Check out a few learning stories to show how we bring community into our centre and support our children to be curious about our world, to communicate effectively with others, to learn to generate and apply new ideas, and to question, think and reflect about our community.
Mrs Louise celebrates 21 years at Forestview Kindy.
Last month, an impressive 86 parents from the current kindy year and throughout the last 21 years, came together for a High Tea to celebrate Louise Stallard – Director of C&K Forestview Community Kindergarten.
Louise has been teaching and working with families at Forestview for 21 years and to acknowledge her outstanding contribution to the Kindy, parents from nearly every year of her teaching came along to celebrate. Alongside her was C&K’s local Community Liaison Officer, Melissa Hodgetts, Early Childhood Education Consultant (ECEC), Tara Lee Franks, previous ECEC, Sandi Lascelles, and educators, trainees and volunteers from Forestview. It was a wonderful afternoon filled with fabulous music (past Kindy Dad as guitarist), lots of laughs, happy tears, sharing of memories, displays of artwork created by Louise’s 2022 Koala Group, a sweet lolly bar and of course a very special cake!
It was certainly a time for celebrating, as Louise was also recognised for her exceptional work at the recent C&K Excellence & Innovation Awards where she was the overall winner of the Professor Mary Mahoney AO Award for excellence in early childhood education and care, and also received the HESTA Leadership and Advocacy Award.
Congratulations Louise and thank you for your outstanding contribution to your children, families, colleagues and the community.
OUR CHILDREN’S VOICE IS STRONG
Recently our Bundaberg Regional Council (BRC) started community consultation regarding the upgrade of our local nearby park and playground at Lake Ellen. Forestview educators were privileged to be part of the team to design the children’s activities at these community consultation days.
To extend onto this broader community consultation the BRC advisory team were also keen to speak with our Forestview children to gather their voice and ideas about what they like to see in playgrounds and what they like or don’t like about the current playground.
At Forestview Community Kindergarten, children are valued as active participants and citizens of local and global communities. Children have ideas, understandings, experiences and actions to contribute towards creating an inclusive, just, peaceful and ecologically sustainable society. Children’s active citizenship in C&K and Forestview learning communities begins with their right to have their voices heard, acknowledged and acted upon. Educators acknowledge, respect and promote children’s active citizenship when they consistently and in this instance the Bundaberg Regional Council have taken amazing steps to include our children’s voices in their decision making for our community and recognise that they are key stakeholders in this process. HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT.
Throughout the process the children were asked to think of things they love to see, hear or do in a playgrouind and they shared these ideas about how it makes them feel to use this type of equipment. We then had to engage in some voting. Roana and Monica from the BRC help up pictures of things that are at the park now and we had to move to the YES side or NO side to identify if we wanted to see this type of equipment stay in our park or be replaced. We also were able to vote on new innovative ideas the BRC planning team have for the park to identify which we preferred. Lastly we were given a magic wand to communicate the ultimate items we would like in our Lake Ellen Playground. We decided some climbing equipment, somewhere to ride your bike or scooter, lots of plants and natural elements, an icecream shop, monkey bards, a bigger and better train and a big, big ,big slide would be great. WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE BRC COME UP WITH.
THANKYOU BUNDABERG REGIONAL COUNCIL FOR TAKING THE TIME TO INCLUDE OUR CHILDREN’S VOICES IN YOUR CONSULTATION PROCESS.
C&K Announces 2022 Excellence & Innovation Award Winners
One of Queensland’s largest not-for-profit early learning providers, C&K, has announced the winners of its 2022 C&K Excellence & Innovation Awards, recognised for their exceptional practice and efforts to fulfil the organisation’s vision, where every child flourishes.
C&K’s Chief People Officer, Paula Holden, said there were many inspiring applications this year with winners selected from across C&K’s 338 kindergartens and childcare centres in the categories of Pedagogy and Practice; Children, Families and Community; Exceptional People; Kaizen (Japanese for ‘improvement’ or ‘change for the better’) and Leadership and Advocacy.
“It’s been another challenging year for employees in our sector, navigating COVID-19, natural disasters and staff shortages. We wanted to ensure we acknowledged the commitment and dedication of our exceptional workforce, so we introduced an additional award in each category – one for continuous improvement and another for exceptional practice,” said Ms Holden.
CEO, Dr Sandra Cheeseman, said it was a proud moment to see so much rich practice taking place in C&K centres.
“Children come first in everything we do at C&K, and these award submissions showcased genuine partnerships with children, families and local communities; exceptional practice in inclusion and care; respect of diverse cultures, challenging thinking and advocating for the environment. This is what high-quality early learning looks like when we nurture and inspire children to succeed, it’s truly something to celebrate!” said Dr Cheeseman.
A special mention went to double award-winner Louise Stallard, Director, Teacher and Educational Leader at C&K Forestview Community Kindergarten in Bundaberg. Louise was recognised for exceptional practice in Leadership and Advocacy and was the overall winner of the MTA Emeritus Professor Mary Mahoney Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education and Care.
“No educator applies themselves to their work with the sole mission of receiving awards for their efforts, however being acknowledged for many years of passionate service to both early childhood education and C & K and receiving not one but two awards was an absolute honour. I am a passionate educator and adore inspiring and mentoring peers in the industry to see the possibilities in their teaching and connections with children, families and community, especially around embedding global citizenship perspectives in all that we do each day with and alongside advocating for play and all that we hold dear in the early childhood years. It is an absolute privilege to support young children on their learning journey to be curious about their community, country and world, to learn about different perspectives and that we are part of an interconnected world that requires our care, connection and respect for a sustainable future,” state Louise Stallard.
Adding to her 28 years’ experience as an early childhood teacher, 21 years of those at Forestview Kindergarten, Louise is a passionate lifelong learner, supportive leader and champion of exceptional practice.
She has become an outstanding advocate for Global Citizenship in early childhood, developing quality resources to engage with children and families on what global citizenship looks like, feels like and sounds like in a kindergarten setting.
The strong, authentic relationships she has developed with local First Nations people have enabled her to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and learnings into everyday practice at Forestview Kindy, so children can learn the importance of ‘interconnectedness’ and being ‘caretakers of the land’.
Louise was also instrumental in employing a Japanese teacher to support children’s learning of language and culture through the Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program, extending this to the broader community where children have been able to collaborate on cultural celebrations and events.
C&K CEO, Dr Sandra Cheeseman, said she was particularly impressed with the professionalism and passion that shone through in each of the award submissions.
“I am proud to be part of the C&K team with people who bring joy and exceptional skills to their roles each day, and I congratulate all the 2022 winners for their outstanding efforts,” she said.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2022 WINNERS:
*OVERALL WINNER – MTA Emeritus Professor Mary Mahoney AO Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education and Care: Louise Stallard-Director, Teacher and Educational Leader at C&K Forestview Community Kindergarten.
*PEDAGOGY and PRACTICE
Exceptional Practice – C&K Ripley Childcare Centre (Kindergarten team)
Continuous Improvement – C&K Caboolture Kindergarten
* CHILDREN, FAMILIES and COMMUNITY
Exceptional Practice – C&K Wilston Childcare Centre
Continuous Improvement – West Moreton Community Kindergarten
*EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE
Exceptional Practice – Kylie Goodwin, C&K Marian Community Kindergarten
Continuous Improvement – Carly Smith, C&K Kuluin Community Kindergarten
*KAIZEN (Japanese for ‘improvement’ or ‘change for the better’)
Exceptional Practice – C&K Coolum Childcare Centre
Continuous Improvement – C&K Wynnum Manly Kindergarten
*LEADERSHIP and ADVOCACY
Exceptional Practice – Louise Stallard, C&K Forestview Community Kindergarten
Continuous Improvement – C&K Gabbinbar Community Kindergarten
Special thanks to Modern Teaching Aids, Cos, HESTA, Story Park and Childcare Now for their generous support of the 2022 C&K Excellence & Innovation Awards.
Gymfinity Gymnastics in conjunction with Forestview Kindergarten have recently been successful in acquiring a grant through the Young Athletics Program and Special Olympics Australia to implement Kinder gym sessions for veach child at Kindy. We are so excited and thank Gymfinity Gymnastics for offering to work with us to secure this grant and the wonderful resources and program for our children.
Special Olympics Young Athletes is an early childhood play program for children with and without intellectual disabilities, ages 2 to 8 years old.
Young Athletes offers families, teachers, caregivers and people from the community the chance to share the joy of sports with all children.
The program increases the skills of teachers, coaches, and volunteers to provide better programs for students, underpinned by the principles of physical literacy, creating meaningful experiences that demystify intellectual disability and promote lifelong participation in sport and physical activity. It introduces basic sport skills, like running, kicking and throwing.
It aims to connect schools with the Special Olympics movement in Australia and ensure that:
- More students are active every day
- More students are developing their physical literacy
- Teachers are more confident delivering sport and physical activity
- Sport and Physical Education lessons are more inclusive and of a higher quality
- Strong relationships are built with community coaches
- Strong links are built with community sports clubs and providers
EXPLORING LANGUAGE CREATES A PASSION FOR LEARNING ABOUT OTHER CULTURES.
At Forestview, we are passionate about helping children connect with culture and become active global citizens. One of the main resources we use for this and we feel very privileged to have access to is the ELLA language program. ELLA is a fun and easy digital language program for kindergarten. The program is an Australian Government initiative aimed at encouraging more students to study language. ELLA introduces children to learning a new language via interactive tablet apps, which have been developed in consultation with experts in languages, early childhood and technology. The Polyglots are a cast of characters who – through play-based learning – introduce the children to words, sentences and songs in another language. The apps draw on the interests and activities of young children, such as celebrations, cooking experiences, art activities, building and role-play. At Forestview our focus language is Japanese.
At Forestview, however, we go above and beyond just providing the ELLA App for children to independently explore and hear the language on IPads. We employ an assistant educator who is passionate to share her Japanese heritage and Japanese culture with the children, educators and families and budgeted funds are allocated for her to ensure that children extend on from experiences they explore in the App and to enable her culture to be embedded daily within our program.
Our passion for inclusiveness is a bit part of what we do each and every day and from the Ella Language Program children and families are passionate to share other home languages and are curious about other cultures.
We believe that becoming a global citizen is about creating a passion to learn about other cultures. We are aware that we can’t possibly learn about every culture present in our country and there isn’t a presence of every culture in our community…but by exploring other languages and culture through the ELLA Language program families are more comfortable to share their home language and the momentum builds from there. We are planting the seed and creating an interest in the fact that while people, places, languages and cultures in our world have similarities there are also lots of differences and that learning about these deepens our knowledge of people, places, languages and cultures and that everyone has the right to be proud of their culture and who they are in our world. In turn this creates understanding and an increasing desire to explore and be passionate about everything in our world including the cultural experiences of those around us in our community.
The skills that our children are developing to embrace culture through our approach to the ELLA Language Program are transferrable to any culture children may encounter in their future lives and will support them greatly in their journey to exploring other cultural presences in our community and foster inclusiveness and greater understanding for all.
Green solutions visits the Koala group for Recycling week
What a way to arrive in kindy…tractor style! Estelle Greensill was very excited to share and teach us all about compost as part of Recycling week. Her Dad – Peter – is a bit of an expert at compost as they use a lot of it on their farms around the region.
We were curious about compost and what could be put into compost and made a list of questions to ask Estelle’s dad when he came to visit.
So, cue Estelle arriving in her huge tractor! It wouldn’t even fit through the kindy gate. Estelle told us about her Dad’s role as a farmer in our community growing things like sweet potatoes and nuts for people all over the world to eat. He also told us that an important job is to farm responsibly and to ensure that our soil and farm land remain healthy for the future.
Peter has a place on his farm called Green Solutions where people from all over Bundaberg can bring their garden and green waste for free which he and his team of recycling helpers turn this rubbish into amazing compost. They do this by cutting up and shredding the compost over and over again. Once the compost is ready after some time, it’s used on their farms to keep the soil and plants healthy. Check out this video which shows some of the process.
All of the kindy kids had a go getting up in the cab and Pete (& Estelle) told us all about the different parts of this huge tractor. We were so excited and couldn’t believe how massive the tyres were!
Thank you to Peter & Sue-Ellen Cusack Greensill for bringing the tractor to kindy and sharing part of their amazing compost story with us at Green Solutions Wide Bay.
Family fun day & 50 years of Forestview success
Recently the Wombats and Koalas came together to have their much anticipated Family Fun Day! It was a lovely sunny Sunday and all of the kindy kids and their families had a wonderful time with face painting, old school bake stall and fresh produce, face painting, entertainment and raffles and a good ol’ snag sizzle.
A massive thanks goes to the Forestview Staff (Mrs Melanie, Mrs Louise, Mrs Leisha, Mrs Nicole, Mrs Yuka, Miss Chelsea) and our wonderful fundraising and parent committee for all of their hard work to make the day come to fruition.
Thank you too to those families who help man the sausage sizzle, bake stall, bike track, chocolate toss and Mrs Yuka and her daughter Koydi who provided an immersive Japanese experience.
Some special mentions to all of our wonderful community sponsors:
And special mention to these families for your support and help:
- Dickson family
- Shilton family
- Ang Yarrow for hosting
- Sam Hargraves for the chocolate toss frame
- Mrs Leisha & Chelsea for coordinating the facepainting
- Mrs Yka and Kodyi and Leio for Japanese name writing and origami
- All the parents who contributed to the chocolate toss, bake stall or fresh produce stall
- Krystie Lee-Maddern for organising the whole day! Congratulations.
On the same day we also celebrated Forestview Community Kindergarten turning 50!! What a wonderful achievement and honour it is to look back and forward at both the students, families and friends, community connections and wonderful educational experiences our centre has achieved.
Thank you to our community partners
We are pleased to announce that an amazing nearly $2000 was raised from our term 2 fundraiser – The Fabulous and Fifty Raffle. There were lots of happy raffle ticket holders who went away with some awesome prizes.
This is an awesome effort from everyone – thanks so much to all those involved with preparing raffle tickets, selling of tickets, organising prizes, collating prizes, preparing prizes, drawing raffle etc. Everyone has done an amazing job.
Biggest of thanks also to the following local businesses who donated to this raffle. Your support is very much appreciated. Click through to check out more about these fabulous businesses.
- North Bundaberg Vet Surgery
- Salty Co
- The Boat Club adventure cruises Hervey Bay
- Bargara Beach Holistic Health Centre
- Mitre 10
- Raven Dance Aerial Arts
- New Vintage
- Duplic8
- Of the Earth Juice Bar
- BTR Performing Arts
- Leanne Wilson
- AMS Computers
- Alliance Pharmacy
- Serenity Skin Spa
- Flying High Bird Sanctury
- Dymocks Bundaberg
- Officeworks
- Tomorrows Earth Eco Store
Tanabata Festival 2021
Forestview Kindy is always a busy place! We have many amazing programs, educators and ideas and love to share some of these with our wider community.
We are very lucky at Forestview to have Mrs Yuka run our ELLA (Early Learning Languages Australia) program and as such we get immersed in lots of wonderful Japanese culture and celebrations – from language, to special events and learning lots of Japanese culture.
The Tanabata Festival, or Star Festival is one of those important celebrations we participated in July, with families and the kindy children writing their wishes for the year ahead and then attaching them to bamboo (supplied by Bundaberg Regional Council staff at the Botanic Gardens). Those wishes then travel up into the sky and we can reflect and look forward to the year ahead.
Bundaberg Now wrote about how Mrs Yuka and Forestview were instrumental in the first festival in 2020 and this year the wishes were included in the gardens as part of the celebrations.
You can read the article here