T3 Wks 7-8

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

KINDY BIBS…

We’re preparing for our Kindy kids’ transition into Y1, with a slow phasing back of the red bibs. They’ll wear them through to the end of the year for the busy 3pm transition time, but we’ll now start taking them off earlier and earlier in the afternoons. Feels like a small thing, but for the kids it’s a real indicator that they’re growing their responsibility and independence, getting ready for the move up to Year 1, and feeling confident that from next year, they’ll make their own way to Hive roll call at the end of the school day!


ASSESSMENT & RATINGS VISIT

This week we underwent an Assessment & Rating process with the Department of Education. They assessed us across all seven Quality Areas and were onsite for two days. We work hard to achieve high quality outcomes for your children at The Hive, and of course full compliance with the Laws & Regs. The assessor confirmed we’re ticking all compliance boxes and will now take a few weeks to produce a report on our Quality performance across all areas, including:

  • Educational Program & Practice

  • Children’s Health & Safety

  • Relationships with Children, and

  • Partnerships with Families

We’ll share the results once we get them!


GATE BUZZER

The buzzer sometimes misbehaves, and doesn’t ring when pressed. Here are our tips:

  • press firmly in the middle

  • listen for ring tone and look for white circle light around camera - if they’re missing, it didn’t ring

  • keep your face in view - if we can’t see you, we can’t let you in!

  • if all else fails, call us on 0450 896 686

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

This fortnight has been a busy one, we've been doing lots of our activities in the sunshine and embracing SPRING in lots of different ways in our ACTIVITY CLUBS:

  • ART & CRAFT: Paperweave bumblebees, yarn butterflies, cherry blossom trees, tissue paper flowers, pet sea animals and pompom caterpillars

  • BAKING CLUB: We made fresh chicken rice paper rolls and strawberry crumble bars - deeeeelish!

  • SPORTS: We played passionate games of kickball and toppleball, experimented with spikeball rules, competed in handball tournaments and practiced our (already brilliant) soccer skills for our game against WAYS in Week 9 - go the Hive!!

  • GARDENING: Our garden bees were busy harvesting the last of our winter veggies to make space to plant spring veggies! Among them were cabbages, celery, kale, peas and spring onions. We also cut down our bunch of bananas which are now safely ripening outside our bee box.

🏖️ HOLIDAY PROGRAM REMINDERS 🏖️

  • Early Bird pricing ends this weekend, midnight on Sunday 15th Sep. After this, add $10 to the price advertised on the calendars

  • YK-1 book LITTLE BEES | Y2-6 book BIG BEES

  • Monster Jump (30 Sep) and Taronga Zoo (1 Oct) are almost FULL

  • Remember to complete the excursion permissions form, regardless of your bookings

  • As per Ts&Cs, you must cancel 7 days before the session, to avoid being charged

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

Our special bee of the week award goes to MAXIME in YK! He’s been incredibly team-spirited this week, helping Educators at afternoon tea to serve the veggies and pack away. And he’s been really enjoying collecting all of the yellow cones after free play time. Way to go Maxime!
Learning Outcomes:
1.4 Children and young people learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
2.1 Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary as active and informed citizens

These positive opportunities for helping can also be helpful diversions from an escalated situation, giving children time and space to regulate their feelings within in different, positive scenario and moving them towards a better understanding of themselves. These moments can bring a real sense of self and improve feelings of wellbeing.
Learning Outcomes:
1.1 Children feel safe, secure and supported
1.3 Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities and a sense of positive self-worth
3.3 Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health, and personal safety

🐌 OUR GARDEN 🌿

We’ve been finishing up the harvest of our winter veggies, to make way for some spring planting! We had a huge haul - including kale, cabbages, celery, peas and spring onions!

PHOTO GALLERY

T3 Wks 5-6

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

HAPPY DAY, DADS & LADS
We hope you enjoyed the basketball shoot out this morning - well done to our wonderful P&C for organising such a beautifully fun time for our school community! And we’re sending out big hugs to all the significant men in the lives of our children - thank you for role modelling and being there for them!

We’re stoked to currently have the highest ever number of males on our Hive team - GG, Coach Matt, Seb & Taj are all regulars. Zane joins us during the holidays. Jara is always behind the scenes remotely, and is a regular visitor down to Sydney. And finally - we’re welcoming a new recruit Harper onto the team. We’ll see more of him during the holidays and we’re looking forward to further boosting our male contingent. We love you guys!


CHANGE TO OUR BILLING CYCLE:
In response to parent feedback, from the start of Term 4, we will change from fortnightly to a weekly billing cycle. More detail was in the comms from us on 22nd August.

PAY NOW OPTION:
To further support your financial control, we’ll be introducing a PAY NOW option within the app. This will allow you to make additional payments by card, on days that suit you best, thus reducing the amount debited in the next scheduled pay cycle. More detail to follow…

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

We've been enjoying the warmer weather this past fortnight by spending LOTS of time outside! Our craft activities, sciencey-y activities, baking club and more have all been based out in the sun and we are LOVING it. Some more exciting details about what's been happening in our ACTIVITY CLUBS:

  • ART & CRAFT: melting snowpeople (see ya winter!), sponge painting, lorax hand craft, DIY books, bookmarks and mini flipbooks!

  • BAKING CLUB: a deliciously rich passionfruit slice and a scrumptious berry tart

  • SPORTS: topple ball, bean bag rally, spikeball, basketball, handball, soccer, hockey, tug of war!!

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: leaf printing, nature books, fizzing colours, adventure playground nature hunts

Meanwhile in the mornings.... We've been working towards making breakfast independently (minus use of the hot appliances...) and it's been going GREAT! cheese and vegemite toastie anybody?

If you have any requests for breakfast food items you'd like to enjoy please let us know

🏖️ HOLIDAY PROGRAM 🏖️

Bookings are now OPEN! Early bird pricing will apply until midnight Sun 15th Sep (end of Week 8). At this time of year, we go all out to offer a super-exciting program, ramping up excursions and high energy fun everyone, now that the Little Bees know the ropes and have had some excursion practice!

There are new babies to see at Taronga Zoo: From a newborn Pygmy Hippo calf learning to dive, two adventurous chimp babies learning the ropes, a curious seal pup, a Southern Hairy-nosed wombat joey peeking out from its pouch, and the thrilling news of twin Red Panda cubs!

Remember, your CCS eligibility applies to Holiday Program bookings too!

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

This week we shout out to our friends at koh, who supply our cleaning products.

Free from chemical nasties, approved allergy friendly and fragrance free, and Eco-certified by GECA, you can be confident that the products we use to clean The Hive are safe for your children.

Thank you Adam and the team at koh, for your ongoing support of The Hive.

🐌 OUR GARDEN 🌿

Our Sensory Garden is almost ready! Nelly and the team have been working hard, and we’ll soon have windmills & wind chimes, as well as plants we can touch and taste… We’re also busy weeding, and the children have been able to take home a few flowers and some spring onions!

😃🚰 PSYLLIUM HUSK SLIME 🥗🏃🏽‍♀️

This psyllium slime recipe is a great non-toxic alternative to glue slime, and it’s easy to make. It is lovely for children who enjoy sensory play or creating different types of slime. It is also taste-safe, so it is fine for younger children, or children who tend to put things in their mouths. It has a great texture and isn’t sticky, if it’s cooked enough. 

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons psyllium husk
2 cups water (approx. 500ml)
3-5 drops food colouring (optional)

METHOD
Combine all the ingredients in a pan and heat slowly, stirring continuously. It will gradually form into a piece of slime, at which point you can take it off the heat.
Once it’s cooled, you’re good to go!

Now… have some slimy fun!!

TERM 3 Weeks 3-4

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👋 IMPORTANT PARENT REMINDERS… 👋


‼️ Please turn ON your HOME APP NOTIFICATIONS ‼️

It’s really, really important that your APP NOTIFICATIONS are switched ON.
If we accept a casual booking request from the app it becomes a confirmed booking,
and we will expect your child to attend.

If you switch NOTIFICATIONS ON: the app will let you know that the booking is confirmed.
(otherwise we risk a ‘missing child’ scenario and a penaltiy on your account)

Remember, you can always check your bookings calendar in the app:

  • A date with an orange ring, is an unconfirmed (requested via the app) booking

  • A date with a solid orange circle, is a confirmed booking


📆 T3 P&C MEETING 📆

The Term 3 P&C Meeting is coming up next week: Tue 20 August 7:00pm, School Staff Room. 
Please feel welcome to pop along, join the conversation and get a feel for what the P&C is all about.


🧳 GOING ON A LONG HOLIDAY?? 🏖️

If you’re going away for two weeks or more, we can cancel your permanent bookings for that period, avoiding charges and recorded absences. It’s easy for you to submit a holiday request - full instructions and details on all APP booking functions are on on our website.

Please read the info - it’s there to make your life easier 🙂


📆 HIVE CLOSURE DATES for DEC/JAN 📆

For anyone planning December/January, we will offer Holiday Program on all the days that school is closed (apart from weekends & public holidays!) with the exception of these planned HIVE CLOSURES:

  • w/c 23rd December - CLOSED

  • w/c 30th December - CLOSED

  • Tue-Thu 28-30 January - CLOSED for staff training

We’ve listened to parent feedback and have reduced our total closure days, and will offer more Holiday Program days than in recent years.

LOST PROPERTY - SOCCER KIT

Does anyone recognise this mini soccer kit?

It was left behind either in Term 2 or during the last holidays and we’re sure someone must be missing it!

We’d love to find the owners, so please have a think, or ask around… 🙏

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

We've been making use of the (slightly) warmer weather this past fortnight by spending lots of time outside! We've had a magnatiles competition, created some wicked move club trailers and had multiple paper airplane contests... Below is just a taster of what we have been up to in our ACTIVITY CLUBS lately....

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: we experimented with layering different liquids, exploring a really big word called DENSITY. We also worked at cleaning some filthy old coins using a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, which was really cool!

  • BAKING CLUB: we made scrumdiddlyumptious winter apple and cinnamon muffins & wonderfully delicious palmiers. Click the links for the recipes, if you want to try them at home.

  • SPORTS: inspired by the Paris Olympics we've been super active, enjoying a mix of netball, gymnastics, soccer, archery, looots of running around, and some circus skills too!

  • ART & CRAFT: DIY spinning drums, seed flower art, ocean themed oil pastel pictures, winter trees, bumblebees, pipecleaner creations and more...

  • IN THE GARDEN... we spent a lovely afternoon hunting for slugs and were busy with weeding and watering in between. A special shoutout to Luca W (Y3) and Alexandria S (YK) for being so incredibly helpful in the kitchen at clean up time...

🐌 OUR GARDEN 🌿

Nelly and the green thumb team are doing so well in the garden!
We have heaps of KALE, CELERY, PARSLEY and CABBAGE, which we’ll put to good use!

🐝 BEE OF THE WEEK 🐝

This time we’re stoked to give a shout out to the lovely JULIET in Y3!

Juliet is beautifully kind and a truly positive role model to her peers. She has a special combination of emotional maturity and wonderfully bubbly, fun energy - which always lifts the space she’s in.

Go Juliet - you’re #WINNING at KID LYFE!!

😃🚰 STAYING ACTIVE 🥗🏃🏽‍♀️

5-12 year olds should ideally get 60min of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, such as riding a bike/scooter/skateboard, active play, running or organised sports.

It should be a mix of things that make them ‘puff’, and activities that are good for their bones, like climbing, monkey bars, gymnastics, dance, running, skipping and jumping. The 60 minutes needn’t be done all in one go, but could be built up over the day.

At The Hive, we offer 30min of free play following afternoon tea, a full hour of sport/physical options from 4-5pm and group games or dance from 5:15-5:45pm every day. So, we’re doing our very best to help squeeze lots of physical activity into their weekdays…

TERM 3 Weeks 1-2 - welcome back!

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

WELCOME TO TERM 3!
Hard to believe we’re half way throuigh the year, and Brrrrrrrr - it’s chilly! 🥶 🥶 It’s really important to make sure that the children come to school with enough warm clothes. Pack layers, put names in everything and let’s do out best to keep the kids warm. We always encourage the children to check their bags for a warm layer, and we offer spares if they don’t have enough. However, we can’t man-handle children into something they don’t want to wear, so please explain to your children that it makes sense to keep themselves warm!


👖 DO YOU NEED TO RETURN BORROWED CLOTHES? 👚
Following on from above, we often lend out clothes to kids who need an extra layer. If you borrowed something during HP, please wash and return as soon as possible, so we can repeat the favour for someone else! 🫶


🤒 PLEASE KEEP SICK SICK KIDS AT HOME 🤧
With Covid still around, and flu and gastro also rife - please do the right thing and keep poorly children at home. We really want to take care of all the kids at The Hive - and our wonderful staff too!

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

What a wonderful start to Term 3! The kids have had SO much to get involved with, from crafts, to sports, to science, to baking…

  • ART & CRAFT: we made hanging sloths, paint-splat teddies, pet birds, 3-D trees, snow-globes, funky ‘taches, clay models and we made good use of everything in our recycling drawer

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: we were outside as much as possibloe, working in the garden, making BUG hotels, and playiong tic-tac-toe with foraged natural materials. Our little scientists had a fascintaing fortnight with a coin experiment (using vinegar to shine-up tarnished coins), designing with home-made salt dough and making invisible ink from cream of tartar

  • BAKING CLUB: we made a reduced sugar version of this recipe for BANANA & RASPBERRY MUFFINS. Yummy!! …and for the savoury option, we made CHEESYMITE SCROLLS - so good!

    SPORTS: we ran off a LOT of energy this fortnight, with dodgeball, soccer, kickball, spikeball, beanbag relays, netball, parachute games and hoops… and more!

Thanks to BENJI in Y1 for his suggestion of an UNO COMPDETITION - very popular with the kids!

🏖️ HOLIDAY PROGRAM 🏖️

Was a roaring success - hope you enjoyed all the photos from our previous newsletter (below). Work has already begun on planning the October HP and it’s looking pretty awesome…!

🐌 OUR GARDEN 🌿

Nelly is busy making use of the grant money from Junior Landcare, buying things for our brand new SENSORY GARDEN! The kids are fully involved in the ideas, the design and physical creation of the garden, which is starting to take shape. We will share the journey and the outcome with you, through this newsletter!

Winter Holiday Program

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…it’s a wrap!

Hive Olympics, Despicable Me, super heroes, go-karts, gardening, beach times, cubby building, science experiments, gymnastics, archery tag, skateboarding, tie-dye, dinosaurs, baking, Archie Brothers, ice skating, planetariums, sand art, inflatables and recycled craft….

…and a very fond farewell to the one and only Edie 💖 💖

TERM 2 Weeks 9-10 - Happy Holidays all!

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE…
Wow - this term has really flown past, and we’ve had heaps of fun!
> We’ve welcomed some new staff: Frankie, Claudia, Taj & Evie
> We’ve enjoyed heaps of mind-blowing activities and looots of physical exercise!
> And we’ve talked about some weighty topics with the kids: big feelings, how to lose with grace, sharing and including, and personal boundaries, to name a few

Next week our Juniors will rejoin us for the holidays: Suki, Ruby and Millie are looking forward to seeing everyone and having some HP fun with ALL our bees!

And the rest of the team is also super excited to see our Winter HP Bees over the coming fortnight! If you’re heading off on your own holidays - travel safely and have fun. And if you’re holidaying with us - we can’t wait to see you!!


TERM 3 WAITLISTS
We’re delighted to have serviced all waitlists for Term 3. We remind all families with updated bookings to log on and check the calendar from your end, and confirm everything is correct. Our next job will be to look at the casual booking requests that we’ve received for T3 - please bear with us whilst we work through these tasks.


NEW FEATURE: BAKING CLUB RECIPES
Rather than using paper to attach the Baking Club recipes to the take-home bags, we’ve decided instead to publish the recipes in the newsletter each fortnight. This idea helps the environment and means we can share the recipes with all our Hive families, and not just those kids in Baking Club…
So, if you enjoyed what the kids cooked up (assuming it actually made it home!) then you can re-create yourselves, using our recipes.

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

We’ve been super busy this fortnight, making the most of some bright, chilly — but dry — days. We’ve had a space theme running through craft & explore activities

  • ART & CRAFT: we explored space, and got busy making our own UFOs and aliens, creating galaxy pictures - comparing the different effects of using chalk and watercolours; making beautiful sun-catchers to hang in the Hive room;

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: with a focus on the outdoors, we made mud pies, enjoyed the garden and attempted our own sun-dials and talked about how they work… We also made space slime, oobleck and had a Kapla competition!

  • BAKING CLUB: this fortnight we made SUSHI and BROWNIES - recipes are below

  • SPORTS: so many things! Obstacles, bean bag relay, catch the flag, spike ball, archery, balance boards, giant skipping… phew! And lots of team work with soccer, netball, kickball and Oztag!

🧑🏾‍🍳 BAKING CLUB 👩🏻‍🍳

Wk9 SUSHI
This is an easy one to freestyle, using seaweed sheets, and whatever else you want to go inside!!


Wk10 BROWNIES
The Quick & Easy Brownies recipe can be found here. We work with reduced sugar quantities and of course we keep the ingredients and the recipe 100% NUT FREE 🥜 ❌ 🌰 ❌

🏖️ HOLIDAY PROGRAM 🏖️

Several days now have only a handful of spots remaining. BOOK NOW!!!
> Remember Mon 22nd July is still Holiday Program - Term starts on Tuesday 23rd
> You can find full instructions on our website: Parents > Bookings > bottom right column
> If you’re unable to book via the app - please email us to join the waitlist

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

We salute SAPPHIRE in YK for being an excellent learner in the kitchen during the mornings.

Sapphire has been learning how to cut things safely, and can now tackle oranges and tomatoes with her new skills. Great work Sapphire - that’s a valuable life skill to have under your belt!

FRANKIE - EDUCATOR

Hey everyone! I'm Frankie: I'm new to the Hive, and am thrilled to be back at my old alma mater! A bit about me: I love arts and crafts; it's always a good day when I get to run a creative activity. Even in the winter you'll likely find me at the beach. I always make an effort to throw myself in to the waves. Recently, I've attempted to start learning a new language, French using the oh-so amazing Duolingo. Let's just say it's a good thing English is a well-known language... 😂

I'm excited to bring my creativity and enthusiasm to the Hive and I look forward to getting to know all the wonderful children and parents in the BBPS community!

TERM 2 Weeks 7-8

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

TEAM UPDATE:
We’d like to share some recent changes to our awesome team:
We welcome a few new faces: FRANKIE, EVIE, CLAUDIA and TAJ are all new recruits this last few weeks, and we’re really happy to have them on board! They’re helping us to seamlessly navigate some staff holidays happening around now, and also to service the small waitlists we have for Term 3. (If you’re on the waitlists, we’re working on them and will be in touch before the holidays)

We also said a very fond—and somewhat tearful—farewell to JENNIFER last week. Jen was our wonderful Kindy Lead for the last couple of years, bringing her very special warmth and experience to the role. We wish Jen and her family all the very best for their new adventure over in Penrith!
Of course we’ll miss Jen, but we’re delighted to announce a promotion to new Kindy Lead for the lovely LUCIA. Lucia has been on our Kindy team for some time now, and brings several years’ experience of working with younger school children. Her big smile, warm, inclusive nature and intuitive communication with the Kindys makes her the perfect person to step up into this important role. Congratulations Lucia!

MEDICAL CONDITIONS UPDATES…
Please remember that if there any changes to medical conditions, medical management plans, or emergency medications for your child, it’s vital that you let us know. We have a process for managing and documenting the changes, but we have to rely on parents to loop us in. Please emails bookings with any new details, and of course with your updated medical plans whenever you receive them from your doctor.

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

We've been embracing the cold weather with lots of winter-themed crafts and cosy indoor activities! We've had chess club, lego competitions, the famous Hive Café and lots of childrens’ choice in the Hive room. And here’s what we've been up to in our incredible ACTIVITY CLUBS this past chilly fortnight...

  • ART & CRAFT: wacky hair portraits, DIY crowns, nature suncatchers, hot choccy mugs, cardboard roll snowmen, paper snowglobes

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: twig rafts, DIY kazoos, balancing butterflies, layered liquids experiment and lots of time in the garden!

  • BAKING CLUB: carrot cake & delicious milo biccys

  • SPORTS: handball, tip games, soccer, dodgeball, basketball drills and shootouts, and netball

🏖️ HOLIDAY PROGRAM 🏖️

Bookings are OPEN and filling up fast. Early Bird pricing ends at midnight tonight, so book today for the best value! All the details are on our website, and don’t forget to complete the excursions permissions form, whether you’re booking excursions or not. It’ll take 2 minutes, and means you’re covered if you get bumped up from a waitlist or make a late excursion booking…

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

Our award this week goes to MAXIME in YK. We talk regularly with the Kindys about different ways to stay in control of their feelings and practice healthy self-regulation, and this week Maxime has been working hard on communicating his big feelings as well as focusing very well on his writing!
He is also the master of building straw constructions, which can often be found on display next to the fish tank at the end of the day.

Go Maxime - we’re think you’re great!!

COACH MATT - EDUCATOR

All the way from Ipswich, UK… I arrived in Oz in 2017 after travelling Asia for 6 months. My favourite place was Vietnam because I got to motorbike from the north right down to the south, seeing the most amazing places.

My passion has always been soccer but I decided to go university to study Sport & PE Teaching which has now led to me being Coach Matt, here at Bondi Beach Public School! 

TERM 2 Weeks 5-6

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

🤒 🦠 🤢 WATCH OUT - THERE ARE BUGS ABOUT… 🤢 🦠 🤒
There are soooo many viruses and bugs around at the moment. They’re spreading really easily, and we do ask anyone whose child is sick to please keep them at home, or come and collect them just as quickly as you can. We’d love to maintain a level of protection for other children at The Hive and for our staff too - we have several staff holidays coming up this term, which means we can’t afford for anyone to get sick!


🏠 YOUR HOME APP 🏠
For best performance, please remember to check for and action any app updates - this will ensure you have the easiest sign-in and sign-out experience at the iPad…


⚫🟡🔴 RECONCILIATION WEEK:
As mentioned below, we’re so glad to have the Big Bees working collaboratively on Hive’s new Acknowledgement of Country. There’s a lot of thought going into it, and we’re looking forward to hearing what the children come up with.


EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS:
Every term, we conduct emergency drills. We cover a morning session and an afternoon session each time, and we change the days and times each term, so that we have the best chance of covering all children and schedule scenarios. We also alternate between lockdowns and evacuations.
It is so important that the kids take part in these drills and become familiar with what we need from them in the situation - this helps everything run smoothly when we have a real time emergency.
In Jun 2021, a fire at the school meant The Hive had to emergency evacuate 70+ children over the road. This acknowledged textbook evacuation was thanks to the professionalism of our team and the fact that the children had been regularly drilled in how to respond to such an event.
Thanks in advance for your support to ensure that your child participates in our drills, and for avoiding pick-up during the notified drill windows.


BEST FUN FACTS
The kids have been enjoying bringing their most interesting and fun facts to The Hive. Our big whiteboard is there for them to write it up big, and share with all the other bees. We’ve learned a lot, had some giggles, and sparked some very interesting conversations!


📝 POLICY REVIEW - REST & SLEEP TIME 🧐
The Hive policy currently under review is REST & SLEEP. This link, will take you to the policy, a short summary of any updates, and a space at the bottom to submit your feedback. The best policy review process includes all stakeholders - and that includes YOU, our Hive families. Please take a couple of minutes to review and feed back. 🙏 Thank you 🙏
>>> And remember - all our policies are available to you on our website.


🙂 WELCOME BACK EDIE!!
After a couple of weeks off, we’re very happy to have Edie back in the pack. We missed ya, lady!

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

Meanwhile, in our ACTIVITIY CLUBS...

  • ART & CRAFT: we've embraced the cool change with winter themed crafts such as winter lanterns, glitter icicles and snowy day collages

  • BAKING CLUB: cornflake and oat fruit biccys and delicious scones

  • SPORTS: soccer, hockey, tug of war, Just Dance and a new favorite - topple ball!

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: the adventure playground has been getting a lot of use recently, the kids just love exploring the space under the trees and looking for bugs!

  • SENIOR CLUB: The senior kids have been busy researching and crafting a custom acknowledgement of country, which will become the official one that we use at The Hive! The project has been both informative and fun, and we'd like to give a shout-out to Franca M in Year 5 for her incredible contributions 🖤💛❤️

🏖️ HOLIDAY PROGRAM 🏖️

Syd has been busy pulling together an awesome program for the kids in July. Now that our Kindys have found their feet, as the year progresses, you’ll see more excursions and high energy options on offer to the Little Bees!

Bookings will open tomorrow (Thu 6th), with early bird pricing available until midnight Sunday 23rd June, so be ready to book and make sure you don’t miss out!

🐌 OUR GARDEN 🌿

Over the past two weeks, our dedicated garden bees have been hard at work planning our sensory garden. We've created designs for our signs and sampled some of our existing plants to explore their sensory delights! Our bees are so curious about the variety of plants in our garden that they've come up with the idea of writing little information cards about each one… Bravo!

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

This week, we’re ALL about these two Year 4 legends!!

NOA & ALIYA consistently bring a positive attitude & great sense of humour, a willingness to help out around the centre and a general dose of AWESOMENESS every time they’re here.

We’re huge fans of their joie de vivre.

Don’t go changing, girls…! 💕 💕

ALICYA - EDUCATOR

Alicya joined our team in Dec ‘23 and has been a huge asset ever since. She recently returned from a year of travelling: her favourite place was Mexico, where she tried a temazcal sweat lodge! She has a passion for the outdoors and has taken groups of kids camping, canoeing and hiking.

Ali is currently studying to be an early childhood teacher and is aspiring to open up a bush kindergarten after graduation.

World Environment Day - June 5th

This day encourages awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries. The World Environment Day 2024 campaign focuses on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience under the slogan “Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration.” You can learn more here.

Term 2 Weeks 3-4

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

ADDITIONAL CCS (ACCS):
Times are tight for many families, and did you know that—in certain circumstances—Centrelink may offer some additional support for childcare costs. If you’re already eligible for CCS, and fall into certain specified categories, there may be extra financial support available to you for a limited period of time. If you are a grandparent caring for a child, if you’re transitioning to work, or if you’re undergoing temporary financial hardship, you may qualify for ACCS - find out more here.


CENTRELINK’S ALLOWABLE ABSENCES:
Each financial year, Centrelink will pay CCS on a certain number of session absences. The limit for receiving this support is 42 absences/yr. The balance resets on July 1st, so by this time of year many families are approaching that limit. If you exceed the limit, Centrelink will not pay CCS on those additional absences, meaning the full session fee is charged to you.

You can find out more about absences on the Services Australia website and can check your year-to-date absence count via your Centrelink online account in myGov or on the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.


FIRST AID FOR KIDS:
All Hive staff receive regular training in First Aid, CPR and Asthma & Anaphlaxis. Introducing the topic of First Aid at the earliest possible stage at home can also help your children grow their understanding and effective application of first aid skills. There are many areas of safety you can teach your children, which can increase their awareness of dangers and support them to safely handle injuries that may occur. Follow this link for basic life skills you can teach your children at home that can enormously impact their overall safety and first aid preparedness.


FREE COMPOST BINS:
We have a thriving compost system in our Hive garden, and this has released a couple of large compost bins, which are now going free to a good home. If you’re interested, get in touch!

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

The sun has come back out over the past two weeks, and we’ve enthusiastically jumped back into outdoor fun! We've been getting our hands dirty in the adventure playground, experimenting with loose parts play. Our goal for these two weeks was “using objects for anything except what they are meant to be used for,” and we got super creative and had a blast! The garden bees have been busy too, planting pea seeds and building a frame for them to climb as they grow. For those who felt a bit low on energy with the changing season, we had plenty of relaxing activities like colouring, chess, board games, Lego, and making cozy cubbies in the warm Hive room.

Our ACTIVITY CLUBS have been on fire this last fortnight: in BAKING CLUB we made banana bread and for a very special treat, some rocky road!! In EXPLORE & DISCOVER we got stuck into DIY lip scrubs and electrical circuits, as well as some more cool science experiments including the erupting apples activity which was a hit! ARTS & CRAFT bees got busy with autumn tree collages, paper flower gardens, cone finger puppets, DIY books, paper popsicles and leaf art. A special mention to Noa B for her incredible “Queen of Hawaii” leaf artwork! (see photo top left) In SPORTS we enjoyed tug of war, circus skills, soccer, ping pong, giant skipping, handball, dodgeball. Our extracurricular activities are also in full swing, with skateboarding, soccer, and basketball. BUSY BEES!!

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

Our Bee of the Week this time is someone who is always positive and helpful. And she generally operates like a little ray of sunshine to everyone here at The Hive!

Thank you to EVIE S in Y1, for spreading good vibes
wherever you go - we LOVE that awesome energy!!


SARAH - EDUCATOR / KINDY TEAM

A long-time member of our Hive team (since early 2021), Sarah enhances our team with her warm heart and her passions for the environment, reconciliation and inclusivity.

A huge fan of the great outdoors, she loves Northern Michigan where she spent a summer as a wilderness adventure camp counsellor, leading off-grid hiking and canoeing trips.

She’s an avid supporter of the Arsenal women’s football team, and watches them play in Australia whenever she can! Go the Gooners!

MAKE YOUR OWN CLEANING PRODUCTS

Turn cleaning into a science experiment and mix up some non-toxic sprays and solutions to use around the house with your child. Combine baking soda with warm water to create a deodoriser or simple kitchen cleaner, and use it to wipe down the inside of your microwave or refrigerator.
When you make your own cleaners you save money, reduce your toxic load and reuse bottles you would have usually thrown out! You can find a large range of recipes here

Term 2 - Weeks 1-2

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👋 LIVE FROM THE HIVE … 👋

⚽ ⚽ HAVE YOU SEEN…? ⚽ ⚽

During holiday program, one of our Y1 Bees put his soccer boots in the wrong backpack - and he hasn’t seen them since! 😢 😢 If you have an unfamiliar pair hanging around at home - please bring them
back to The Hive, and we’ll arrange a joyful reunion! 🎉 🎉


WORK EXPERIENCE
We’re very happy to report that we just completed our first work experience offering, to a Y11 student from Rose Bay SC. Evie is a former Hive attendee, and loved spending a couple of weeks helping us out; learning all about OSHC centre operations and what’s involved in offering top level care to all our Bees! Well done to Evie for getting stuck into everything we offered, and a big thank you to Edie for managing this new Hive undertaking - we hope it’s the first of many… 👏 👏

IT’S GETTING DARK…
But you might have noticed new floodlights to light your way between the gate, the Hive and the Hall. This should make pick-ups during winter time safer and easier than they’ve been in the past. Thanks to Ms Brandon and to school for getting this across the line, in time for the clocks going back…

A reminder that the clocks moving back has not changed our closing time! 6pm sharp is the absolute latest for pick up please, and there are penalties for coming any later than that.


IT’S GETTING CHILLY…
So please remember to pack layers for the kids. As the sun goes down, a warm day can quickly become a cold one - so please remember to send them prepared.


HOLIDAY PROGRAM
Was a roaring success, with so many kids joining us for a wide range of awesome activities. Well done to the whole Hive team for keeping the kids busy, excited and happy through the holidays - we hope you enjoyed the photos from our last newsletter!

👨‍🍳 🎨 🎲 WHAT HAVE THE KIDS BEEN UP TO? 🏏 🧸 🧪

We’re always keen to get the kids' help with our daily activities and operations! One of the most popular roles is helping to serve afternoon tea, and the kids just love it. They learn about food hygiene, sharing, which foods go well together, and the importance of a balanced diet.

During the past fortnight, in our ACTIVITY CLUBS...

  • ART & CRAFT: blow paintings, nature wands and self-portraits, to name just a few!

  • BAKING CLUB: we made delicious ANZAC cookies and tasty coconut oatmeal bars

  • SPORTS: even though it's been a wet one, we've still managed to expend some post-school energy playing handball, basketball, soccer, and enthusiastic games of netball!

  • EXPLORE & DISCOVER: We've been trying to create a more sustainable and nature-centred explore and discover program - so far we've done nature clay printing, DIY treasure hunts, garden flower arrangements and bug fact sheets. Watch this space for more exciting activities centred around nature!

🐌 OUR GARDEN 🌿

We’re delighted to report that one of our garden grants has just been approved! Well done Nelly for a quick and effective application, and we look forward to receiving $1,000 from Woolworths Junior Landcare to help us create our very own SENSORY GARDEN !!

We've been busy bees cleaning up the garden beds and potting some pineapple sage to start things off! Help us design a green space that stimulates each of the five senses. If you have any ideas please let us know!

🐝 BEES OF THE WEEK 🐝

Our Bee of the Week is FREYA in Y1, and she’s had the most awesome start to Term 2! Every day, she’s curious and engaged, helpful and kind, funny and considerate - and we just love it.

Keep being your amazing self, Freya!

We think you’re the best!


SEB - EDUCATOR

This is Seb, who joined the team back in February. Seb is a local man, and - uniquely - works at another OSHC centre too (at Double Bay PS). This brings insights into how other centres do things and will hopefully create some exciting opportunities to work together with DBOOSH in the future…

As well as a passion for all things sport - especially basketball! - Seb is a busy teacher-in-training, studying for a Bachelors in Primary Education at Notre Dame.

Currently on practicum placement at another school, we look forward to seeing Seb back with us later this term.