Service details
Service name / Service approval numberIngle Farm Children’s Centre for Early Childhood Development and Parenting / SE-00014328
Primary contact at service
Director: Nadia Carruozzo
Physical location of service / Physical location contact details
Street: 2 Belalie Rd
Suburb: Ingle Farm
State/territory: South Australia
Postcode: 5098 / Telephone: 08 8260 3511
Mobile: 0434 184 173
Fax: 08 8260 3533
Email:
Approved Provider / Nominated Supervisor
Primary contact:
Ann-Marie Hayes
Executive Director, Statewide Services and Child Development
Statewide Services and Child Development Division
Office for Education and Early Childhood
Department for Education and Child Development
31 Flinders Street, Adelaide SA 5000 / Name: Nadia Carruozzo
Telephone: 08 8260 3511
Mobile: 0434 184 173
Fax: 08 8260 3533
Email:
Postal address (if different to physical location of service)
PO BOX 122 Ingle Farm 5098
Service statement of philosophy
Ingle Farm Children’s CentreWhat we believe…
VISION: Ingle Farm Children’s Centre for Early Childhood Development and Parenting works in partnership to support babies, children and families to flourish in a safe, welcoming, caring, community hub.
Principles:
Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships;
Children, families and staff feel a sense of belonging when they feel safe, connected, and valued.
Positive partnerships/relationships with families and community are fostered with the aim of supporting all to thrive.
An environment of trust and respect supports children to develop their own understandings about how to interact with others, how we are each responsible for our actions and the value of collaboration.
Quality teaching and learning;
Educators, health professionals and service providers are responsive to the strengths, needs, interests, ideas and abilities of all children. We build on the knowledge children bring to the children’s centre to ensure that learning is relevant and engaging.
Children, educators and families work together to identify strengths and to plan for future learning through a play based curriculum. Learning is assessed and reported to children and their families and used for future planning.
High expectations and equity
Educators, health professionals and service providers have high expectations for all babies, children and families, recognising their uniqueness, their culture, customs, language, beliefs, family structure, kinship systems, circumstances and capabilities. We challenge inequities, promote inclusion and make decisions to ensure the rights of babies, children, families and community are upheld and respected.
We support babies, children and families by recognising and responding to opportunities that will enhance success and wellbeing.
Our values: * Respect *Integrity *Collaboration *Equity *Compassion
Ingle Farm Children’s Centre Philosophy
At Ingle Farm Children’s Centre we believe that:
· The land we meet and learn upon is the traditional land of the Kaurna people. We respect and value the culture, heritage and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
· Positive, respectful, reciprocal and collaborative relationships are crucial for success, learning and well being
· Every child is a unique, curious and capable learner with rights and responsibilities
· Children learn best through play where they are able to actively participate, make decisions about their learning, problem solve and explore
· Diversity enriches our centre. We recognise, respect and value each child and family’s “…many ways of living, being and knowing” (EYLF)
· We have an important role to play in caring for the environment, promoting and contributing to a sustainable future through the programmes, services and actions we take as part of our every day practises.
Children will be supported to extend and build on their prior knowledge, interests, skills and abilities and to become;
· Interdependent
· Imaginative
· Creative
· Curious
· Persistent
· Confident
· Resilient
· Socially competent
· Respectful risk-taker
· Problem solvers
· Collaborative learners
The curriculum, programmes and services will be engaging, inviting, challenging and will support children to discover new learning.
To achieve this educators will:
· Provide an equitable play based programme based upon the input of children, families and educators, designed to reflect the rights, needs, abilities and interests of all children including children with special rights.
· Assess children’s learning and then plan and implement the curriculum to support children’s social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical and creative development and wellbeing.
· Report to families through individual learning plans, statement of learning, portfolios, formal and informal conversations
· View themselves as lifelong learners and researchers and so will be involved in on-going professional development and reflection to benefit the children, families and their own continuing education.
The Community Services within the Children’s Centre understands that when children and families feel included, connected and informed they have greater opportunities to thrive.
To achieve this community services will;
· Support children and families to connect with one another, with services and with the wider community
· Ensure children and families have the opportunity to participate in the Children’s Centre and their community
· Support children and families to empower themselves and encourage them to have their voices heard
· Provide programs, services and activities that have been planned in partnership with families
· Work in collaboration with children, families, the community and service providers
· Listen to and advocate for children and families and the wider community regarding highlighted gaps and opportunities
· Work innovatively and passionately to enable children and families to thrive
· Walk together with the Aboriginal community in our work towards Reconciliation
The Allied Health program provides occupational therapy and speech pathology, working in collaboration with the children centre staff, families and wider community to build their capacity to support optimal child development. The focus is on early intervention with a focus of supporting children aged 0 – 3 years of age.
To achieve this allied health staff will:
· Provide centre staff with support and professional learning opportunities through formal and informal methods such as afterhour’s workshops and weekly debriefs and discussions. Support may be provided around areas including: self-regulation and sensory processing, speech and language strategies to assist with communication and behaviour, activities to develop foundation skills for motor skill development.
· Liaise with staff, family and community providers to develop community programs in partnership to ensure programs meet the needs of the wider community.
· Provide support to children and families through supported playgroups and/or parent/child programs which encourage families to be a part of the community. These groups also aim to provide a safe, fun and positive environment for children and families in order to promote children’s development.
· Complete screenings of children’s developmental needs and liaise with staff and families to support these needs. Where long term therapy would be beneficial, referral to appropriate services is supported by therapists.
All children’s centre staff will be professional and approachable
Families, educators, health professionals and community service providers will work together to support babies and children on their life journey.
Families are considered to be an integral part of their child’s learning journey/education and together we encourage parents to:
· Share their knowledge about their child
· Support their child’s wellbeing and learning
· Share their values, beliefs and culture
· Participate in experiences, events and activities
· Have a voice regarding the learning programme, health and community services
· Be involved in governance structures such as the Governing Council
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FOUR – Guide to Developing a Quality Improvement Plan, Appendix 2: Quality Improvement Plan Template
Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice
Key improvements sought for QA1
Element (1.1.2)Element
(1.1.5)
Element
(1.2.1) / Each child’s current knowledge, ideas, culture, abilities and interests are the foundation of the programme.
Every child is supported to participate in the program
Each child’s learning and development is assessed as part of an on-going cycle of planning, documenting and evaluation
Identified issue / (1.1.2) Over the past year there has been a very strong focus on improving the EACH child aspect of planning, tracking and monitoring of all children. The area that we need to specifically improve on is the area of culture, with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. How is the culture of each child, their family and more broadly the community reflected in our centre and in the programme we provide? What do we know about the culture of our families and how do we demonstrate that we value and celebrate the diversity and ensure that it informs our programme? A particular emphasis to be placed on developing an Aboriginal Reconciliation Plan.
A further aspect of this is engagement in the curriculum. Are children actively and deeply engaged in deep learning or are they just moving through a series of activities?
(1.1.5) Over the past year we have actively focussed on how support EVERY child to participate in the programme. Are there some children who are invisible to educators because they are quiet? Or because they are quietly capable so they guide their own learning and so do not seek out the support of adults and sometimes even avoid contact altogether?. Are there some children such as those with special rights or challenging behaviours who educators avoid? Perhaps they do not feel skilled to support the child? Discussions during 2016 indicated that professional development specifically in the areas of speech and language development, children with English as a Second Language, sensory processing/behaviour guidance would provide educators with increased strategies to work with all children.
.
(1.2.1) Further exploration of how we “collect, document, organise, synthesise and interpret information” that is gathered to assess children’s learning. Work has been undertaken over the past two years (e.g. data wall, portfolios etc.) we need to continue refining and evaluating our practices. We also need to further explore pedagogical documentation so that the documentation isn’t just a story with an end point but assists us to identify learning, questions and the where to next. It must support a cycle of planning for each child.
Improvement Plan- ON GOING FROM 2017
Standard/Element / What outcome/goal do we seek? / Priority
(L/H/M) / How will we get this outcome? (Steps) / Success measure / By when? / Progress Notes
1.1.2 / v All Educators will increase their cultural competency, which will support the provision of a more culturally appropriate programme. The centre will visibly reflect the community within which it’s placed.
v An Aboriginal Reconciliation Action Plan will be developed to guide our practice. / MH
H / Ø Talk with families more about their culture and language. Work out ways families and children can share their culture and traditions
Ø Explicitly support families to maintain their culture and language
Ø Stronger inclusion of other languages in the programme by staff e.g. greetings, simple songs, numbers etc.
Ø Use checklists and other sources of information to assess the environment and how it reflects the culture of our community
Ø Updated child and family survey given to new 2017 families ensure they are returned and that content is used for planning/implementation
Ø Seek out Aboriginal community leaders/Elders, families and others to assist to develop the ARP
Ø Talk with Aboriginal families individually about their connection to culture, language, traditions and how they could support the centre
Actions continuing from 2016:
ACTION:KENDALL: Undertake a Cultural Competency Audit of the centre
ACTION: Invite more conversations about culture and our centre with families who access the community programs and focus on empowering Aboriginal families to have a part in planning and program delivery for the Aboriginal community.
ACTION: Continue those conversations with families about language and culture in the community programs and support bi-lingual families to seek advice and information about their child’s language development and importance of maintaining their first language. An info session will be held for CALD families focusing on this, facilitated by Lauren
ACTION: Target culturally diverse families for programming in the next three terms (besides playgroups we don’t have many CALD families accessing other programs – and obviously this is not reflective of our wider community demographic).
Kendall - Further actions for 2017: seek out partnerships with organisations to support projects that support our work towards reconciliation and celebration of culture / Ø Spaces look different and are more reflective of all cultures including ATSI
Ø Educators will be more knowledgeable about Aboriginal history and culture and will feel more confident about ensuring Aboriginal perspectives are a core aspect of the program
Ø A RAP will have begun to be documented. This will be the beginning of a long process
Ø Use of different languages on a daily basis with children / On-going
1.1.5 / v Every child is actively supported to engage in the curriculum, is supported to develop relationships with adults and peers.
v All educators feel capable and confident to support all learners
v Opportunities for deep learning and engagement is actively planned and implemented. / H / Ø All children are allocated to a teacher (groups and reports). Each teacher actively develops relationships with their group of children including those who are receiving support from BLA or preschool support
Ø All educators work to develop relationship with all children
Ø Tracking/checking to ensure that children are developing positive trusting relationships with at least one adult.
Ø ECWs regularly contribute observations, photo stories. learning stories etc. for portfolios and child folders kept by teachers
Ø Director and teachers provide support and feedback to ECWs to support on-going learning re observations and learning stories
Ø Professional development as a team and where required individually in areas such as supporting ESL, children with special rights, speech and language, sensory processing, behaviour guidance
ACTION: Daniela OT to run Sensory processing and self-regulation workshop targeting sensory strategies as well as relational strategies to support ‘big feelings’ and behaviours.
Ø Involvement in Montague partnership EALD project
Ø All educators actively listen and observe children, listening for children’s questions/wonderings and reflecting on where to next?
Ø Intentional teaching, inquiry approach to learning evident in the programme. Ensure common understanding;
Ø Use RRR to assess environment and engagement
Ø DECD Critical Reflection: Learning Design, Assessment and Moderation Strategy: work with partnership kindergartens as well as working as a site team to embed strategies / Mid-term 1 2017 groups established after getting to know the children
On-going / Term 4 DECD sr
1.2.1
ON- GOING DUE TO NEW STAFF AND ON-GOING LEARNING FROM 2016 / v The cycle of planning, documenting and evaluating is evident for every child
v A strong focus on literacy and numeracy will be evident through the DECD Literacy and Numeracy indicators and embedding the Growth Mindset approach to support children’s learning.
This means:
-Educators will ensure literacy and numeracy is evident in all areas of the curriculum
-Educators will ensure planning for literacy and numeracy through provocations, posing questions and problems, building and extending children’s current knowledge
-Evidence is collected to show children’s learning, progress and assist with planning for each child
-All staff will be familiar with Growth Mindset and will be using language to support children as well as themselves as learners
-Children will be using the language of Growth Mindset in their everyday learning and interactions
-Children will be encouraged and supported to set learning goals / H / Ø Systems and process are developed to support the gathering of information for each child/groups of children
Ø ALL staff- Teachers and ECWs contributing to collection of information; obs, learning stories, photo stories etc.
Ø Develop systems and processes which enable educators to track, monitor and evaluate children’s learning based on data to show progress and areas for further growth e.g. data wall.
Ø Improve ICT capabilities to support staff and children to use a range of technologies i.e. increase band width, wireless, Apple TV as option, purchase printer for ipads, children using technology for learning
Ø Explore pedagogical documentation- not just telling a story, but using documentation to assess and plan for children’s learning
Ø Systems and processes for capturing and including parent and child voice and including it in planning and evaluation
Ø Embed Growth Mindset approach with educators and children
Ø Share information about Growth Mindset with families as well as strategies for supporting their children
Ø Explicit teaching of Growth Mind set strategies and information with children in small, large group settings.
Ø Continue to share information about literacy and numeracy in the early years with families
Ø Professional development undertaken as a team to enable shared conversations about how to move forward e.g. ECA online training
Ø Kendall – conversations around Growth Mindset and strategies for supporting children can be had within the playgroup environments.
Ø Similarly ensuring conversations, information and activities with a focus on numeracy and literacy are provided at playgroups / Ongoing / .
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