They were only a small group of Early Childhood Educators but they packed a punch!
We were blown away again by our local early childhood educators keenness to embrace the Sustainability element of the Early years Learning Framework and explore ways that they can make the daily operations of their centre much more sustainable.
Our 4th Early Childhood Educators Waste & Sustainability Professional Development Day was held on Friday 20th March and despite the weather and last-minute changes to our program there was still opportunity for us to get hands on with activities in the Eco Garden as well as explore the theory and policy behind sustainability in Early Childhood Centres.
We were so pleased to have Nat and Trisha share their story from Harbour View Children’s Centre. We have been working with the centre for the last 15 months as part of our Centre Waste Reduction Support Program and they have come along leaps and bounds in their sustainability journey with most, if not all staff, involved now. It was truly inspiring to hear how sustainability has become such an embedded part of what they offer at their centre.
Participants loved the activities in the Eco Garden supported by our suite of resources in the Early Childhood section of our Resource Hive Resource Hive Archive – Kimbriki and to hear that we have a whole Waste Audit Kit, to accompany these resources, that can be borrowed to run their own centre Waste Audit to provide a benchmark for improvement: Waste Audit Resources for Early Childcare Centres – Kimbriki
We always love to get feedback to direct us in improving our offering and the highlight was:
“I loved the WHOLE day! It’s the best work training I’ve ever done!”
Others included:
- Engaging presenters; quality resources and ideas shared throughout the day. Even with the rain, great hands-on learning.
- Clarity with composting & worm farming in simple, easy steps
- Best yet!!! Always learn so much!
- A great use of referring facts etc into “easy to understand and remember” pointers for us as learners.
Actions that participants wanted to implement after their day included:
- Signage!
- 4 Rs Action Game for staff meeting as well as nature experiences
- Potato Buckets with Pamela Allen’s The Potato People book
- Improve recycling in centre to reduce landfill costs
- Establishing systems to recycle any food waste from the centre
If you would like to build confidence and capacity in your staff to deliver the sustainability element of the EYLF then please get in contact and we can notify you of our next event.
