Northern Bay
flag Implementation phase
Sustained implementation – Step Five
bookmarksSite priorities
- Children access support for healthy development and wellbeing.
- Children engage and connect to high quality learning.
- Parents and carers are confident, capable andconnected.
groups Site Partnership Group
Northern Bay College, City of Greater Geelong, Department of Education, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Meli, and Colman Education Foundation (Our Place).
attach_money Funding Partner
Kennards Hire Foundation.
>4,789
attendances in 2023
An attendance happens each time a person attends a service or activity.
keyboard_return Looking Back
Moving Forward keyboard_return
- Early Help Family Services trial: Northern Bay was one of two Our Place sites involved in the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Early Help trial. Emerging findings indicated that being located at an Our Place school site allowed family services to reach a broader range of vulnerable families.
- Culturally appropriate services: Our Place facilitated a series of information services to enable more culturally appropriate delivery of services on-site. These sessions were well attended by the school and other providers.
- Innovative Use of SRF Funding: The early learning centre continued to make innovative use of School Readiness Funding to provide services and translated support for CALD families and children.
- Continuity of Learning: Engagement between the early learning centre and school has grown. Kindergarten and Prep students have developed a FAQ book to support kinder students starting at the school.
- Playgroup participation: Participation grew, with a third playgroup commencing in Term 4. Two of the three playgroups currently have bicultural support workers employed to provide support for Karen, Karenni, Dari, and Farsi-speaking families.
- Implement new strategic plan: The 2024-2028 Strategic Plan has been endorsed by the Site Partnership Group, following extensive consultation with service partners, parents, and carers. The focus is on working in partnership with families to support their role as their child’s first educator and enable positive home learning environments.
- Children’s attendance: Developing a collaborative site response to increasing children’s attendance at school and kindergarten.
- Early interventions: Supporting the onsite provision of services for the early identification, engagement and interventions to address vulnerabilities.
- Promoting Parent and Carer Voice: Increasing thenumber of opportunities that promote parent and carer voice and leadership on-site.