Welcome to 2018

It feels as if I was only writing these exact words yesterday, but it really has been 12 months.

Welcome to all our new families that have recently joined Bauer Street and welcome back for another year to all our ‘old’ families.  We hope you all enjoy your time at Bauer Street and if there is anything you do not understand regarding policies, committee, fees or what is happening in your child’s room or around the Centre, please speak to us.  We have a very dedicated staff team who are only too happy to help when they can.

 ENROLMENT FEES,DONATION LEVIES &ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP FEES

 Friday, 23rd February, a Donation Levy of $15.00 will be charged to your account.  This levy goes towards sunscreen and other incidentals required by your child.

The following Friday, 2nd March, all families will be charged an additional $5.50 (including GST) on their accounts, being Association Membership for the year.  By joining the Association, you have the right to vote at the AGM and be elected onto the Management Committee.  If you do not wish to become a member, please see the office staff so that we can credit your account.  Most new parents have completed their Association Membership application.  If you attended the Centre last year, you will need to complete an Association Membership Renewal form before the AGM. These forms will be left in your child’s room.  Please sign the form and return it to the office.

For all new families that have not already paid an Enrolment Fee (Bond), please arrange to pay an extra week’s fees next time you pay your fees.  This Enrolment Fee consists of one week’s fees which is held by the Centre and credited back to your account when you finish at the Centre.  For those families who pay their fees by Direct Debit, please remember to include this extra week’s fees with your deposits and let office staff know that you have done so.  Thank you.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Our Annual General Meeting will be held at the Centre on Tuesday, 20th March at 7.30 p.m.  As we only have one general parent meeting per year, it would be appreciated if you could really try to attend.  Our Centre is a community based, non-profit Centre and our Committee is our sponsoring body. The Committee has specific responsibilities under the legislation, such as:

–  ensure that the service is actively  accountable to its members

–  effectively manage the organisation’s  finances and resources

–  meet statutory and organisational legal requirements

–  ensure legal and ethical integrity

–  manage legal and financial responsibilities of the organisation.

At the AGM a Management Committee is elected and consists of our Executive Committee: –  President, Vice-President,

Secretary and Treasurer, plus 5 Committee members, making a total of 9 members.  If you wish to be nominated onto the Committee or wish to nominate somebody for the Committee for 2018, please see the office staff for nomination forms.

The Management Committee meets on the last Tuesday of each month at the Centre at 7.00 p.m.  Babysitting will be available free of charge on the night of the AGM.  The form for babysitting will be left near the sign-in sheet in your room, one week before the meeting.

FEES AND PIGEON-HOLES

Your account will be emailed to you every Friday.  All fees need to be kept one week in advance.  As the Centre works on a budget, we cannot afford to carry bad debts.  If you do fall behind in your fees, you may lose your place at the Centre.

For families that receive Childcare Benefit and/or Rebate paid to the Centre, your Government contributions for the current week will need to be deducted from the full fees shown on your account, as the Childcare Benefit and Rebate are not received by the Centre until the following week… one week in arrears.

Please make sure you take all of your information from the pigeon hole ABOVE your child’s name.  If possible could you please stop children taking mail from the pigeon holes as some families do miss out on receiving important information.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

  • It is important that you do sign your children in and out.  This is required to assist in claiming your Childcare Benefit and in emergency situations.  We also refer to these sign-in sheets for our fire drills.  The staff need to know which children are present on a certain day.
  • We must have a current contact phone number on the sign-in sheet each day.
  • Sanitary hand wash is available for you and your child to use on arrival and departure from the Centre.  You will find it on the wall next to the front door of the Centre.
  • No medications are to be left in your child’s bag.  All medications must be written on the Medication forms which are kept outside the Nursery.  If you want your child to be given ‘over the counter’ medications, such as cough medicine etc., it must be labeled with the chemist’s label stating the name, date, age of child and dosage required.  No medication will be given without these requirements.
  • Absences are claimed by recording the absent day on the daily sign-in sheet.  Under the Child Care Management System (CCMS) each child is eligible to receive Child Care Benefit for an initial 42 days of absence per financial year which can be used for any reason and without proof of circumstances (including Public Holidays).  Please speak to the office staff if you do exceed your 42 days for additional absences, as Child Care Benefit will not be paid for these days.
  • As we do have problems with parking in the mornings, we have allocated the first two car parks for quick drop-offs.  We do encourage you to spend time with your child at the Centre, but if you intend to stay, please park out on the street.  Also a reminder that Bauer Street is a 2 hour parking zone and the parking officer seems to be spending quite a bit of time in Bauer Street at the moment, so be careful!

CENTRE HOURS

The centre opens at 7.30am and closes at 5.30pm.  Children need to be collected by 5.30pm. Our parent Management Committee have implemented a late fee of $20.00 per 15 minutes to be applied to all those families who fail to meet this requirement. Parents will be called at 5.30pm to inform them that the centre has closed and the late fee will be applied to their accounts. If you have a genuine emergency we would appreciate you call the centre to let us know you are running late.

UPDATED EMERGENCY CONTACT CARDS

For those families who have been attending the Centre prior to this year, we will require you to check with the office staff that all information on your Emergency Contact Card is current.  As people’s circumstances change, it is extremely important that we have the correct information regarding emergency contact numbers and authorities to collect children.  If you do know that something has changed, please complete a new card.

We will also require your correct email address, so please add this to your card if we don’t currently have it listed.  These email addresses will be used for the Kindyhub and for emailing your weekly accounts.

ALLERGIES

I cannot stress enough how important it is that children do not bring any products containing nuts into the Centre.  This also includes items such as muesli bars and sesame seed bars that contain nut products.  Please read the ingredients on any bars you send in with your children.  We do have some children who have severe nut allergies and who are required to carry epi pens.  If one of these children comes into contact with any product containing nuts, it could be life threatening, so please consider this when packing snacks.

If the child has severe allergies, parents/guardians are to provide a medical management action plan signed by a Registered Medical Practitioner.

SICK CHILDREN

Please do not bring your child to the centre if they have had high temperatures, vomiting or diarrhea. (they are highly contagious illnesses!) The centre is not a place for sick children. The year has only just begun, and we are getting complaints from families who do keep their children home when they are unwell. A dose of Panadol only masks an illness. If it continues to happen and your child is sent home sick you will need a clearance certificate from a medical Practitioner before you can come back into the centre.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

As part of welcoming new families to our Centre (and reminding our existing families) about the importance of Health and Safety, we would like to list some reminders:-

  1. Never leave children unattended in cars while collecting children from the Centre.
  2. Car parks are dangerous places for children. Always hold children’s hands when arriving and leaving the Centre.
  3. Never leave a door or gate open behind you when you are at the Centre.
  4. Always sign your child in/out and pass them over to a staff member. Never leave children unattended in the rooms.
  5. Children are not permitted into the Centre kitchen and laundry areas.

We encourage families to provide feedback on health and safety issues.  If you see something that concerns you regarding safe work practices, the safety of the building, equipment or general Workplace Health and Safety, please let us know.

IMMUNISATION

Most of the new children that have started at the Centre have provided an updated Immunisation Certificate. If you have not yet given us a copy of your child’s immunisation we do require an immunisation status up date. Also for all of our existing families, we will need updated copies.  The statement can be obtained from the Australian Childhood Immunisations Register (ACIR) at any time free of charge.

BIRTH CERTIFICATES &HEALTH CARE CARDS

All children in the Pre-prep room need to provide a copy of his/her Birth Certificate.  If you have not already done so, could you please do so as soon as possible.  If you do have a Health Care Card, we will need a copy of that also.  As this Centre is providing the approved Queensland Kindergarten Program – QKFS, your fees will be reduced if you have a current Health Care Card.

COMMONWEALTH GAMES

A reminder to return your forms to let us know if you will be attending the centre during the games. As the centre is opened and not closing during this time, we are able to claim for CCB AND CCR for all families; this means if you are not attending you will be classed as absent from the centre and the centre will apply the absences to your child’s account. For those families that will be attending we will be operating as usual.

COMPLIANCE HISTORY LOG BOOK

We need to advise parents in writing that the centre does have a Compliance Log Book that contains the centre’s compliance history.  Parents and guardians have the right to inspect it at any time.  This book is kept in the front office.

EXTRA ACTIVITIES 

Dancing and Tennis have commenced again – Dancing on a Thursday and Tennis on Fridays.  If your child does not attend on these days and you would like your child to participate in the above activities, you are very welcome to bring them in for the class.

SHOWS

As the Centre does not participate in excursions we do have a variety of shows visiting the Centre.  Lee & Kelli will be booking the shows.  We try to keep the cost to around $6.00 per child, per show and the cost will be added to your account after the show.

ASSESSMENT AND RATING

Some new families joining our Centre may not be aware that in 2012 the Centre went through a rigorous assessment of the quality of our service against the National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care.  We were thrilled to receive the highest possible rating of ‘Exceeding National Quality Standard’ in all 7 quality areas.  It was thanks to our great staff and parent input that we were awarded these excellent results.  As we are due to go through this process again, we may ask for parent input.

ORIENTATION EVALUATION

We would like all new parents that have started at the Centre this year to complete a Parent Orientation Evaluation form.  They will be placed in your pigeon holes and it would be appreciated if you could complete these and return them to the office or place them in the Fees Box in the Dining Room.  We do include these forms in our Assessment review so it would be much appreciated if you could spend the time completing one.

GRAPES

We would like to remind parents if they are sending in grapes for under 3’s, please make sure that they are cut in half or quarters as grapes are a choking hazard if little ones don’t chew them before swallowing.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT DONATIONS

Thank you to all those parents who left a gift under the Christmas tree for underprivileged children.  The gifts were donated to the Salvation Army Christmas Connect 2017 to help those less fortunate and help make their Christmas a special one to be enjoyed as a family