Did you know that your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service operates under their legislative and quality obligations to ensure that your child’s health, safety, and well-being is their highest priority?

Each service holds a Service Approval under the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 and the Education and Care Services National Regulation and is assessed for quality against the National Quality Standards. The Department of Education, Early Childhood Education, and Care recently conducted an annual scan of all Queensland early childhood services and identified 5 priority areas where emerging issues and risk factors where identified.

The 5 priorities include –

1. Adequate supervision,
2. Risk assessment and management,
3. Inappropriate discipline and interactions with children,
4. Policies and procedures, and
5. Educational program.

In response to each of these priorities, your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service is supported from the highest level of the Mother Duck Franchise to the careful selection, induction and engagement of the dedicated educators working with your children on a daily basis. At Mother Duck we place a high priority on the above 5 Regulatory Priorities and they are always at the forefront of all Mother Duck operational decisions.  

Priority 1 – Adequate Supervision

At your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service –

• Careful planning and consideration have been given to the development of supervision plans for all of the environments your children play and learn within to ensure their safety at all times and promote their development
• Our Mother Duck service families, educators and children recently contributed to the review of our Mother Duck ‘Supervision Policy’ to include the voices and priorities of our Mother Duck community
• Risk assessments support areas of the service, equipment and resources where extra supervision has been identified as necessary, and
• The Franchisee and Management Team continuously review and re-evaluate priorities and regularly re-train educators in active supervision techniques

Priority 2 – Risk Assessments

At your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service –

• Your service has developed a suite of risk assessments for a range of areas, activities, and equipment that has been assessed as holding a possible risk to your child’s safety. For example, the water stations where your child accesses their water from each day have been assessed for finger entrapment, water spills causing slips and falls, and the possibility of the water station being accidentally knocked over causing the container to break near or where the child is located.
• On each occasion where a health matter has been communicated regarding a child’s allergy, or anaphylaxis diagnosis a detailed risk assessment is developed with your child’s family and medical professional team and communicated to all educators to ensure that risk minimisation control measures can be considered and implemented.
  

Priority 3 – Inappropriate discipline and interactions with children

At your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service –

• All educators are guided by, and their practice must adhere to legislative directives, quality recommendations, and strict Mother Duck Policy guidelines that prioritise every child’s right to feel safe, respected, valued, and listened to.
• All management and educators of your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service hold a current positive notice Blue Card and complete annual Child Protection training.
• The Mother Duck Behaviour Guidance Policy is under a current intense multi-layered review to ensure it reflects community research understandings, adheres to child protection legislative requirements, and speaks to the voices of our Mother Duck community members – families, children, Franchisee and Management Teams and educators.

Priority 4 – Policies and Procedures

At your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service –

• There is a large suite of Mother Duck-specific policies and procedures available for your viewing, which are regularly reviewed to ensure compliance with current community standards and legislative requirements. For example, your child’s health is our priority, and we support your child’s health by adhering to current community standards recommendations, and documents including following 5^th Edition Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services exclusion timeframes for contagious illness and infectious diseases.
• Daily, weekly, and monthly checklist reminders and maintenance logs are completed for all spaces occupied by your child in line with recommended directives from Queensland Heath and our detailed Mother Duck checklist and policy directives. For example, all play spaces are checked for safety prior to your child entering each studio and outdoor spaces, and daily cleaning tasks ensure all floors, meal areas, and nappy changes benches are frequently cleaned using well-researched cleaning products that are supported by safety data sheets that comply with Safe Work Australia standards.

Priority 5 – Educational program and practice

At your child’s Mother Duck early childhood service –

• The educational program and practice, referenced at Mother Duck as ‘Curriculum’, is delivered to your child in a manner that accords with the approved learning frameworks – the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and where age appropriate the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines (QKLG)
• The ‘Curriculum’ is led by a Pedagogical Co-ordinator (Educational Leader) who is responsible for monitoring and progressing the rhythm of teaching and learning in each studio across the service, and
• Our curriculum is based on the developmental needs, interests, and experiences of each child taking into account the individual differences of each child, and is delivered in stimulating and engaging ways that enhance children’s agency, learning, and development. For example, our current enquiry topic is ‘Play as a vehicle for understanding, practicing and enacting social responsibility’. Educators engage children to explore this topic by working together with children in the key languages of ‘clay’, transient art’, ‘construction’, ‘mark making’, and transformative play’.

We at Mother Duck take your child’s health, safety, and well-being seriously and identify that these 5 Regulatory Priorities require particular attention to ensure we comprehensively address emerging issues, identify practice change needs and develop quality risk mitigation processes. Throughout this year focused work will continue in collaboration with each of our Mother Duck Management teams, families, educators, and children to ensure we meet and exceed each of the 5 Regulatory Priorities and continue to deliver high-quality education and care to every child.

Regulatory Priorities – https://earlychildhood.qld.gov.au/legislation-and-guidelines/regulating-early-childhood-education-and-care/regulatory-priorities