early learning centre Archives - Early Learning Childhood Education

23/02/201724/02/2017

The Benefits of Open Days for Families (and Centres!)

Open Days are an essential ingredient to help families make the right choice for their children when it comes to starting their early childhood education.

For a family to choose the centre or kinder that best suits their needs and preferences for their child isn’t as simple as looking at a website or hearing positive things in the community. While these are important and help with the decision-making process, there’s no substitute for getting up close and personal with a centre and its staff.

Bonkers Beat Music Kinder in Aspendale, Victoria is hosting an Open Day on Saturday 4 March. From 10am until midday we have invited members of our local community to come along and visit our centre.

We’ve arranged a music show and yoga with Bonkers for children and families to be entertained as well as gain a deeper, more interactive understanding of our approach to early childhood education.

Attending Open Days presents many benefits to families. Here are three of the main reasons families should definitely attend Open Days to get firsthand experience of a centre:

How Families Can Get the Most from Open Days

1: Programs and Facilities
Explore the centre and see for yourself what it has on offer, rather than read or hear about it.

2: Meet the Educators
Meet some of the individuals you would be entrusting with your child’s wellbeing.

Questions to consider:
-Do I find the educators and staff to be likeable and friendly?
-Did the team seem genuine and passionate?
-What are the team’s qualifications and specialty areas?

3: Trust Your Feelings
Get a feel for the centre that can only be felt in person.

Questions to consider:
-How do you feel visiting the centre?
-Can I see my child enjoying spending time at the centre?

Perhaps you’re from a centre and have been wondering if an Open Day is worthwhile for you to showcase what you have on offer for local families – here’s how you can deliver to the community and give them the information they need to decide if you’re the right fit for their families.

Reasons Why Your Centre Should Hold an Open Day

1: Showcase your centre
Don’t just tell – SHOW the local community and families what you have to offer. Planning an open day allows you to put your best foot forward and demonstrate to families why they should choose your centre for their child or children.

2: Meet the Families
Early childhood education is a crucial part of a child’s life and in our communities. Engaging with local families shows and grows your passion for your centre’s wider community and its members. An Open Day could be the beginning of a long relationship between you, your centre and these parents and children.

3: Be Transparent
You can have great flyers, ads and a perfect centre, but the way your centre makes parents and families feel when they are there is a key factor when it comes to enrolling. Let your centre’s positive energy and warm atmosphere shine through to families on a day dedicated to your centre and all that it has to offer children who attend!

Attend or hold an Open Day this year and enjoy the benefits for yourself as either a parent or a centre.

If you’re local to the Aspendale area, visit our Open Day at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder & Childcare on Saturday 4 March, 10am-12pm. Hope to see you there!

29/09/201629/09/2016

Amazing results in centres – and an exciting announcement

early childhood professional development

There are many centres across Australia running our Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing programs. And the management and educators at each and every one of those centres get the opportunity to attend two Wellness Summits each year. These Wellness Summits are early childhood professional development days exclusively open to centres who are Bonkers Beat members.

Taking place in summer and winter, the Wellness Summits head to each state so teams don’t need to worry about traveling – or missing out.

Our Winter Wellness Summits 2016 have just finished up, so this is the time to reflect, summarise and share feedback from our participants. Now is also the time to get ready for a BIG announcement about our keynote speaker for Summer 2017.

More Children, Motivated Educators, Engaged Parents

Reflecting on the success of the recent Bonkers Beat Wellness Summits and Bonkers Beat Program progress over the last seven months, many centres who implemented Bonkers Beat programs have noticed that:

Their occupancy increased by 18% (some centres reached full capacity!)
The attitude of their educators has improved, leading to a more positive culture
Educators became more confident and competent using music and wellbeing experiences with children
Parents became more engaged, leading to an increase in participation
Children have improved a vast range of skills and can’t stop singing and dancing at home
Parents are raving about centre programs and are spreading the good word to other parents!

Improved NQS Rating, Saved Thousands on Professional Development

We also found that most centres have improved all seven areas of the National Quality Standard and some centres have even achieved a higher rating.

Last, but not least, the owners and management have provided their entire team the most comprehensive and practical training, which has saved them over $23,000 within one year!

Another Successful Early Childhood Conference

We were thrilled with all our speakers this year. At the Wellness Summits we had the honour of providing three of Australia’s leading parenting and education experts, public speakers and authors Kathy Walker, Shona Bass and Kerrie O’Neill, who is also a founding committee member of the Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange.

We were also delighted to bring to the Summits some of the best wellbeing experts who gave us inspirational and practical strategies to enhance children’s and our personal wellness.

In summary, we were overwhelmed with the results and are proud of the practical and inspiring professional development training that we have provided to these incredible teams.

Benefits to Educators

In summary, the benefits to educators included:

Gaining a vast range of practical skills
Learning new songs and games
Learning new wellbeing strategies
Discovering new ways of documentation
Bonding as a team
Meeting many other likeminded, passionate educators

“The Bonkers Beat Winter Summit is so different… hands-on, engaging, participations that can be implemented into the service and into the program, real topics that are relevant to educators in centre, broken up with activities. One of the best things was to learn and incorporate Bonkers Beat into the program, the explorations, Kerrie O’Neill was engaging, fantastic, provocative and inspiring!” – Troy Murphy, Room Leader – Billy Bear Preschool and Long Day Care Centre

Benefits to Management

The benefits to management included:

Connecting with management from other centres
Discussing ideas for effective marketing, meaningful documentation, motivation and strategies for retaining quality staff

“Practical…Meaningful…Engaging! Kerrie O’Neill’s presentation on documentation and of course Galina’s presentation of the songs were fabulous – just not long enough!” – Kay Doyle, Approved Provider, Bachelor ECE – The Forest Childcare Centre

To find out more about what management and educators thought of the Wellness Summits, click here.

Currently we’re working on many projects that will enrich centres and will be announced before the end of 2016. We look forward to continuing this exciting journey together.

If you’d like to learn how your centre can join us, simply email info@bonkersbeat.com. While we only offer a limited number of spots across the country within our Bonkers Beat Programs, we do have some availability.

Here’s the BIG news!

Our next speaker for Summer Wellness Summits 2017 will be National and International Early Childhood presenter and renowned Early Childhood Business Developer, Alina Dan.

Alina will give a very clear, concise and empowering presentation about documentation, the role, responsibilities and goals every Educational Leader and Manager should know about.

Summer Wellness Summit Dates 2017

Melbourne: February 11 2017

Sydney: February 25 2017

Brisbane: March 4 2017

Mark these dates in your calendar now and get ready for a big adventure in 2017. Don’t miss out!

If you’re centre is not currently a Bonkers Beat member, you can find out how to join us by emailing info@bonkersbeat.com – there’s still time to sign up and have your entire team attend our Summer Wellness Summit in 2017.

Not to be confused with the recent (and fantastic!) Wellness Works! Early Childhood Leaders Conference, which was a ticketed event, the Wellness Summits are early childhood professional development sessions only open to centres with membership to the Bonkers Beat Music and Wellbeing program.

For all centres running Bonkers Beat within their curriculum, please remember that the Wellness Summit is a 1-day event for your entire team to attend together with NO additional costs, fees, tickets – it’s all included in your Bonkers Beat membership!

Can’t wait to see you all again soon!

14/04/201614/04/2016

3 Reasons Open Days are a MUST

When it comes to choosing the right centre to kick off a child’s early childhood education, parents are dedicated to making an informed choice. Many spend time researching online and seeking opinions from family, friends and colleagues. However, there is no substitute for visiting a centre and getting a feel for the facilities, the environment and the people.

For parents, Open Days at early learning centres offer the opportunity to see firsthand what the centre has to offer. When Open Days are scheduled for weekends, you get the freedom of exploring the centre and chatting with educators and staff without interruptions. For centres, Open Days give you the chance to showcase what you’ve got to offer your community’s youngest members and put your very best foot forward.

First, let’s look at 3 reasons why Open Days are a MUST for parents to attend, then we’ll go through 3 reasons why centres should have Open Days.

3 Reasons Why Families Should Attend Open Days

1: Programs and Facilities
Explore the centre and see for yourself what it has on offer, rather than read or hear about it.

Questions to consider:
-Does the centre have a rich curriculum to benefit my child?
-Are educational programs embedded in the curriculum and offered daily?
-Is there a funded kindergarten program?
-Do the programs give my child the best start?
-Is the centre engaging and does it reflect the children’s learning journey?
-Are the facilities clean and up to date?

2: Meet the Educators
Meet some of the individuals you would be entrusting with your child’s wellbeing.

Questions to consider:
-Do I find the educators and staff to be likeable and friendly?
-Did the team seem genuine and passionate?
-What are the team’s qualifications and specialty areas?

3: Trust Your Feelings
Get a feel for the centre that can only be felt in person.

Questions to consider:
-How do you feel visiting the centre?
-Can I see my child enjoying spending time at the centre?

Now, for centres that are wondering why they should have an Open Day, consider that you need to deliver based on the above reasons that are so important to parents and families. Here’s some more information for centres on these areas…

3 Reasons Why Centres Should Have Open Days

2: Meet the Families
Early childhood education is a crucial part of a child’s life and in our communities. Engaging with local families shows and grows your passion for your centre’s wider community and its members. Open Days can be the beginning of a long relationship between you, your centre and these parents and children.

3: Be Transparent
You can great flyers, ads and a perfect centre, but the way your centre makes parents and families feel when they are there is a key factor when it comes to enrolling. Let your centre’s positive energy and warm atmosphere shine through to families on a day dedicated to your centre and all that it has to offer children who attend!

We have an Open Day coming up this Saturday 16 April at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder & Childcare in Aspendale, Victoria. From 10am-12pm we have invited all families in our community to visit the centre and enjoy a fun morning of exploring. For anyone who would like to see what the Bonkers Beat programs are all about, please join us at 49 Laura Street, Aspendale from 10am-12pm this Saturday 16 April.