the Seals, Sea Stars, Penguins, Lobsters & Dolphins Building upon the children’s emerging interest in Dinosaurs, we were excited to explore Dinosaur World with our Pre-School families in October. We began our special excursion by eating some yummy morning tea before exploring all that Dinosaur World had to offer! During our visit, we entered the “Dig and Discover” area (where our imaginations ran wild as we experienced being palaeontologists by finding buried fossils and then ‘chiselling’ away to find what awaited inside!), went on a short carriage ride around the Christmas Tree Plantation and also had the opportunity to meet “Wilson” and “Winnie” - the amazing animatronics walking dinosaurs who came out to say hello! This was our last excursion for 2014 and we had a wonderful time together ☺ On Wednesday 22nd October, Eliza and Jessica attended the Early Childhood Stopwork Meeting at the Athenaeum Theatre before marching to Parliament House (you may have seen us standing on the steps of Parliament on the ABC News!) This Stopwork Action called on the Victorian Premier to actively intervene by providing sufficient funding to ensure young Victorians have access to quality Pre-School programs and the teachers and educators that deliver it. Australian Education Union members are resolved to continue campaigning until we achieve the outcome educators deserve and the children of Victoria need to ensure delivery of quality Pre-School education now and into the future! If you would like to support us further, an online petition can be found via the following link; http:// protectourpreschools.com.au/
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The children have begun to show great excitement in the leadup to Christmas (surprise, surprise!), with many singing carols and sharing their own experiences of Christmas with their peers. We have been very busy making special Christmas surprises with the children (for their families) which will be handed out on our upcoming party days. At these parties, we will celebrate our year together with yummy food, games and some of the children’s favorite songs whilst of course having lots of fun ☺ It has been a pleasure getting to know you and your children over the past twelve months and we would like to say a huge thank you for all of your support and for all that you have done to make our year so fulfilling and memorable. It is wonderful to be part of such a great community! Your children have bought such joy to our Pre-School and although we are excited to see them embark on the next stage of their school lives, we will of course be sad to see them leave! We would love for you to come back and visit us next year ☺ We would also like to thank all of our outgoing committee members . . . the time and effort that you have put into the Pre-School over the past twelve months is greatly appreciated and you have done a truly magnificent job! We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday and wish you all the best for 2015 and beyond!
Eliza, Jessica, Kerri, Jessie, Natalie, Kellie, Kristy and Kellie.
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