Director's Report, Term 2 2022

Hi Livingston Families,

We have had a wonderful start to Term 2 with only a couple of Livcare sessions cancelled so far. As you would know due to all the media reports, staffing across many industries is difficult at the moment and this includes Kindergarten.

As most of you know by now Emma is going on Maternity Leave as of Friday 20th May. We wish Emma well and look forward to meeting her two new family members soon!

Kirsty the Eucalyptus group Teacher will also be the Teacher in Wattle group for the rest of the year. We have employed a new Teacher Fiona MacLeod who will be working in Banksia group for the rest of the year and then Term 1 in Wattle Group 2023.

It was great to see all the photos of and hear all about the mothers/special persons session. A reminder you are welcome to pop into your child’s session as long as you are fully vaccinated and have a current Working With Children Check available free here https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply

just speak to one of the staff in your group or send an email to your groups email address.

The Building Home Libraries program is up and running in the Four-year-old groups and

we have received lots of positive feedback about the program so our fantastic Grants Team are working on securing funds so we can run it again next year.

Thank you for your patience whilst waiting for the Three-year-old packs to be delivered from the Department of Education. They finally arrived and hopefully the children are enjoying the activities. Please let me know if you have not received yours by the time you are reading this.

Sustainability at Livingston.

Did you know that we have a recycling opportunity in the kinder foyer?

You can bring in your old textas and batteries and we will ensure these are recycled at Officeworks. We also love your junk- small boxes, ribbon, lids, etc. anything we can provide for the children to reuse and create with in our creative areas. Unfortunately, we can’t accept any boxes that have contained nuts, egg boxes where an egg has broken or any medicinal boxes or containers to ensure we keep all of the children safe. Individual groups may have further restrictions depending on the needs of their group.

As a kinder we have taken part in research for the MOVERS program which is designed to assess quality of the environment and pedagogy in the physical child development domain. MOVERS is designed to be used for research, self-evaluation and improvement, audit and regulation.

Kirsty and I recently took part in a two-day course as part of this physical development program. Taking part has required us to reflect on the experiences we intentionally provide for the children that are in the domain of physical development. We will continue to discuss and reflect on this area as a staff group and ensure that this domain is embedded in our program as other areas are, so that opportunities for the children to engage in movement and skills such as crawling, hopping, jumping, ball skills, crossing the midline exercises etc are an intentional part of our program. Research has shown that this physical activity plays an important role in developing the brain and supporting essential mental functions and leads to improved motor skills (such as hand-eye co-ordination), better thinking and problem-solving, stronger attention skills and improved learning. Read more here.

Always striving to be community minded, Livingston Kindergarten has a Community Pantry. This shelf is just inside the entrance. Families can donate pantry items and also take a pantry item when needed.

How it works…….

• Parents can take food items from the pantry when picking up their children, perhaps an ingredient they’ve run out of that they need for dinner that night
• And in return, parents can contribute something left over from their own pantry the next day.

The communal pantry includes basic food staples such as pasta, pasta sauce, cans of tuna, breakfast cereals, biscuits and crackers.

Take what you need. Share what you can.

If you have any questions or concerns about the general program or other matters

Don’t hesitate to contact me officelivingstonkinder@gmail.com

Louise