*Written by Tracey Hayes – Centre Director at Kids on Mullum Child Care Centre.*
This month at our Ringwood childcare and kindergarten service, Kids on Mullum, we wanted to focus on staff wellbeing. Through networking with other educators and centres, we have found educator wellbeing to be a top focus for many in the sector.
At a recent leaders’ network meeting for the Maroondah council area, we explored what wellbeing looks like and how being strength-focused can support your wellbeing and also support you to make a wellbeing blueprint. We learnt about the Michelle McQuaid program during the networking meeting so I shared it at our staff meeting back in May 2023.
We have had many staffing challenges this year with enrolments increasing and changing to staffing. We noticed some of our core staff seemed to be getting tired and feeling the strain from a busy first half of the year. We wanted to support our staff and show them the importance of looking after themselves and looking out for each other, too!
We made a plan for July and displayed a calendar so educators could see what was coming up and the surprises to look forward to such as casual dress days and treat days (lolly platters, doughnut day, and Tracey’s game day). We also started providing a weekly fruit bowl in the staff room to help educators make healthy food choices while at work.
I made a ‘Wellness Shelf’ in the staff room with baskets containing items for wellbeing and de-stressing such as colouring and puzzle books, emergency snacks for staff that may have forgotten their lunch, and some first aid items such as a heat pack and paracetamol. We also put out a basket with essential oil rollers for staff to use if they wished.
Lastly, our 'Shout Out Wall' was displayed in the staff room, encouraging educators to acknowledge each other’s strengths and accomplishments and thank each other when providing support and help.
We have already seen a lift in team morale and educators are enjoying each other’s company in the staff room. I was also happy to see that one of our senior staff really got on board with our initiative and had organised a social party after hours at the end of the month to celebrate!
One of our main goals is to work with educators to brainstorm ideas to support the 8 Dimensions of Wellness:
1. Intellectual
2. Emotional
3. Spiritual
4. Environmental
5. Financial
6. Occupational
7. Social
8. Physical
We are looking to implement this approach to health and wellness in our daily routine, and are planning on making a display for the staff room to coincide with introducing that program.
We hope that implementing positive approaches to wellbeing at the centre will in turn increase motivation as educators focus on professional development opportunities going forward as part of our Quality Improvement Plan.
To see our gallery of photos showcasing our wellbeing initiatives, please visit this link – Wellbeing Initiatives at Trident Early Learning
To learn more about the Michelle McQuaid program or the 8 Dimensions of Wellness, please visit the following websites:
info@tridentearlylearning.com.au