Please Note: This was origionally written by Jacqui Bursztynowicz in 2022.
Thankyou to the incredible team at Water St Childcare and Kindergarten in Cairns for this beautiful reflection in 2022 of the impact that their work with PSFE has had on their ongoing practice.
Our service has been established for over 30 years. We started as an Occasional Care Service and transitioned in scope to a Long Day Care 3 years ago.
We have been blessed with a team of long-term educators, many of whom have only worked at Water Street. The past three years alone have been a steep learning curve for the team (2019-2022).
As you can imagine, a lot of the team were a bit scared of change, as they had done things a certain way for so long, and initially this was a barrier we had to overcome.
Our Innovative Solutions Funding journey with Phoenix started 12 months ago. We went through our first ever A&R visit, where it was identified that we were deemed ‘not meeting’ in Quality Area 5, specifically Element 5.2.2, self-regulation. We had always prided ourselves on our relationships with children and our reputation, so we were surprised by this. Although educators had great relationships and interactions with children, I guess we struggled when dealing with emotional outbursts, following through and modelling the tools to teach the children how to self-regulate. We had a child enrolled who was in foster care and who had experienced trauma. Understandably, this child exhibited behaviours that were challenging for our educators. Although we had a team of long-term, experienced educators, it tested even the most experienced. Our team had about 160 years of industry experience combined.
We were experiencing children having emotional outbursts, upending toys and furniture, children and educators being hurt, and children fleeing the room to get outside. A few of the educators also had preconceived ideas of what school readiness looked like and expectations around this.
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we reached out to our local Inclusion Support Officer, Nicole, and then went through the process of applying for Innovative Solutions Funded cases. After researching providers and what they had to offer, we thought that Phoenix was going to be the best fit for our service. The team at Phoenix were very knowledgeable and professional and made the process of putting together a package that would suit us, and providing quotes, quite seamless.
We met Sandi Phoenix on her first visit, and after an initial conversation with her, it reaffirmed that this was going to be a great pairing, and we were very optimistic about the outcomes of the project. After watching the video of the Jaydn and Sally story, we knew that Sandi could help us, as we so related to that story. The Phoenix Cups Framework just made sense to us. It was so easy to relate to and put into practice. It resonated with us all straight away, and even with our families.
As the Nominated Supervisor of the service, I had a vision and thoughts of what we could do, but sometimes you doubt yourself. Talking to Sandi, I soon realised that we were on the same page. It was such a blessing for me to have someone who reaffirmed that I was on the right track and helped me implement my vision. For me, having the support from another professional who had the knowledge to explain further to the educators why children were displaying the behaviours was the missing link that we needed to progress. I went from feeling unsure to “I’ve got this, we’ve got this team.”
What we were doing before Sandi arrived was compulsory group times and structured room routines, which included meal and sleep or rest times. We had to create a culture where change was not something to be feared and could be positive. The evening workshops with Sandi certainly helped do this and put the educators at ease. The resources we were provided with and the online training were also such a great support.
With Sandi’s support, we implemented a free flow program, ditched routines and instead now have a flow or rhythm, progressive meal times, group times by invitation, cup filling plans for the environment, ditched behaviour management plans and instead use individual cup filling plans, the educators changed their language, and connection plans for staff to work on with children. We eased off on expectations for the Kindy children being ready for school. We went through resources and culled a lot of plastic things, replacing them with more natural and open-ended resources. We were already on a bit of a loose parts journey; however, we added to this. We started excursions again, engaging with the community. We sourced resources to encourage schema play.
We soon noticed that with the changes we had implemented, educators were more relaxed and were enjoying meal times and group times more. The connections between educators and children improved. Our daily blasts and documentation improved with more use of language and explanations. There were certainly fewer emotional outbursts, as the children were learning the language of emotions and how to self-regulate. The children were calmer and responded positively to being allowed to continue to play when in flow. Children learned to regulate themselves as to when to eat, and meal times became more relaxed and opportunities for more meaningful interactions. It was good to have Sandi visit four times over a 12-month period to help us build our skills and provide that encouragement to keep going. Sandi was able to make suggestions about resources to add, magazines to subscribe to, as well as recommendations for external providers that we could engage.
We learnt that the children are connection-seeking and not attention-seeking. We learnt connection before correction. As an added bonus, the educators learnt that they cannot pour from an empty cup and worked on their own cup filling plans, helping them create more of a work and life balance and support their personal wellbeing. After doing the Phoenix Cups Quiz, they learnt a bit more about each other, which helped with understanding and communication amongst the team. We learnt how to recognise when a child is in flow and the importance of not interrupting a child when they are in flow. An important takeaway was learning how to build connections with children using connection plans. A great tool to help teams with helping children to self-regulate was the “Say what you see, ask a question” strategy when dealing with a child having an emotional outburst. The 1:5 Gottman magic ratio of positive to negative interactions also made us aware of the importance of music in helping children regulate emotions.
Our journey will not end here, although our ISF has come to an end. We will continue to further explore and implement the Phoenix Cups Framework. We are always learning, even though we may have worked in the sector for a long time. We cannot do better until we know better, and we know better, so we are confident that we now have the skills and knowledge to make us better educators and therefore benefit the children and families that attend our centre. Our Inclusion Support Officer kept up with the changes and progress of the project so she can continue to help support us moving forward.
The team are more confident talking to parents about behavioural concerns, more confident dealing with challenging behaviours, communicating better with each other, and have more of an understanding of why children exhibit certain behaviours. It has completely changed the way we do things and will continue to benefit children and families for generations to come. Sandi left us with a vision plan, which we will enthusiastically work on over the next few months.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and it has been a collaborative effort with Phoenix, Inclusion Support, and my amazing team. This experience has reignited my passion for working in early childhood education and has been the most worthwhile training experience I have undertaken. We now look forward to our next A&R visit and the opportunity to show how far we have come and showcase our achievements.
On reflection, we are grateful to the children who challenged our thinking and practices, who set us on this journey, as they have left a legacy that we will never forget.
Author: Jacqui Bursztynowicz (Water Street Child Care)