07/01/2023
Please find the minute for the meeting that we had on 23 dec.2022
I sent the email to Lisa.
Please confirm that you read and also complete with ideas or aspects that I missed.
Leave a comment below for agree.
Thank you.
Oana
Dear Lisa,
Please find in attachment our staff meeting minutes that occured on 23.12.2023
Points discussed
Safety measures/ supervision and ratios
1. Staff is confident and has understood the ratios requirements for both rooms kindy room and baby room and we discussed ways to assure that transitions such ( toilet training, nappy change/ sleeping time/ meal times does not affect the ratios;
We discussed that in Baby Room/ Kindy it is necessary that children are grouped under ratios to every educator during transitions so we make sure that supervision required is maintained at all times.
Ex. If an educator is doing nappy change the other educator should be able to have all children in sight and all children can be supported.
We also discussed with the staff in both rooms to maintain proper supervision during cleaning time and maintain the ratios as the main priority is engaging with children and children's wellbeing and safety.
- Cleaning as daily cleaning can be done during rest time or after numbers drop as we look at the opportunity to group children when possible and release one educator / taking turns for the cleaning process.
- The everyday cleaning and maintenance will be done following our daily charts but we also look at the opportunity to have a deep cleaning if necessary outside our operating hours so it does not affect our ratios during sessions.
I asked educators if they are feeling comfortable with daily charts and forms/ policies and I offered my support if necessary for more training.
Programming/ planning
- We discussed the idea to have a monthly program, with weekly activities to support the program/ documented and displayed for parents to see and offer feedback ( we can use printed form + our social platform)
- Every child should have individual observation ( 4 monthly if is a full time ) alongside our everyday snap info on the day;
- 1 Weekly group story for the week detailed that should reflect how the group worked / what activities we had to support the learning outcomes.
!!! We discussed that time out of room should be given to staff 1 hour each staff member/ 2 hours per room weekly for planning reasons and make sure that each staff is able to understand:
- planning cycle
- document children learning through observations and learning stories
- personal training
We discussed with Angela and she really wants to learn to develop a program and learn to link the learning outcomes to activities and reflect in the planning process.
- We discussed implementing a observations book in each room where educators to write down observation about children learning and can be used also to document aspects that educators find relevant in children routines or learning;
- every room to have a reflection jurnal where the educational leader should establish a weekly reflection on our daily activities and also to reflect on challenges that occur.
Staff needs training on challenging behaviour and supporting children with additional needs and we will look for extra support in those areas.
We also discussed the mandatory 1 hour monthly paid meeting have training and discussing our improving areas.
We also look at a system of reward for staff to acknowledge their work and efforts such as a small gift to go towards their self-care
We need to look at our first aid expiry dates/ blue cards to renew if they expire in the next months.
Challenges through the year:
- being understaffed and not be able to have planning time/ and break times
- children that need extra support and lack of knowledge on challenging behaviours;
What should we improve?
- Our planning and learning program/ have more individual observations, have reflections, evaluate and reflect on children learning;
- Understand the Qip and contribute towards developing a proper integrated system to support the Qip
- risk assessments/ daily forms making sure that all forms are completed daily and maintain the routine of having them documenting our process;
- positive interaction with children and develop strategies to support us and understand how to respond to children that are having additional needs
As Educational leader I understand that I have the role and responsibility to make sure that all these conditions are met but we also need to think that this training process requires time for me to supervise the activity of the staff to give feedback on the spot and individual feedback.
And that is the reason for me to ask for planning time to be allocated to the staff and our monthly meeting to happen from now on as an embedded practice.
We will also use our staff training online chat to document our training.
In between staff meetings I will build on short training sessions on relevant aspects such:
- using positive reinforcement
- ASD/ ADHD support strategies
- Reflection journal
- learning strategies to ease the transitions
-....... etc
Ionela Nastea
Chona Marie
Angela Hart
Lydia Toby
Emily Robinson
All this minute has been discussed with the staff and will be sent to our staff training online platform and I will ask members to confirm the minute
Thank you
Ionela Nastea
