Pelican's Nest Early Learning Centre

From the Centre Manager

I would firstly like to say a big thank you to all our families for their ongoing support and understanding through this past month. We are so happy to have all our families back attending with the children’s faces lighting up when they arrive seeing their friends again, it is truly magical.
 
Lots of learning has occurred over the past month, but two of our main focuses is embedding sustainability within our everyday practices and starting our Reconciliation Action Plan with the children. This has been an amazing journey so far, with the children truly amazing me with their knowledge they have in both these areas.

Sustainability 

Our sustainability journey started with Environmental Day earlier in the month where we spoke about the importance of trees and planting one in our garden. From here the children’s imagination soared with ideas, so with such keen interests in our outside environment, our journey began in sustainability. With discussions and feedback from our children, families and educators we formed our sustainability action plan and thus far have achieved;

• Water saving – including half toilet flush, emptying our used water on gardens and much more.
• Saving electricity/power – turning off lights during day when not needed, opening windows and doors for air circulation, not using air conditioners.
• Recycling centre – with all cardboard being recycled and reused where can and joining the soft plastics program.
• Vegetable/herb garden – planting our own vegetables and herbs which we care for each day and can’t wait to try!
• Worm Farm – which the children care for by feeding them scraps, awaiting the worm juice to produce to place on our gardens.
• Compost – using our scraps to save on waste that goes into our bins and can be reused into our earth.

We are also very lucky to have access to CCPS school facilities, with the children visiting the chicken and ducks regularly throughout the week feeding them scraps also along with collecting our fresh eggs.

We are so excited to see where else we can go with embedding our sustainability each and every day and the children coming home and sharing it with you all.

Reconciliation Action Plan

Our Reconciliation Action Plan started through children discussing differences and similarities in one another, in which as a team was a fabulous opportunity to start this journey. The children have really embraced this and have shown true respect for one another and embraced that we all have differences and that is ok. We have then followed further with discussions around cultures and the land in which our centre lies. So far we have achieved:

• Creating our very own centre painting with the children around the local area, the meaning of the land and how Caloundra was named by the Gubbi Gubbi people.
• The children have read and explored different stories around differences and similarities including the Ugly Duckling.
• Educators have created small worlds, creating storytelling areas of the past on our land.
• The children have started to participate in an Acknowledgement of Country each and every day showing respect to our elders past, present and future.

It has been a truly busy month of learning in all rooms with children developing their skills more and more each day, which as educators, fills our hearts with joy seeing them grow into confident little people.
 
Warm regards, 
Natasha Sullivan