Since 1975, ‘My Place’ Family Day Care has provided an award-winning Family Day Care service all around Queensland. We have proudly served thousands of families with highly affordable and excellent quality child care, winning an overall assessment rating of ‘Exceeding National Quality Standards’.
On Saturday (6 May 2017), ‘My Place’ Family Day Care held our 2017 Educators’ Annual Mini Conference from 9am-3.30pm at Kruger Parade Baptist Church (corner Kruger Parade and Henderson Street, Redbank QLD 4301).
We welcomed all childcare Educators and Educational Assistants – from both ‘My Place’ Family Day Care and other services to attend this important Conference, which included the latest compulsory child protection training (Mason’s Law).
The Conference started with registration at 8.15am, as everyone received their information packs and mingled over coffee and tea.
In the official welcome speech, ‘My Place’ Family Day Care Senior Coordinator Kree Anthony covered Welcome to Country and several housekeeping matters. Nominated Supervisor/Team Leader Barbara Stonehouse also introduced the Conference agenda and welcomed everyone to a day of professional learning and networking within the ever-growing Family Day Care industry.
Our first workshop was called “From Behaviour Management to Behaviour Self-Management” by invited guest speaker Tricia Chandra. Tricia is a registered Educational and Developmental Psychologist who works predominantly with children, adolescents and parents covering children’s social, emotional, learning and behavioural problems. Tricia is also the founder of ParentAssist (www.parentassist.com.au) dedicated to supporting parents on parenting and relationship issues via individual counselling sessions and workshops.
For this workshop, Tricia covered a range of useful topics of her expertise including human behaviour psychology, effective discipline techniques, and everyday strategies to encourage more desirable children behaviours. Tricia’s presentation was fun, engaging and easy to understand, as she actively included the use of videos, Q&A sessions and role-playing with audience. As a result, our attendees successfully learned practical strategies in dealing with children’s everyday behaviours and developing better relationships with children.
A morning tea break was provided in between the workshop, followed by a complimentary lunch break. A special visit by Inala Community House Managing Director Ross Paul also provided a much-valued opportunity to meet and greet many Educators.
Throughout the Conference, both new and old friendships flourished especially among Educators with similar interests, personalities or backgrounds. For example, two Educators met for the first time at the Conference and now plan to collaborate and organise future playgroups, after discovering that they went to the same Northside High School. Conferences like this prove to be valuable platforms for Educators to exchange guidance and support, while receiving the latest important industry knowledge and news.
After lunch, we hosted a special ‘Service Awards’ ceremony to honour our top long-serving Educators and staff who achieved 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years of service. We would like to congratulate each of our dedicated Educators and staff members, especially Liz Mitchell for 30 years of excellent service.
Our second workshop “New Compulsory Child Protection Training” was delivered by Michael Pecic from In Safe Hands (www.insafehands.net.au). Since 2005, In Safe Hands (Educators in Safety) has been providing Child Protection training including daily strategies amidst the challenges of today’s world. As In Safe Hands’ Chief Executive Officer, Michael has nearly 30 years’ experience in child protection case management, investigation and education.
Educators furthered their knowledge on child protection issues in line with the National Quality Standard and Regulations, and learned about the new mandatory reporting (Mason’s Law).
Many attendees provided positive feedback about Michael’s presentation which was highly informative and engaging even in dealing with more serious topics like child protection. Michael was also knowledgeable in answering all enquiries about Family Day Care legal requirements. He also recognised one of our Educators from high school days!
During the workshop break, light refreshments were provided and lucky door prizes (wooden toys and stationary packs) were awarded.
“Thank you to all our Coordinators, invited Guest Speakers and Educators for making the 2017 Educators’ Annual Mini Conference a noteworthy success. Our team has worked hard for both preparation and execution of the Conference. We greatly appreciate all the feedback received, including many positive ones that mentioned this was our best Conference yet. Our service aims to keep growing bigger and better, as we look forward to organising next year’s Conference!” said ‘My Place’ Family Day Care Nominated Supervisor/Team Leader Barbara Stonehouse.
To become an Educator or enrol your child at ‘My Place’ Family Day Care, please visit our website (www.MyPlaceFDC.org.au/find-child-care), call (07) 3372 1711 or e-mail FDCadmin@ich.org.au today!