Earlier this month World Environment Day took place, with its major goal to increase awareness of environmental issues and encourage sustainability across the globe. World Environment Day lands on June 5 every year and is a United Nations initiative that has been embraced by many people in various countries and sees them get inspired to take positive environmental action.
With the environment in mind, we want to highlight how sustainability practices not only help the world become a better place for all, but can assist you in improving your NQS Rating.
ACECQA’s most recent newsletter takes a look at a wonderful, lush service in Toowoomba, Queensland and the incredible work they have done including the introduction of a worm farm at their centre. Of course, many other services have less space and their surrounding area may not be as nature-rich, but there are always ways to improve the space you are working with. To have a read of ACECQA’s newsletter about sustainability, click here.
Standard 3.3 of the National Quality Standard states:
| ‘The service takes an active role in caring for its environment and contributes to a sustainable future.’ |
According to ACECQA, Quality Area 3 – Physical Environment and Standard 3.3 as mentioned above, are areas that often prove to be challenging for centres, with a Working Towards NQS Rating the most likely result across over 5,500 assessed centres.
Bonkers Beat is very proud to have achieved an Exceeding NQS Rating for this area, which was the highest rating achievable at the time. This is why we want to share our sustainability practices with you!
Bonkers Beat Aspendale was recently filmed for a training video about incorporating sustainability into services, and you can watch the video to enjoy a brief tour of the space that we have created: ‘Environmental Sustainability Program at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder Aspendsale’
We believe that we can all contribute to a sustainable future, and you may even find some of our ideas could work at your home!
Unfortunately, we can only share a short, edited version of the video as they are specifically being used for training, but we always welcome visitors to our centre, so if you’d like to come along and see more of Bonkers Beat for yourself, get in touch to arrange a visit!
Many thanks to Child Care Centres Association of Victoria for running a very valuable General Members Meeting last night in Melbourne and inviting Mary Jeavons from ‘Jeavons Landscape Architects’. Mary presented a fantastic session on the planning and design of outdoor spaces in children’s services. To support our previous discussion, she highlighted the importance of outdoor play and influence of the natural environment on children’s overall development.
Not only are our sustainability practices working towards a better world, we are able to offer a hands-on teaching experience for children to learn how to care for the environment – and this is surely the ultimate way of looking out for the future!