Chatterbox

Team Learning, Continuous Improvement, Reward & Recognition

Written by headoffice primaryoshcare | Thursday, July 13, 2017

Within our team of dedicated childcare professionals, effective relationships support high performance and are the key to our success.

Ongoing professional development is a part of our culture of excellence and enhances our competence. Professional development underpins our commitment to excellence in leadership and service management and broader commitment to the National Quality Framework. Our recent end of financial year conference agenda has focused on themes of social enterprise and leadership along with practical skills for better communication. Author Rachel Robertson, sector representatives, principals and professional trainers referred to constructive experiences and shared their skills and knowledge. Everyone emphasised the value of collective contributions and shared understanding within teams.

Within the context of high quality, professional relationships, our speakers and workshop sessions explored our values, ideas about the importance of respect and the notion that respect trumps harmony every time. The team were left with practical take away’s, inspiring food for thought and a challenge to be more mindfully accountable and to take ownership within our sphere’s of influence.

A powerful and constructive day was followed by our team challenge with time to get fast and physical in a treasure hunt for families in need. Staff participated in the ‘Give Back’ Back Pack challenge, competing against each other in physical challenges, dares and a race to collect as many items for women and children fleeing domestic violence in the Manly area in the fastest time possible. These items were added to personal contributions made by the staff to a donation of over $3500 in goods, gift cards and cash being presented to the Manly Warringah Women’s Resource Centre.

Aside from doing good, contributing to our community and supporting families in real need, the Give Back Challenge was fun and marks a new partnership with the Women’s resource centre that we look forward to building on.

With the intellectual elements of the day completed, a team challenge and community support work ticked off, fun and staff recognition were next with the announcement of our Employee of the Year and formal Staff and Team commendations. We congratulate Employee of the Year Jaimee Gates along with Amanda Cincotta and Charlotte Bell for the outstanding efforts this year and recognise the teams at Reddam House, Baulkham Hills, FLASCA and Ryde.

View »

Comment(s)

Rubbish sorted – now what?

Written by headoffice primaryoshcare | Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Where does our rubbish go and why are we bothering to separate and recycle?

We began our project creating an interactive recycling game to help us sort what waste goes in what bins.

Once we knew where to put things we started wondering where it would end up? A visit from our community Waste Management Team ‘Cleanaway’ showed us where the rubbish we create goes and what we can do to reduce our waste going to landfill, she also shared some amazing facts...

Did you know?

Our rubbish can generate power that drives machines that produce house bricks. In fact, one national landfill project contributes to the creation of 130 million bricks every year (which is enough to build around 145,000 homes)

Oil can be recycled? Over 150 million litres of mineral oil is collected from mechanics, workshops and businesses each year. It is then cleaned and recycled through a hydrogenation process and reused in cars, trucks, machinery, production and industry.

Organic waste like kitchen scraps easily convert into high nutrient, organic fertiliser so more food can grow in your garden. At home, simple worm farms are easy to create… When waste managers help out with composting, over 200,000 tonnes of fertiliser can be produced!!

The children at Canterbury South OSHC say “Separate your garbage for good!”

Just a few kilometers from CSOSHC is the Cooks River. Children from the area love riding their bikes and playing in the nearby parks. River health has greatly improved over recent years as heavy industry has moved away, now one of the biggest threats to the river is people pollution. Our recycling game has helped children think about what is rubbish and where it belongs, some of our children are even writing to the Prime Minister, urging him to help by banning the bag!