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KU Macquarie Fields celebrates Excellent rating with community event
Freya Lucas
Dec 06, 2023
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Special guests from the community and early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector recently joined children, families and staff from KU Macquarie Fields Preschool at a special event which was held in celebration of the service’s Excellent rating.
The community event was held on Friday 24 November, with special guests including KU Children’s Services CEO Christine Legg gathering to celebrate the dedication and commitment of the entire team at KU Macquarie Fields Preschool and their recent success.Celebrations included an Acknowledgement of Country, speeches recognising the preschool, its community and rating, and concluded with the children singing a ‘thank you’ song and afternoon tea.
Achieving the Excellent rating from ACECQA means that KU Macquarie Fields is one of just 32 early childhood education and care services from across the country to hold the highest possible rating under the National Quality Framework.
For KU Macquarie Fields Preschool Director Jackie Staudinger and her team, the recognition is a special one.
“As a leader, I’m proud to work alongside a team of educators who collaboratively invest skills in exceptional practice,” Ms Staudinger said.
Being rated as Excellent, she continued, comes as a result of focusing on strengths, positives, equity, diversity, inclusion, cultural responsiveness, and reflection.
“It’s an attitude – a mindset – that makes a difference to the entire day.”
“It’s about motivation and being eager to overcome challenging conditions to make a positive difference in the lives of young people. It’s about being the best I can be.”
In awarding the rating, ACECQA recognised KU Macquarie Fields exemplary practice across the following themes:
- Inclusive partnerships with children and families;
- Collaborative partnerships with professional, community or research organisations
- Practice and environments that enhance children’s learning and growth.
ACECQA also identified KU Macquarie Field’s innovative healthy eating program, providing the preschool community with information about nutrition, food purchasing, budgeting, cooking lessons, recipes and foodbank locations.
Embedding Playspaces and Marte Meo approaches to enable educators and families to support children’s strengths and communication cues was another point of note for the assessors, as well as the way in which the team held frequent meetings to support pedagogy and dialogue around practice, ethical decision making, and responsive engagement with families.
Early Childhood Teacher Christine Lee has spent the past five years at KU Macquarie Fields and spoke on behalf of the team about their drive to deliver excellence to families.
“We have a sense of understanding of our families’ needs as well as really knowing our children and supporting their learning by providing a holistic approach to each child’s developmental journey,” she said.
“It’s about wanting to learn more. Being present and available and accepting of professional development, then using your knowledge to create an enthusiasm that is shared with your colleagues.”
For more information about KU Macquarie Fields, please see here.
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