A Calendar for Success: How the initiation of a company calendar created more effective leadership across our services. Nikki (Handprints Head Office)

“The requirements for successfully operating an early education and care centre in Australia are huge, and rightfully so as the responsibility we have in guiding children and families is a large responsibility. At Handprints, we explored the various components of meeting and exceeding the requirements set by ACECQA of our services. As we did this, we found ourselves writing lists, changing them to monthly lists, and checking off to make sure nothing was forgotten.

After some contemplation, we decided to develop a calendar. The calendar explores program ideas and inspiration, community events and engagement, family support initiatives, compliancy and compliancy checks across first aid, evacuations, health and safety checks. It became a one stop document that is available in all classrooms that is a resource not only for compliance, but for inspiration. In it’s third year of roll out at our services now, we have adapted and grown the document to include photos of inspiring environments, education quotes and to do lists, as well as sections where birthdays can be added.

This document has been a wonderful initiative for creating effective leadership and allowing all educators at the service to be their own leader in meeting the requirements of our sector. This poster will highlight the ideas explored through this initiative and guide service managers to implement similar ideas in their own centres.