Posts

A note from Cire Children’s Service at Chirnside Park

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Sessional Kindergarten

We are now taking enrolments for our three-year-old and four-year-old kindergarten programs for 2021. (We also still have limited vacancies for 2020)

Kindergarten is a significant step for young children, with research showing that two years is better than one, highlighting the importance of both three-year-old and four-year-old kindergarten in a child’s preparation for school. The Department of Education and Training states that “Children who go to a kindergarten program are more independent and confident and are more likely to make a smooth transition to primary school (prep).”

Our kindergarten programs offer the opportunity for excursions to our Yarra Junction bush block providing a bush kinder program where children are able to explore natural environments.  We also visit the local library, CFA and other places based on the program.  These experiences, along with a wide range of incursions including Dental Health, Pet Care, dancing, yoga and music, enhance our curriculum which is based on the Early Years Learning Framework.

Through play and intentional teaching, children learn to explore, discover, negotiate, take risks, problem solve and develop a broader understanding and curiosity of the world around them.

Both our three-year-old and four-year-old kinder programs also offer after kinder care in our Occasional Care room providing flexible options for families.

Occasional Care

Our Occasional Care program offers families flexible childcare opportunities with several different session times available.  You can make a permanent or casual booking – it is up to you.

This allows you the flexibility to attend appointments, work, study or just have some time for yourself while your child enjoys interacting with other children and learning through play.

In Occasional Care, we also follow the Early Years Framework and create learning environments that allow children to explore, create, imagine and discover.

We welcome you to come and take a tour of our children services at Chirnside Park Community Hub.

Diletta Lanciana – Executive Manager – Cire Children’s Services

Engaging the Community through Social Media

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

The response to the COVID-19 outbreak has created many changes in the tertiary education space. Students have rapidly transitioned to remote learning, while institutions worked to set up virtual classrooms and upskill their training staff. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for students during the transition has been attempting to complete their work placements in the Community Sector when most organisations have sent the workforce home. Indeed, the prospect of completing placement on time has been grim for some. However, for the students doing placement at Cire Training and Hubs, the experience has been quite different thanks to their ability to adapt to the changing landscape of community need.

As with many organisations, Cire Training and Hubs shifted a number of its services to online delivery and offered social and educational programs via Zoom or social media. The transition to this medium provided an opportunity for placement students to engage with the community in a new and exciting way. A handful of students jumped on board with the experimental venture and produced a “Social Isolation Survival Guide” filled with activities and information on personal wellbeing. The survival guide was distributed as a free resource to dozens of organisations and community groups with hospitals, early childhood education centres and schools among those who provided their clients with the guides, receiving an astoundingly positive response.

Following on from the success of the survival guide, students were eager to set up a program consisting of community interaction and engagement. After many planning sessions and Trello cards filled with ideas, the group came up with the concept of running an evening Zoom session for the community with special guest speakers. The name of this project was “Friday Night Live” and after a number of sessions, it became a hit with guests ranging from Pat Boucher from Yarra Ranges Life TV to Neal Taylor, CEO of Holy Fools. The program gave members of the community an opportunity to log on and ask the special guests questions and discover ways to become involved in their community.

The placement students have expressed the value they have found in learning how to deliver community programs in an online format. The process of adapting to new ways of doing things alongside our staff has helped immerse the students in what it is like to work in the community services sector. Furthermore, the ideas they have developed and the projects they have implemented have served ongoing needs within our community in a fun and inventive way. The possibility of delivering an online placement would not have been possible Box Hill Institute’s trust and support in the placement program at Cire Training and Hubs. For our students, this may have been an unusual placement, but they have risen to the challenge and delivered amazing results. Thank you!

Jarred Kellerman – Business Support Manager  – Training & Hubs

Welcome to Term 3 – Chirnside Community Hub

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Welcome to issue #8 of OurHub term 3 Guide. As you can see we’ve moved to an online version for Term 3. Don’t worry the much loved printed version will be back for Term 4, and we will also continue to deliver this online for those of you who prefer to check out what’s on offer on your phone or tablet (it’s even better for our beloved planet).

What a whirlwind the last three months have been for not only for our community but for all communities worldwide. We have had to learn to adapt to many changes in our day-to-day routines with everything but essential services closed. For me, these changes meant that I had to adapt to working from home, homeschooling four children and being thrown into the world of virtual meetings and catch-ups. Reflecting on the past few months, I am really grateful for the experience as it has given me the opportunity to spend quality time with my family, enjoy a slower pace of life and gain the confidence that I can adapt to any situation and come out stronger.

We closed the Hubs on 23rd March and I was very unsure of how I was going to support the community and provide courses and programs, without being able to deliver them in the centre. I am very grateful for my amazing team and together we kept coming up with innovative ideas to support the community. Our Fit 4 Life program was the first to be delivered via Zoom and with the members that did not have access to technology, we sent them an exercise DVD and exercise information sheets. We connected our Wednesday morning craft group together on Zoom, and despite some technical challenges, with patience and persistence, we got there in the end. The weekly catch-ups have kept the ladies feeling connected during this isolating time.

Some of the other programs that went virtual included our Book and Movie Club which meets on the last Wednesday of the month and Majickal Belly Dancing launched a four-week course. Friday Night Live, a program created by our placement students from Box Hill Institute of TAFE, welcomed guest speakers each week and incorporated a question and answer section at the end. Guest speakers included Patrick Boucher and Danny Field from Yarra Ranges TV, David Shepard a Tai Chi instructor, and Emily Webbers, an Indigenous educator.

Two weeks before closed our Hubs, we welcomed Naomi to our team as the Chirnside Park Community Hub Coordinator (pictured above left). You may have already seen her on our weekly Cuppa and Chat sessions on our Facebook page, where she has kept us updated with what is going on at the Hubs. Naomi started the hugely successful Lock Down Lego Challenge on Facebook, reaching around 800 members. The group was created and new challenges were set up daily to engage families to get creative and build Lego. Due to the success of this group we are excited to be launching our Lego Group at both our hubs.

Level Up is unlikely to return to the Hubs in Term 3, or while limits on social gatherings are still in place. Level Up is extremely important for our young people however, we do not want to create a situation where some young people may need to be excluded from our programs. We are eager for Level Up to return as soon as we are able to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all. Gamers Lounge transitioned to an online format in May and will continue to do so for Term 3. Those interested in becoming involved can do so by joining our Facebook group.

We look forward to welcoming you back to our Hub and as always, please feel free to stop in for a cuppa and chat and let us know what you would like to see in our programming.

If you would like to subscribe simply click the Sign Up! button above.

Enjoy OurHubs online
Jenelle Strachan – Manager – Cire Community Hubs

 

 

Family Learning Partnership Grant

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

As part of our Term 3 schedule, Cire’s Community Hubs are proud to be introducing initiatives under the ‘Family Learning Partnerships’ Grant. This funding will help our team support local families to connect over a variety of projects.

At Cire, we LOVE learning! Our schools, courses and programs all provide opportunities for people to gain more skills and specialised knowledge. Developing family learning partnerships will help us introduce these opportunities to young people, parents, grandparents and carers throughout the community.

Our new “Create, Play, Grow” will inspire children and their carers to connect with nature. Cire’s very own ‘Farmer Jill’ has developed an exciting program to encourage everyone to use their senses, develop fine and gross motor skills, and improve investigation and questioning skills.  All of this, plus more, while enjoying the wonderful local environments at our Hubs.

We will be bringing our successful Lock Down Lego Challenge to the real world, with our Lego Group coming to the Hubs in Term 3. This program will see families working together on weekly builds, promoting team-work, communication and bonding over a common interest.

Our Yarra Junction Hub will be partnering with the Ben’s Shed to run woodworking workshops, with families learning basic building skills to create a project to take home. This series will be a great chance to get to know others in the Upper Yarra community, with various ages coming together to share their knowledge.

At our Chirnside Park Hub, we will be teaming up with our friends at Cire’s Community School in Mount Evelyn expanding our veggie garden to create a “learning landscape”. This project will open up more opportunities for locals of all ages to enjoy fresh produce.  We are also looking forward to featuring harvests as part of our upcoming Pop Up Café and community meals.

If you are looking for great food and fantastic company, come along to our Hubs for our monthly Community Lunches. Supporting the benefits of life-long learning, these meals will feature guest speakers covering a range of topics to keep your family happy, healthy and safe. A highlight is sure to be the lunches during school holidays, where we will be incorporating a range of fun activities for all ages!

The Family Learning Partnerships programs will also include a variety of outreach activities. We are very excited to be working with local schools to promote important themes like gender equity and healthy relationships. These sessions will allow us to meet with students, as well as their parents and carers, to inspire discussions and lead change. If you would like your school to be considered for our incursion program, please get in touch.

Over the coming year, our team will be attending and coordinating a number of events to interact with local families and groups. We will be connecting with people to dig a little deeper, to gain insights into how members of our community want to broaden their knowledge.

Plans are already underway for our annual Twilight Christmas Market. In addition to a huge range of stalls to cover all of your gifts, we will be on hand to hear from you what 2021 could bring for you in terms of personal and professional growth, and how, through a variety of courses. Pop Friday, 4 December in your calendar, as this is an event you will not want to miss!

The Family Learning Partnerships funding is helping Cire open many doors, and we are keen to hear what you would like to see in your community. Our Hubs team is here to create programs and activities to help everyone learn, connect and grow.  If you have an idea you’d like to share, give us a call on 1300 835 235, or email us at communityhubs@cire.org.au.

Nina Bekker – Business Develpment Manager – Cire Training & Hubs

 

Education and lifelong learning during COVID-19 times

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Welcome to issue #3 Cire Training SkillsHub. As you can see we’ve moved to an online version for Term 3. Don’t worry the much loved printed version will be back for Term 4, and we will also continue to deliver this online for those of you who prefer to check out what’s on offer on your phone or tablet (it’s even better for our beloved planet).

As the end of Term one was fast approaching so was the Victorian Governments initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the weeks leading up to the Easter holiday’s Cire training were concentrating on setting up our online training platform. We decided to go with Google classroom and Google Meet, as the adult students were somewhat familiar with this platform. So while the students were rewarded with an extended school holiday break, from the 21st March staff worked tirelessly to prepare for remote learning for the start of term 2.

On the whole Term 2 has been a success, much reliant on this preparation from the Cire training staff. I know that I am now quite the expert at uploading resources, videos, weblinks and classwork to the Google classroom and can even insert a virtual background to a Zoom online meeting. I can appear to be in my lounge room or on a beach, complete with colourful umbrellas and clear blue skies. I mostly choose to be seen in my lounge room due to the poor internet connection, but I know I’m not the only one who has struggled with internet issues.

During this term I have indeed worked from home in my front lounge. I had a large window to work next too and have enjoyed the comings and goings of traffic, both vehicles and humans in and out of my street. I have loved watching people and small family groups going for their daily walks, and all the different dogs that have accompanied them. In particular, there is a large golden retriever who runs ahead of his family and bounds onto my lawn and driveway with such delight that I can’t help but smile. My cat, Monty, is not quite so impressed! I had a tree just outside my window, which was at the beginning covered in bright green leaves. Over this time it transitioned through autumn into beautiful leaves of yellows, oranges and reds until now it stands bare with not one left remaining.

I have been increasingly proud of how all of our Cire students have continued their learning journey during Term 2. Many of our students had issues with access to suitable devices, internet access. They needed to juggle other responsibilities such as working and caring roles, but they still signed in to their sessions to stay connected and learn new skills.

It was with such pride that the First Impressions Clothing Exchange (FICE) re-opened its doors on Wednesday 10th June, celebrating with a 50% off sale. During Term 2 the FICE shop was closed, but training and support for community continued online. Although this was a fantastic way to stay in touch, the team are over the moon to be open and trading and supporting the local community.

Now, as Term two is coming to a close, and we look forward to Term 3 and the changes that it will bring to our training space. Where possible we will return to in class, face to face learning, maintaining COVID safe guidelines. This will significantly improve some learning journeys and bring our students back together to continue their connections. A number of our courses will continue to be delivered remotely; some will be blended (online and on-campus) as we continue to comply with social distancing.

I would like to finally thank all of the Cire family, both students and staff, for sticking together during what has been a challenging time. It has been truly amazing to be part of a team who just got on with the job at hand to enable our students to continue their learning journeys with Cire.

If you would like to subscribe simply click the Sign Up! button above.

So onwards and upwards, watch out, Term 3 here we come!

Enjoy SkillsHub online
Nina Bekker – Business Development Manager – Cire Training & Hubs