Testimonials:
‘Jack absolutely loves his days at Clever Cookies. He particularly loves the singing and dancing, feeding the fish and playing outside! My favourite part of the day is when the daily blog comes in telling us what the kids have been up to, accompanied by lots of pictures of their day. Cookies is a lovely and warm environment and I feel lucky that our boy gets to be part of such a great community.’
‘We couldn’t speak more highly of Nickis and all the staff. As first time parents we were naturally apprehensive when first sending our little one to care, all our fears were quickly erased by our dealings with the wonderful staff at Nickis. We found the staff to be friendly, caring and understanding of parent’s needs. We get regular communication from staff on how our girl is tracking and how she is developing. Importantly we have seen her develop and learn new skills, the interaction she gets on her days in care outstrips anything we could provide her at home. We don’t feel like we are leaving our daughter with strangers, we feel like she is being left with part of our extended family because we know how much everyone at Nickis cares.
Regards Mick and Suz.’
Child Protection
One of the most important concerns of any community is the health, safety and well being of its children and young people.
Whilst parents and carers are responsible for the safety and welfare of children in their care, protecting children and young people from abuse and neglect is the responsibility of the whole community.
Child abuse and neglect can happen to any child or young person in any family and can have lasting, damaging effects.
There are many reasons why children are at risk of abuse and neglect. For example:
- their families do not have adequate support from relatives or the community
- their parents are experiencing a lot of stress such as unemployment, illness, isolation or loneliness
- their parents may not have experienced good parenting themselves
- their parents may be alcohol or drug dependent or have mental health issues or there may be domestic violence in the household.
Reporting your concerns about a child or young person’s safety or wellbeing is an important step in preventing or stopping the abuse and protecting children from further harm. It also gives Community Services the chance to help families in situations where a child or young person may be at risk.
If you think a child or young person is at risk of harm from abuse or neglect, contact Child Protection Helpline on 132 111 (TTY 1 800 212 936).
The Child Protection Helpline is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, state-wide call centre staffed by professionally qualified caseworkers to receive and screen all reports.
Sustainability
Nicki’s Clever Cookies has been slowly embedding sustainability practices into the centre. Over the last few years we have been installing timer hand washing taps, switching from Fluorescent globes and replacing items when possible with high star energy ratings. For the children we have a worm farm, vegetable garden and many of our supplies and resources are from recycle centres the natural environment or parent donations of “loose bits” that we upcycle.
In 2015 we have switched to eco-friendly nappies and now using Bokashi Composting systems which are a great way of discarding food scraps and provide a valuable learning experience for Children in how food breaks down naturally. With limited garden space at the centre to dig these composting food scraps we ask parents to assist us and volunteer to take a full bucket home and dig into their garden with your child.
The educators also incorporate sustainability teaching into the everyday program so expect your children to teach you a few things!!