Month: July 2016

We all want to decrease stress and increase enjoyment when it comes to work. When working with children there is always going to be curve balls thrown your way, things we can’t predict, however most days can be not only manageable, but actually enjoyable. Here’s 5 tips to help you enjoy your day at work…

Spend time with the children – I know this sounds a bit “well derrr” but how many minutes/hours a day do you actually just be with the children? Not running a group time, not transitioning them, not correcting behaviour during supervision, not frantically trying to get an observation of them. Play alongside the children, reconnect with why you got into education and care in the first place. Whenever I was having a stressful day in the office I would come out and just sit and chat with the children and everything was right with the world again.

Relinquish control  – Being an educator isn’t about being in  control all the time. Part of the reason we have stress in our day is because we are trying to control groups of children who are all so different and have such different needs and interests that they cannot be expected to meet our strict expectations. Loosen then reigns a bit and provide the children with the rules, set the limits and boundaries, and then trust them to be capable of following these rules with your support and guidance.  

Keep children engaged – The more children are interested in something, the more they will engage with it. The more engaged children are, the less likely they are to get bored and start testing limits and boundaries. Get to know the children and provide activities that reflect their interests and are open ended so they will be engaged for longer periods of time because open ended activities don’t have time limits. Through these activities children can learn a vast array of skills if the right resources, role modelling and questions are provided.

Reflect on practices –  If you are finding work stressful then maybe you need to reflect on either the service’s practices, or your own practices, to see if there is anything in particular that is causing the stress. It is so much easier to fix an issue once the issue has been identified. For example you might have a really good day but go home stressed every evening so upon reflection you recognise that the lock up procedure is not working when parents are coming and there are so many tasks to do.

Know the policies –  For those times when something unexpected does come your way it is important to have a general awareness of policies and procedures so you can confidently and quickly handle the situation and minimise the stress.

Hopefully these tips will help you have more enjoyable days in your service. Don’t forget that if you are really stressed of struggling you need to speak to someone, whether it is a supervisor or a trained professional. This is not a good headspace to be in when working with children, and is likely going to have a flow on effect for other educators. It is important to make sure you look after your own mental health and speak up.

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I think it is fair to say that most of us want to succeed at work, but not only succeed, but challenge ourselves and improve in our practices and knowledge. We want the service to be implementing the best practices and to be meeting compliance in all aspects of the NQF. Here are 5 tips to help you achieve compliance…

Know the regulations – I often see people questioning how to protect children and what procedures are in another service, to make sure they are doing the right thing. There are regulations on a range of different areas including space requirements, giving medication, going on excursions  and staffing requirements. There are even regulations on what policies you need to have and what should be included in these. If you would like the provide best practice you need to know the regulations.

Know the NQS elements – A lot of us know the Quality Areas and the Standards but how many know the elements? It is important to not only know, but understand each of the elements and how they are met in your service. For example while you might think your educators are respectful and ethical in their interactions (standard 4.2) do they meet element 4.2.3 “Interactions convey mutual respect, equity and recognition of each other’s strengths and skills” and focus on each others’ strengths?  

Be aware of other legislation – The National Education and Care Services Regulations are not the only legislation guiding services. How much do you know about the pother legislation like child protection act, work health and safety regulations, fair work regulations, and the privacy act just to name a few. There are also specific codes that impact buildings etc depending on your location. Being aware where to look for answers as and when issues occur will help you meet compliance.

Know where to find information on best practice – There are so many sources of information available to help support services in identifying best practice. For example on the ACECQA website any many guides, Staying Healthy in Childcare, publications such as Every Child and Rattler. In addition to this there is also training available to find out what you can do to meet best practice and compliance requirements.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help – If you are not sure about something, or need help ensuring compliance then it is ok to ask. There are many different services out there to help you, whether it be because you are going through something totally out of your realm of knowledge, you just don’t have time to read all the documents, or you don’t quite understand what you have read. [NB make sure you are seeking help or support from the right people, for example asking a question on Facebook might not get you the correct information]

Don’t forget to also make sure any areas you are working on go in your QIP so authorities understand where you are up too. Hopefully you find this helpful and if you would like some help with compliance I would be happy to work with you. There is also some documents available at http://www.rare.support/store to help make sure you have complied with different areas.

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We are told to include the EYLF (or other approved frameworks) in our documentation. How you do this is up to you, but there meaningful ways and ticking boxes ways. The following is 5 tips you might like to consider ways to make the EYLF meaningful in your documentation…

Understand the Learning Outcomes – The Learning Outcomes are very broad in their application and cover a range of different activities. 1 is not just for new children, 2 is not just for group games, 5 is not just for reading books. By taking the time to really understand the Learning Outcomes you can truly understand how they are reflected in your program.

Explain the role of the educator – We often get caught up in the children and the Learning Outcomes, but the EYLF is also about the educator in the Practices. When doing your documentation is it all about the children or is the educator mentioned? Did they ask questions? Did they get more resources? Did they role model different ways to use the materials?

Use educational language – Another part of the EYLF is using Pedagogical Documentation. This is about not wasting words by writing a pretty little piece about the children’s fun day, but instead using the language of the EYLF and referring to the learning that occurred. If the service prides itself on the educators’ qualifications and skills, then highlight the learning in the documentation.

Understand the service’s interpretation of the Principles – The final element of the EYLF is the Principles. This is like a philosophy for the service to explain how they interpret 5 key aspects. This should be discussed as a service and guide how the Practices (role of the educator) supports the Learning Outcomes (children’s development).

Give the child a voice – Don’t assume the child’s thoughts and emotions. Use their words and actions to give the child a voice in the documentation. For example instead of saying “Jack was frustrated with his tower falling down” you can say “Jack appeared frustrated with the tower falling down as he sighed and growled”.

If you would like additional support with understanding the EYLF there are glossaries for the Learning Outcomes, Practices and Principles, as well as a pedagogical documentation cheat sheet with some key words to use to emphasise the learning available in the online store. There are also previous webinars on EYLF related topics and the embedding the EYLF program. For more information visit http://www.rare.support or contact for personalised support/training 

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I went to have a meeting with some educators about their program and we were discussing ways to get the children’s voices into outside school hours care documentation. I mentioned having the children document what they would like to do, what they would like to eat etc. I was told they often say they would like McDonalds for food. I suggested this could become a project. 

If it is something the children have mentioned several times then they could start to do some research to see if this is a viable option. How far away is McDonalds? How could they get there? What would everyone order? How much would this cost? How would they get the money? Would they fundraise? Would one person go and get everyone’s orders? Would it be hot when it got back? They could then come to their own realisation that it wouldn’t work.  

This could take weeks to explore s a project, and evolve into more opportunities. If the children couldn’t get McDonalds then maybe they could plan to make their own burgers. Look up recipes, work out how much of each ingredient they would need for the number of children etc.  

It is all about looking at the learning opportunities in everything and documenting it accordingly. Don’t dismiss something the children are talking about because it isn’t what you had planned, challenge yourself to look at the learning opportunities in that interest. You could talk about maths (distances, quantities and money), planning, research, literacy (writing lists and reading recipes), collaboration and so much more when documenting this to highlight the learning occurring to the reader, reflect and plan ahead further.

We all know the importance of Indigenous culture in the program. We all know about NAIDOC week but this is about more than that. This post is exploring ways to embed the culture into the service, so it is meaningful and not just a tokenistic approach and more than just dot painting…

Understand the history of the land your service is on – In order to be able to discuss the Indigenous heritage of Australia you need to understand it. Preferably through a discussion or if you are lucky, relationship, with a local Indigenous person, however any information you can have will help you out. Broaden your knowledge and understanding. It is also important to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, but not just on the signature on a email, but in a way that makes sense and helps educate families, children and educators.

Reflect the culture through resources – Have resources around the service that reflect the Indigenous culture and are a starting point to discuss different aspects of the culture with the children. Examples includes dreamtime stories, artwork, flag etc. Make sure the resources are reflective of the local culture and understand that some have specific cultural restrictions linked to them such as gender roles.

Start to use key words in your routine – When sitting in a circle and having a conversation the Aboriginal term is yarning, or having a yarn. So why not call circle time yarning time? When you go exploring the local bushland you could go “walkabout”. You can explain the reason behind it it to the children and they can understand the importance of it.

Bring in an expert – If you would like the children to know more about the Indigenous culture then why not bring in an expert. There are many different ways you can do this, whether through a child focused inservice, an Aboriginal support agency, Consultant, or even a local member of the Aboriginal community. Remember building a relationship can take time and you need to be respectful and sincere in your approach, not desperate to tick a box.

Explore why you want to include Indigenous Culture – Reflect on why it is important to you and your service. If it is to tick a box, or because you feel you have too, then it is likely to be approached in a tokenistic way such as dot painting over NAIDOC week. If you would like to include Indigenous culture because you understand the importance of children learning about the heritage of their country and those who cared for the land and sustained the environment for thousands of years, then you will naturally lean towards more meaningful ways.

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Quality Area 7 – Leadership and service management… We all know that if there isn’t a strong leader then there will likely be issues that filter down through the service.  Here are 5 tips to help you connect with Quality Area 7…

Focus on making educators happy – If you want to ensure low staff turnover and consistency in educators the key is making educators want to stay. This can be done is the simplest of ways like valuing opinions, providing support, being flexible around educator’s home lives and willing to reshuffle rosters, providing educators with praise or rewards for good work, and feedback on their work. Another way to make educators happy is to have clear and consistent guidelines.

Have a clear philosophy – The philosophy is very important, it is the guiding document for the service that underlies every action in the service. The philosophy should reflect the many voices of the service and as such a range of stakeholders should be involved in its creation. When was the last time your philosophy was updated? Who contributed to it? Is it still current? Do all educators and stakeholders know about it? Have you considered incorporating the EYLF principles into your philosophy?

Reflect on your appraisals – Does your service do appraisals? Do they achieve anything other than stressing out the educators and adding jobs for the management? The purpose of appraisals should be to support educators to grow and challenge themselves, so why not try something like an Individual Educator Continuous Improvement Plan that is meaningful and regular and builds relationships between educators and management. (http://rare.support/store#!/Individual-Educator-Continuous-Improvement-Plan/p/66346628)

Embrace the QIP process – We are never done as educators, there is always something to be improved, reflected upon, learnt about. The QIP process is used to help us not only work towards goals but to document what we are working on. It gives us the freedom to completely scrap something that isn’t working and start again because we can document what we are doing and why. The QIP also supports us to identify what our services do well, what makes is stand out from the other services and sets it apart? Strengths are more than what you can do, but are what you do better or differently, how do you apply innovation?

Ensure you know what policies you need – Do you know which policies you need to have in your service? Do you know what these policies should include? The regulations have a list of what policies are needed and what to include in them. Any additional policies should be considered based on reoccurring issues, feedback or need for clarification. Your policies should also be reviewed and maybe updated if the legislation or guiding documents change, the procedures change or even if there is a change of staff. If you don’t have the time or energy to be flicking back and forth through the regulations to find all of this information out you can find a helpful tool here: http://rare.support/store#!/Policy-Review-Document-Only/p/60219745

If you would like support with anything in your service please feel free to get in touch through http://www.rare.support

This post is available as a free downloadable PDF at http://rare.support/resources

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If there is anything you would like 5 tips on please comment below 

Quality Area 6 – Collaborative partnerships with families and communities… How do you work with the families at your service?  Here are 5 tips to help you connect with Quality Area 6…

Respect the families – Understand that without families there are no children and without children there is no service, and then pay the families the respect they deserve. They might have different ideas to you, they might ask you to do things that you think are hard work, but you have to remember that these are your clients and as such they deserve your respect. If you cannot do what they ask because of logistical reasons, then that is ok, but if you don’t want to do it because it seems too hard then perhaps you need to reflect on your practices.

Provide opportunities to involve families – The more opportunity you offer families to get involved in the service the more opportunity there is to form meaningful relationships. These do not need to be formal, structured events like celebrations, they can be volunteering, sharing their skills with the children, and bonding with their child. The families might not engage with the opportunities but don’t stop offering.

Share information that matters – How much information do you share with families? Newsletters, notice boards, observations, day books, menus, emails, invoices, facebook posts, QIP are all types of information shared with families. Yes there are requirements about some of it, but how else do you decide what to share? How much of it do your families read? Have you ever asked them? Do you know for certain  you are meeting their needs for information and not doing more work for no reason?

Utilise the local services – We have all heard the saying “it takes a village to raise a child” and this is true, but often we get so caught up in getting everything done we forget that there is help out there. Whether it is someone to come in and talk to the children about their area of knowledge, or a professional to support children’s needs, or a local service that the children can access like a library or the local school. All of these services can help you with your role and support the children’s development.

Go exploring – By getting out and about in the local community you can serve 2 purposes. Children get to learn in different environments while exploring and connecting with the local community. In addition it allows the community to get used to seeing the service out and about, builds relationships and as such often has a flow on positive effect for enrolments.

If you would like support with anything in your service please feel free to get in touch through http://www.rare.support

This post is available as a free downloadable PDF at http://rare.support/resources

If you would like to subscribe to my monthly newsletter for tips, ideas and upcoming events subscribe here http://eepurl.com/b7KQHT

If there is anything you would like 5 tips on please comment below