Hello, and welcome to 2017. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
We are all excited and motivated for 2017 and look forward to seeing everyone returning.
This year will certainly bring some exciting adventures; we will be starting the upgrade of the Nursery yard in the very near future. The back yard is being designed for practicality, nature exploration and ease especially for our young children. Under the verandah will be cleared of clutter and cupboards and a soft rubber layer placed over the concrete to allow for very young babies to have a safe place to enjoy the great outdoors. The sandpit will be enlarged and a shade structure built over the entire thing. The artificial grass will be replaced with a high grade equivalent. We would love to keep natural grass but it is impossible to stop sand being transported onto the grass which in turns kills it as it creates an barrier and water cannot penetrate the ground well enough so you dead patches. We will keep the bottle brush as it provides natural shade which is always a plus. We will create some extra paved areas so the older babies can have space to ride trikes and cars and not get frustrated when they cant ride. It will be a glorious space that will be enjoyed for years to come.
You will have seen the fence built along the back boundary which now provides privacy from the Heritage trail. It will also provide security for your children. Over the Christmas period we added a pallet mud kitchen to the cubby and sandpit area. There is also going to be another garden area and possibly a pallet teepee to add to the back yard in the very near future. The back yard is indeed a magical and wonderous space for all the children to learn, play and explore.
This year we will also be refocusing on the renovation plans for the rest of Toybox. Plans have been developed and now need to be placed as part of an application into our licensing board. When the plans have been confirmed we will invite all our families to an information evening where you can see what we intend to do, talk to our Committee members and have a look at the staff room which is the standard we wish to continue with throughout the rest of the Centre.
For the last 2 years we have been provided with funding from the government to assist staff in training and gaining a qualification. This year we intend on focusing our training on leadership, management and HR. This means the Director (Chantelle) will be accessing a lot more training and Team leaders will be offered focused based training with regards to their roles, the Centre and their own professional development. This will in turn support a solid team overall.
The core permanent staff working from the beginning of 2017 are Chantelle, Bernie, Mel, Gemma, Georgina, Hannah, Stacey, Allanah, Moriah, Carla, Rachael, Sarah and Emma. Emma and Jess will be going on Maternity leave in the near future. We have a wall featuring who the staff are working for Toybox in the main entrance.
Mentorship was provided to Moriah and Carla for 12 weeks at the end of last year. Mel and Allanah will be provided with the same mentorship starting from Feb for 12 weeks. Chantelle will then take a small break before commencing mentorship with another 2 staff. If you wish to see the Centre Quality Improvement plan/Strategic Plan please don’t hesitate to see Chantelle.
