A historic Annual General Meeting
On Wednesday 26 May, ECMS held a historic Annual General Meeting. Our members voted in a new constitution which will lay the foundation for the organisation to move forward in a positive way.
10 Board members were elected at the meeting, these include:
Joanne Murray
Trent Cummings
Karen Symes
Theo Pannay
Liz Rouse
Ann Crook
Campbell Rose
John Fasso
Lara Mossman
Andrew Nguyen
Office Bearers were elected and are:
Chair: Joanne Murray
Public Officer: Karen Symes
Treasurer: Trent Cummings
All positions were elected under the current constitution. Although the new constitution was voted in we have to wait for Consumer Affairs Victoria to ratify it before we can act under those new rules.
Bulldogs Community Children’s Centre Opening
On Thursday 4 March the Bulldogs Community Children’s Centre was officially opened by the Hon. John Brumby, the Premier of Victoria and the Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Maxine Morand MP.
The opening party also included Cr Sel Sanli, Mayor City of Maribyrnong and David Smorgon OAM, President Western Bulldogs.
This was an exciting day for ECMS as this is the first community hub we have established in conjunction with the Western Bulldogs. It has been a long journey from late 2006 when ECMS won the tender to manage this centre. In August 2009 construction commenced on the building and we were all eager to see its completion.
In partnership with the Western Bulldogs we have created a dynamic new facility offering 73 long day care places, 25 sessional kindergarten places and allied health services for the local community. The centre opened its doors on Wednesday 3 February, and to date has achieved 75% utilisation. This is an impressive result in such a short time frame, and congratulations have to go to the centre staff for their efforts and hard work. Thank you to Catherine Cenandez-Button, Melissa Macleod and their team for their wonderful work and patience in setting up the centre. We wish them every success in the years to come.
Black Rock Preschool
Making the most of it: turning obstacles into learning possibilities
by Jacinta, Red Group Teaching Team, Black Rock Preschool
We have a problem with our ceiling, and a temporary brace now holds it in place until the holidays. We also cordoned off a part of the indoor space ‘just in case’. Yellow group talked about staying away from the roped off space and conducted an emergency evacuation drill. Some children decided to make ‘danger’ signs. The Blue group team took the opportunity to talk about the shape of the brace and then went on a shape hunt outside.
After the Labour weekend storms, some children had stories to share. The Red group teaching team assured them that we were safe. We provided books about construction sites and buildings at a table where more ‘danger’ and ‘construction’ signs could be made. During the daily inspection, we asked if the plumbers would answer some of the children’s queries, including: How did you get up there to fix the roof? What is duct tape?
When Ethan asked: How do plumbers get under the ground to fix the pipes? Jason (the plumber) explained that he has a tiny camera on a long lead to send down the pipes. The next day he brought it in to show the children how it worked.
Again many children had great questions including: How do you actually take a photo? How does the camera turn on? How do you get a hole for the camera to go in and how do you know if it’s the right size? Can it go into the floor? What do you do when it’s night time? Jason answered all of these questions, explaining how gravity can cause the water to run down inside the cross braces in the wall so the leak is nowhere near the puddle of water and that the camera was designed to help plumbers fix leaks with as little damage as possible to buildings.
He also brought in a long length of pipe and a bag of 90 degree elbows for children to extend their work in the sandpit. This produced a flurry of new building activity in the sandpit such as digging trenches and joining pipes.
I am so grateful that the workers were happy to offer extra time and effort to help the children learn more about the made world. Plus, I am excited to say that we now have a new science investigation to pursue after Max noticed that sound can travel down a pipe and around a corner! Who knows where that may lead us next...
Seaholme Kindergarten
Seaholme Kindergarten had some visitors from Japan in March. They were students, studying to be kindergarten teachers at Nagoya University. These students organised a Japan cultural day at the kindergarten and set up beautiful art and craft activities for the children, showing us how children in Japan play. At the end of the cultural day, we read a book, “Where are you going? To see my friends?” by Eric Carle and Kazuo Iwamura: a uniquely bilingual celebration of friendship, with a Japanese pronunciation guide. The children were enthralled when the Japanese student read it in Japanese and at the same time it was read in English. Lastly, certificates of appreciation were presented for sharing their beautiful culture with everyone at the Kindergarten.
