Thank you to all the parents who participated in the Derby Street Children’s Centre 2015 Parent/Guardian Survey. Your responses have provided important insight into your perceptions and interactions with the Centre and its staff and provided valuable input into the design of future learning opportunities for the children and broader programs available at the Centre.
Overall, feedback received from parents was favorable, indicating a high degree of satisfaction with the Centre, staff, and the care provided to children.
More specifically, parents identified a broad range of possible learning opportunities for children and highlighted the need for a variety of age appropriate and challenging experiences and learning opportunities for their children to be engaged in during the day. Scenarios included a range of activities that provide opportunities for children to be able to interact with all the different children in their room and their personality types, promoting physical activities and development of peer interactions.
Free play as well as open ended structured activities that stimulate imagination and creativity were also listed as important, as was the opportunity to engage in activities that weren’t done at home. Parents reiterated the importance of using children’s interests to gauge what activities to pursue. Outdoor play and nature based activities were prominent examples whereby children could be encouraged to be more adventurous and risk taking while at play.
Also, parents suggested a range of external programs they felt would be good to introduce to the centre, including expressive dance and art programs. A language option for the older rooms in line with other cultural activities within the centre was also suggested. Some parents suggested sports and drama-type programs to assist with developing fine motor skills.
Many parents recognised the benefits of the music program introduced to the older rooms earlier in the year.
Management Committee will continue to respond to the feedback received from parents, looking for ways to incorporate your ideas into the design of future learning opportunities available at the Centre.
Please feel free to contact the Management Committee should you have any other ideas/comments.
Thank you