Our Wonderful 2022!
Welcome back, everyone! I hope you’ve all had or are having a relaxing break. As we begin 2023, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on last year and all the amazing things that happened for our service.
2022 was a WONDERFUL change from the previous couple of years for Foundations Family Day Care, with growth, friendship, teamwork, training, and success being such strong features of our year.
At the beginning of the year, Craig and I went on a couple of fact-finding/market research trips to South Australia to examine the possibility of starting a Foundations Family Day Care there. We submitted the applications for both the Service Approval and the Child Care Subsidy Approval in February, with a view to starting our service there from the first Monday in July.
February also saw our first training day for the year, plus our first-ever Tutu Day. Held on 22/2/22, this day was to celebrate our team, friendship and resilience. Many of the Educators shared the day across the week, so all our children could join in the fun. Of course, it was not compulsory to wear a tutu, so we saw superheroes, butterflies, princesses, pirates and so much more. Of course, we could not be together in person, but seeing the photos everyone shared was a treasure. It was such a wonderful day that we made the decision to have Tutu Day every year! Even the grown-ups had fun!
In anticipation of our expansion, Laura commenced working on staff as our Admin Extraordinaire. This title has proven to be more than apt, as she has brought innovation after innovation to our service, making things so much easier and more efficient, and further reducing our Educators’ admin burdens.
May saw our Service Approval for South Australia granted, making Foundations Family Day Care the first non-Government Family Day Care allowed to operate there in many years, so the wait was on for the Federal Government to do their part and give us the CCS Approval for South Australia.
In anticipation of this, we arranged both the July training day for Victoria, which was our first one having some Educators join us via Zoom, plus our first training day and whole service excursion for South Australia, which was to the Adelaide Zoo, in August. It was wonderful to have Educators from the Government services join us for those days.
Finally, in September, we finally received confirmation of the CCS Approval. Suddenly, many of the Educators who had been waiting so patiently were moving fast to finalise all their paperwork prior to commencing.
It was also during September that our Director, Kathi, was awarded the Excellence in Family Day Care Coordinator of the Year award for Victoria and Tasmania, making her one of the four finalists for the National award. Part of her prize was the flights and accommodation to attend the Gala Dinner at the National Family Day Care Conference. In Hobart, Kathi was honoured to win the National award, making her the 2022 Coordinator of the Year for Australia. She was lucky to be able to sit with Educators from both Victoria and South Australia during the dinner and share the evening with them, as well as having the award presented by one of her heroes, Nova Peris.
Foundations Family Day Care South Australia commenced operations on 26th September, 4 days prior to the 9th anniversary of Foundations Family Day Care Victoria commencing. That was followed up by a trip to Adelaide in October to help settle in our new Educators and support our new staff there, plus enjoy a lovely dinner with our team. Lyn, our South Australian Field Coordinator, hit the ground running and has proven to be such an asset, understanding the Educators’ needs and not only meeting but exceeding them so often. Her joining our team has also meant we have doubled the Coordination Unit this year.
November was yet another exciting one, with more Educators joining the team in both Victoria and South Australia, including one who set a new record for our fastest new Educator to commence, at 1 week and 6 days from application to start. (This included her travelling from Hamilton to Melbourne for Induction Training, an 8+ hour commute!) Additionally, for the first time ever, we have Educators in western Victoria and country South Australia. We also held our second training day in Adelaide in late November, and the Educators were able to meet Craig properly, including for our Christmas Dinner.
December did not slow down, with a Spot Check for our Victorian service. It was wonderful to see the support provided to all the team by their own colleagues which resulted in a highly stressful time being converted into yet another exemplary check, with the lead Authorised Officer commenting, “last year you were rated as Exceeding, and you have maintained that standard.” We also have planned the first two training days for this year, one each for Victoria (25/2/23) and South Australia (25/3/23), plus the first of this year’s Induction Training for more Educators to join our wonderful team. (If you are interested in becoming an Educator, please get in touch!)
Foundations Family Day Care would like to wish every one of you the best for the coming year, and we also hope that your 2023 will be as wonderful as our 2022 was!