Success stories

Giving Community a Voice - Waverley and St Leonards Primary Schools

Building social capital and making connections with the school were priorities for families with young children at Waverley and St Leonards Primary Schools.

Speak Out, led by a committee of local parents, was the strategy used to give a voice to families of children aged from birth to four years. This enabled families to comment on the types of services they wanted for their communities. A number of programs have been established at both schools under the banners of Littlies and Learning and St Leonards Involving Carers and Kids (SLICK).

Families can participate in a range of fun-filled early learning activities, meet other families and borrow library books to take home and share. Using the school as a base to build partnerships with other agencies is also a focus of these programs.

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Little Footprints Early Learning Centre - Mt Faulkner Primary School

Mt Faulkner Primary School opened Little Footprints Early Learning Centre in February 2007. The centre provides a range of services and programs to over 40 children and their families and the numbers continue to grow. It is very rewarding to observe parents, carers and children working together enjoying exciting experiences.

Parents have been extremely impressed by the diversity of programs and the range of resources available. Magic Reading, a storytelling program for children aged from birth to five, LIFT (Learning is Fun Together), a program designed for pre-kinder children and Playgroup, an informal session for children aged birth to four, are three of the programs provided. Language games, storytelling and singing are features of the programs and help develop children's oral language skills. The children love retelling the stories or repeating the songs at home too.

Parents believe that the benefits of the programs are demonstrated through their children's new-found enjoyment for stories as well as their ability to concentrate and listen for longer periods of time. They feel they can better capture their children's attention at home with stories and learning experiences. The routines and basic structure of the programs have also assisted many children adapt to routines at home.

Parents and children agree that they love attending Little Footprints, socialising with each other, having fun and learning new skills. Many of the children are now very eager to start school.

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Home Visit Program - West Ulverstone Primary School

West Ulverstone Primary School has implemented a Home Visit program aimed at building positive relationships and communications with families. Some families feel more comfortable raising issues about their children in their own home rather than in the school environment.

A team approach to home visits has been very effective. Depending on the family's need, teachers, child health nurses, social workers and teacher assistants are available to visit. Traditional school communications e.g. permission notices can be explained and returned, behaviour issues can be discussed, health issues are talked about and dealt with, parenting and relationship skills are modelled and parents can be referred to appropriate agencies when necessary.

The impact of the program has been very positive and has enabled families to have the confidence to ask for assistance or intervention from the Home Visit team. Typical questions from parents include: "I am helping my child to read, do you have any books I could use?" or "How do I get my child to do as I ask?"

The home visits are crucial in building genuine working partnerships with positive outcomes for the children, their families and the school.

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Kids@Heart@Burnie Primary

The aim of Kids@Heart@Burnie Primary is to enable parents and carers to enjoy interactions with their children in a variety of settings and to learn from one another through a range of motor-skill, reading and creative activities. It is a family-centred program that links them with their neighbourhood school, the on-site child care facility, Milpara Early Learning Centre, and a wide range of community facilities such as the Burnie Library, the Police and Community Youth Centre (PCYC), the local park and the beach.

To support families with younger children, Kids@Heart@Burnie Primary provides a range of activities and strategies for children in the birth to four years age group. Shared reading is a major focus and the Let's Read program provides families with backpacks of reading materials to take home to read and enjoy together.

Burnie Primary School and Milpara Early Learning Centre also support students from TAFE by providing long-term training opportunities in child care, classroom support, out of school hours care and vacation care. Professional collaboration between the staff of the school and the child care centre around program planning assists to meet the needs of children as they move between the two facilities.

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