Our Policies - Little Taddies Child Care Centre

Our Centre has several policies and procedures pertaining to the care of your child. Our policies are in the foyer and are available to view at any time. If you need a copy of any of the policies, please come and see the Director who will assist you.

Accidents and Incidents:

Our educators take a proactive approach to safety and conduct thorough risk assessments of all play areas so that each child can feel safe and free to explore their environment. All educators are expected to hold a current First Aid Certificate, including training in Asthma and Anaphylaxis. Children will have small accidents from time to time, and the educators will act accordingly. If your child has a small accident, you will be notified and asked to sign a form at the end of the day. In the unlikely event of a serious accident, you will be notified immediately. First aid will be administered and an Ambulance or transport to the hospital arranged if needed. During an emergency if you cannot be contacted, we will try everyone on your emergency list. Everything will be documented, and this documentation will be available to you.

Health and Hygiene:

Children and educators are actively encouraged to practice good personal hygiene to minimise the instances of illness. We also believe that if your child is ill the best place for them to be is home, where they generally recover quicker. If your child presents at Little Taddies with signs of illness, you may be advised that your child is not well enough to remain at the Centre and will be asked to take come and collect your child and keep them at home until they are well. In some circumstances we may require a medical clearance before the child can return. We understand that this can be inconvenient for parents, it is in the interest of all children and educators at the Centre to minimise the risk of infection.

Excursions

Children in the Quokkas (3-5years) group will from time to time participate in excursions around our community. The children may go to Rhyme time at our local library as well as bush walks. Only the older children leave the building with a ratio of 5 children to 1 educator. For children to leave the building on these excursions a Regular Outing Permission Form must be filled out each year (usually at the start of the year). There is a risk assessment done for these excursions. Any other excursions that are not regular or further away will require a separate permission form. Families will be notified of this prior to the excursion.

Transport to Local Schools

Little Taddies is happy to provide transport for children who are booked in for Before or After School Care. A School Transport Permission Form must be filled out each year for each child.

Sustainable practices

Our educators and children work together to learn about and promote sustainable practices. Where possible we re-use our resources, our food scraps go to our two chickens and in turn they give us eggs from time to time, We put water in the garden as much as we can rather than down the sink and try to reduce the amount of printing as much as possible by emailing or using our Xplor program for notices and newsletters.

Nutrition

We understand the important role we play in supporting the nutritional needs of children while in our care. We don’t provide lunch for the children, but we ask that the lunches from home are within the health guidelines, and that treats are kept to a minimum. We find that children eat better with small bento type meals rather than large rolls or sandwiches. We share fruit, vegetables and cereal for morning tea, and we ask that you bring one piece of fruit or a vegetable or cheese etc. for the children to share. We provide afternoon tea and will try as much as possible to reduce sugar and salt in what we give the children. If your child has allergies, we will take this into account when planning our menu.

Cultural diversity

We aim to help foster in each child’s awareness and acceptance of other cultures through integrating multiculturalism into our programs. This can be achieved through providing and offering a range of books, music, cooking, activities, singing, play equipment and more. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land the Noogar people and the children are taught about the Aboriginal culture throughout the program.

Confidentiality of Centre Records

We value your privacy and have several initiatives in place to ensure the protection of your data. All staff and management committee are bound by a confidentiality and code of conduct agreement which protects the privacy and confidentiality of all children, staff and families who use the Centre.

Sun Protection:

We are participants of the Sun Safe Centre initiative through the Cancer Council of WA. We provide buckets hats for the children, and they are enforced during most of the year. In terms 1 & 4 when the UV index is the highest children are not allowed to play outside the Verandah without hats on. We also apply or assist the children to apply sunscreen during terms 1 & 4 and also throughout the day in accordance with our policy. Educators also wear hats outside. During terms 2 & 3 we encourage the children to still wear hats on sunny days, however we also acknowledge the importance of Vitamin D on the body and allow the children to play outside without sunscreen. Children must wear short sleeves that cover their shoulders, if children come to Little Taddies with shoulders exposed, we will put a t-shirt on them from their spare clothes or from our spare clothes.

Clothing:

Please make sure that you dress your child in clothes they can play in. When choosing your child’s clothing for the day, please consider:

Your child will be working with messy materials such as paint, glue, water and sand. Make sure that they are wearing clothing that will wash well and you don’t mind if they get a little dirty.
Clothing should provide some protection and be suitable for indoor and outdoor play.
Clothing should be comfortable.
Footwear should be comfortable and well fitting. Shoes that are too small will hurt their feet and rub, and shoes that are too big may make them trip and fall over.
Children do a lot of climbing and running throughout the day, so please NO THONGS, these can make climbing dangerous and slippery. Runners/

Sneakers are the best and recommended footwear. Velcro is also recommended as this encourages independence.

Rubber boots in the winter are great; they can just bring these along and change into them for outdoor play.
Make sure that clothing is easy for the child to remove and re- dress to avoid toileting accidents and promote independence. (overalls are not recommended)
Please name all clothing and footwear
Make sure there is always a spare set of clothing in their bags.

Emergency Evacuations

Emergency evacuations as well as lock down procedures are practiced every three months in accordance with the regulations. Little Taddies has contingency plans for emergency situations and all staff are aware of these. In the event of an evacuation or lock down for any reason, you will be notified as soon as its safe for us to do so. It is important that you sign your child in and out each day, to assist us in keeping an accurate record of children who are in or out of the building each day.

Immunisation

As part of the enrollment process you will be required to provide us with a copy of your child’s immunisation record. Little Taddies endorses and encourages that all children receive immunisations and that these are kept up to date. It the event of an outbreak of an infectious disease it may be necessary to exclude any children who are not immunised for their health and well being. (Including staff)

Medication

If your child requires medication while they are attending Little Taddies, one of our Qualified (Diploma Trained) educators will administer it. For us to do so the medication must:

Be in the original packaging.
Have the child’s name and dosage required.
Be prescribed by a medical practitioner.
Have permission from the parent/ guardian to administer.

Little Taddies will not administer over-the-counter medication unless it is accompanied by a note from a registered medical practitioner. Panadol will not be administered by any staff member to your child, if your child develops a temperature whilst at Little Taddies, you will be called and asked to come and collect the child. Please do not put ANY medications in drink bottles, baby bottles etc., this could be extremely dangerous if another child accidentally drinks it. Do not leave any medications in your child’s bag, please take it to a staff member who will place it in our locked medication box. If you leave antihistamines at the Centre for allergies to be used as needed, we will regularly check the expiry dates and return it to you when it has expired.

Sick Children

If your child is unwell, we ask that you keep them at home. Bringing them to the Centre, just spreads germs and makes other children and educators sick. Please notify the Centre if your child is unwell.

Sleep and Rest:

As a part of our duty of care, Little Taddies will provide a nurturing environment that provides for the children’s need for comfort, rest, and relaxation. Children need to be supported to feel a sense of belonging and comfort with educators in an early childhood education and care setting. Red Nose foundation provides guidelines for children’s safety when they are sleeping. These guidelines will be followed by all educators. Educators will consult with families regarding their child’s sleep procedures from home to provide the rest and relaxation that young children need to maximize their growth and development. Educators will provide an opportunity for children to sleep/ rest or relax within the Centre’s daily routines. Children in the Puggles group (0-2 years) will be put into cots with clean linen, and in an Australian safety approved sleeping bag, provided by either the family or owned by Little Taddies. The educators will use the child’s cues to know when they need to sleep and will be given the opportunity to sleep as they need it throughout the day. Older children will also be given the opportunity to sleep/ rest after lunch. Soft music and/ or white noise will be played to encourage sleep/ rest for the children.

Sleep checks will be conducted by educators, by physically checking each sleeping child, and the check recorded on Playground, which is then published to families in real time, every 10 minutes. Children at Little Taddies will not wear amber beads on either their necks, wrists or ankles when they sleep, as this can pose a choking hazard to children. A risk Assessment Action Plan is in place along with our Sleep and Rest Policy, and this will be reviewed annually, or as necessary. Cultural preferences from families will be taken into consideration, however we will not go against recommendations made by Red Nose foundation. If families request safe sleeping practices to be modified or alternative practices requested, these must be accompanied by written advice by a medical practitioner. All educators will be trained in safe sleep and rest practices