The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is a not-for-profit, member-funded organisation advocating for the future of Australia's children.
We work on behalf of long day care owners and operators to ensure families and their children have an opportunity to access affordable, high quality early learning services throughout Australia.


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Case Study: Innovation in partnerships with families and communities (NQA 6)

The following case study was provided by Smileys Childcare, Freemantle, Western Australia.
It originally appeared in ACA's Belonging Early Year Journal, Volume 7 Number 3 2018

Smileys WA Pic 2

One of the initiatives we are most proud of here at Smileys which has allowed us to develop and foster relationships between educators, families and the community is the introduction of Auslan. 

The decision to introduce Auslan at the service came about when a deaf family enrolled in 2016. With a lack of knowledge in this area and facing a significant communication barrier, we worked collaboratively with families, Communicare, WA Deaf Society and Deafinite Employment Agency to ensure we were able to provide a supportive and inclusive environment for all.

We were fortunate to not be limited by budget restraints during our planning.

This allowed us to:

  • organise training for educators and families in deaf awareness and in the use of Auslan;

  • adjust our environments and programs to include the use of resources sourced from both the family and community agencies;

  • hire a support educator fluent in Auslan; and

  • provide on-going training in the use of Auslan to families through the use of newsletters and our online documentation system. 

We have had such positive feedback from our families and were also chosen to feature in a “good news story” by the WA Inclusion Agency which was a very proud moment for us as a service!

 

Smileys WA Pic 1

ACA passes on its heartfelt thanks to the team at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder and Childcare, Aspendale Victoria for sharing their story with us. 

 

Further blog articles are available here.