Everton Park Child Care and Development Centre re-awarded Excellent rating

Everton Park Child Care and Development Centre (EPCCDC) has been re-awarded the Excellent rating for a third time. 

• inclusive partnerships with children and families;
• positive workplace culture and organisational values, support of educators and sustained commitment to professional development; and, 
• practice and environments that enhance children’s learning and growth.

• In 2019, following visits to the annual agricultural show of Queensland, children shared seeing less farmers and animals than in previous years. A family member expressed a similar concern and asked the service to implement experiences focused on drought awareness. 

• Children are assisted to practice Dadirri, a traditional Aboriginal meditation which supports a sense of belonging to Country and holistic wellbeing. In late September 2022, the service held its annual art gallery event and drew on children’s responses following Dadirri sessions, in forming the foundation for its art exhibition pieces. This included:

• • Photographing the spaces that children had identified. Over numerous weeks, children collected a small sample of nature from each of those spaces. Using a food dehydrator, children dried the samples allowing them to be preserved.

  • Children arranged their preserved samples onto a round embroidery hoop, symbolic of the cyclical patterns in nature, to create their individual art pieces.

  • For its group piece, children worked alongside educators to place their individual samples within the river (middle) of a resin coffee table. EPCCDC stated that every child from the class and “their connection to community and place within this environment, is represented within this table”.

• In 2020, the approved provider changed furniture and resources within children’s play spaces. Some children expressed not liking the changes in their spaces. In response, educators commenced an indoor environment reflection with children and captured the following feedback:

• • “We don’t have a lot of plates. There’s no cups or much food or much baby equipment. It’s really hard when we want to be families because there’s only enough stuff for two people.”

  • “The stove needs to be bigger. You can’t really do anything with it right now.”

  • “I don’t like how the sink has no taps.”

• Children’s need for consistency should be respected and reflected in gradual changes to the environment and resources.

• Environmental modifications should be made based on children’s needs and wants and learning opportunities at that time.

• To facilitate children’s ability to plan for and drive key decision making over their learning environment and resources, consultations should be undertaken with children and educators prior to making environmental changes.

• Organised for a local cabinet maker to install a real sink with a real tap (not connected) and to create a board that would fit over the sink, adapting it into a bench space.

• Added real hot plates with real elements and dials that can be connected (by staff only) for proper usage. EPCCDC acknowledged that the hot plates are regularly used for cooking experiences with the chef, room educators and family members.

• EPCCDC referenced that an enrolled family lives in one of the neighbouring properties, with which they share a common fence. The family was having trees removed by professional tree loppers. Children came outside to watch the tree cutting and suggested to educators that the removed tree trunks could be used within their outdoor play. 

• In early 2022, a local service director and educator contacted the service to organise a visit, which included:

• • Reviewing documentation.
  • Observing children in the outdoor environment, with a specific focus on risky play and facilitating a bush kinder program within service grounds.
  • Speaking to educators regarding daily practices and risk assessments.

• Engaged children in various experiences of planting native plants to create natural borders and smaller areas within their larger playground, leading to increased levels of focus by children and more engaged play within those spaces, rather than the previous large, open space which encouraged children to run.

• Revisited their risk-benefit analysis and adjusted it to provide more flexibility and opportunity for children’s access and experience of risky play with climbing equipment.

• Viewing the numerous new garden beds that had been created to section off separate areas of the outdoor environment, providing children with areas of calm, areas of action and areas of exploration, which they have been observed seeking out to self-regulate their behaviour.

• Observing additional natural loose parts which had been introduced to the environments for the children to explore while some of the more traditional toys had been removed from the outdoor environments.

• Children were observed showing increased perseverance and creativity with the addition of further loose parts resources.

• The director explained to the EPCCDC director that, after reading the risk benefit documents from EPCCDC, it had encouraged the team to reflect on their own risk-benefit documents. This then led to staff being more confident in supporting children’s engagement in risky play experiences.