Celebrating Book Week in Frankston North
The annual Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book Week always creates a buzz and excitement for books and reading in education settings, playgroups and communities. This year at Aldercourt, Our Place Community Facilitator Neika joined in and supported all the book week fun happening on site.
With a mountain of donated books from 123Read2Me in tow, Neika visited the Kindergarten dressed up as the Queen of Hearts to deliver and share donated books with all the children to take home. Later in the week, Neika read a book to all the prep children at Aldercourt Primary School during their snack time and joined in on the school’s book week parade whilst dressed up as Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon.
The parade was an amazing sea of children proudly dressed as their favourite book characters. It was obvious the care and effort parents and carers had put into ensuring children were ready for the day and that their costumes closely reflected the characters. The event was also live-streamed on the school communication platform Compass for parents to view. Neika also offered donated books to community members who visited Aldercourt to attend sessions such as speech therapy, playgroups or HIPPY Age 3 sessions. For example, Neika popped into the young mum’s supported playgroup, operated by Frankston City Council, to read to them and share more donated free books to add to their home collections.
“It has been such an exciting week on site. The effort that all the educators and other on site professionals have gone to has been amazing, they really do incredible work, and although it all looks like fun and games, the messages around the importance of literacy have certainly been shared with the whole on site community” – Neika, Our Place Community Facilitator
Aligning with the Our Place Approach
This is one example of the Our Place evidence based elements of High Quality Early Learning Health and Development and High Quality Schooling in action.
Within the Our Place Approach, High Quality Early Learning Health and Development is focused on supporting early learning from birth as well as playgroups, child health and parenting support on site. The key features of this element are:
- Early engagement and intervention
- High-quality early learning services and supports
- Continuity in learning between the early years and school
- Positive home learning environments.
The High Quality Schooling element within the Our Place Approach supports high-quality teaching and learning environments that ensure each child receives the support they need to achieve and thrive. The key features of this element are:
- Parents engaged in children’s learning, with strengthened belief in the importance of education (linked to aspirations for children)
- Positive school culture and support for student wellbeing
- Strong leadership across the school that that raises expectations for children’s learning and development.
To learn more about the Our Place Approach and Elements Click Here
