Welcome to the October edition of ECMS Engage.
I’ve enjoyed visiting each of our early learning and care centres over the past few weeks to share our 2016-2020 Strategic Plan with our teams and discuss the results of this year’s staff survey.
I have appreciated all the feedback I received about what our staff value in their role and their ideas about how together we can achieve great things as an organisation over the next five years. Listening to our staff I have been inspired by their desire to strive for excellence and the enthusiasm about engaging in professional development and learning. I heard lots of great ideas about how we can improve and innovate, strengthen our work with families and respond to the changing needs of the communities we work with.
We are continuing to advocate to build broader recognition of the importance of the work we do with children in their first five years. One of our key priorities going forward is to positively influence the future of Victoria’s education system. We recently had the opportunity to contribute to the Victorian Government’s vision of becoming the Education State. I attended an Education State forum alongside 120 of our sector leaders where we exchanged ideas on how we can make Victoria the Education State. We’ve also submitted a response to the government’s Education State Early Childhood Consultation Paper, in which we outlined what we believe the government must consider to achieve its goal of becoming the Education State. I encourage you to read our submission.
On Monday I’ll be joining many of our staff for our regional professional development day to share our new 2020 Strategic Plan “Expect Great Things”. This day is an opportunity for staff to enhance their knowledge of important aspects of cultural competence so they can continue to improve outcomes for children, families and local communities. If your child attends kindergarten, please be reminded that their centre will be closed on this day.
Finally, don’t forget that ECMS services will be closed for the Melbourne Cup public holiday on Tuesday 3 November.
Warm regards,
Bernie