What to Expect

A typical day at Next Steps

Next Steps provides

meals for children during a regular day:

Breakfast

7-8am

Morning Tea

9:30-10:30am

Lunch

11:30am-12:30pm

Afternoon Tea

3-3:30pm

Late Snack

5:30-6pm

We expect children starting after 8am to have had breakfast at home and all children to have a healthy evening meal when they arrive home. Our menu is created as a 4 week rotating menu to offer variety and balance, it has been developed to meet 50% of the individual dietary needs of children as advised by ‘Australian Dietary Guidelines, an Australian guide to healthy eating, Get Up & Grow: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood’ and the National Quality Framework (NQF).

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6:30am

Next Steps opens

Good morning! After you have signed in, you and your children will be greeted by our staff in the home grouping classroom. Parent communication is very important during this time. Let an educator know about any changes in sleeping, eating or behaviour patterns; and hand over any prepared milk bottles for the day and authorized medications. Depart when you are ready.

7:00-
8:00am

7:00-8:00am

Breakfast is served!

Time for our little early-birds to enjoy a healthy breakfast. If your child arrives after 8am don’t be concerned, snack is at 9am or let our staff know that they need breakfast and this will be arranged.

8:00am-
11:30am

8:00-11:30am

Play & Learn inside & outside

Rooms will host combined activities until 9am. Rooms and playgrounds are set up by our Educators each day to encourage exploration and are age appropriate for a mixed age group.

8:00am

Nappy change

Each room schedules nappy change times every two hours throughout the day. Our Educators are also constantly checking the children to see if they need changing in between these times. We provide all nappies and wipes for Nursery children.

9:00-
10:00am

9:00-10:00am

Morning Tea is offered

Combined rooms break into their individual classrooms and begin their day by sharing morning tea together – we encourage all children to try out treats! Infants with their own routine are given bottles as specified and prepared by parents.

10:00am

Sleep, rest or activities

Time for the children needing a morning rest as per the child’s needs.

11:30am

Lunch

Children and infants will enjoy our menu, usually together. It is an unrushed and positive learning opportunity that centres around social and fine motor skills. Children sometimes sit at our café tables and talk to the chef.

12:30pm

Afternoon sleep, siesta, quiet indoor activities or outdoor fun

Phew! Now that the children have had a full morning of fun activities, and their tummies are full of yummy lunch, it’s time to rest for those who wish, it’s an individual thing!

12:30-
5:30pm

12:30pm-5:30pm

Play and Learn inside and outside

Time to reflect upon what has worked in the morning program, reset the experiences and make a record of mealtime and nappy changing / toileting for children 0-2yrs.

2:00-
3:00pm

2:00-3:00pm

Afternoon Tea is offered

More yummy treats on offer while learning continues. Morning staff give a handover to late staff and update program notes as they get ready to go home for a well-deserved rest.

4:30-
5:00pm

4:30-5:00pm

Late Snack is offered

This is a more informal meal which children often enjoy outdoors (if the weather is fine!).

5:00-
6:30pm

5:00-6:30pm

Re-set the outdoors & join classrooms for winding down activities & home time preparation

Let’s help and show responsibility for our environment in assisting educators tidy away, get bags, coats, collect dry creative work and find that pesky missing sock. Please be patient as this is a crazy busy time and some educators on the later shifts, although would have been given a handover, may not know every detail of your child’s day. If you need further information this is very important to us and we will do our best to get you what you need. Parents have a quick chat to staff, pick up, sign out and it’s ‘I’m tired’ cuddles time with your child.

6:30pm

Next Steps ELC closes

Whew! Well done team… go home, pop your feet up and get some rest for another brilliant day tomorrow…

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What to Expect

A typical day at Next Steps