Nurturing the future | Little Scholars
Little Scholars School of Early Learning
When you walk through the doors at Little Scholars, your perception of early education and care will change forever.
This month, we're thinking about intergenerational friendships, supporting our community, reconciling our past to improve our future, and our wonderful mothers.
Our intergenerational program has been going for almost as long as Little Scholars has! Some of our campuses started informal visits to local aged care homes more than seven years ago, but 2023 our intergenerational program is an even bigger focus for us, and will be implemented across our campuses by the end of this year. You may be wondering, why is this program so important?
Isolation and feelings of loneliness are a serious threat for older people, because they’re more likely to live alone, lose family members and friends, suffer from chronic illness and hearing loss. Statistically, one in four older (over 65) Australians live alone.* Of those who live alone, according to a 2017 Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, about 12% didn’t receive visitors in a three-month period, and older men were reported to be less likely to have been visited, at 17%.
In a 2020 Royal Commission report, of the Australians who reported knowing someone in aged care facilities, one third never contacted the people they know, and one in five never visited.
Social isolation has also been linked to mental illness, emotional distress, suicide, the development of dementia, premature death, physical inactivity, poor sleep, and biological effects, including high blood pressure and poorer immune function.
For Little Scholars, this was a no brainer to help.
The beginning
“It all began when our leadership team attended an intergenerational forum where we learnt that 16% of people in Australia are over 65 years of age and 45% of these people have reported feelings of loneliness. That’s a huge number and made us want to act,” says Jae Fraser , founder of Little Scholars.
The benefits for children are plentiful:
Our Deception Bay Little Scholars began its program in 2016, when campus manager Nat arranged for the kindergarten children to visit the aged care home Nat’s grandmother lived in.
“We connected with them to be able to give the elderly someone consistent who would come and visit them, as some of them received no visitors,” Nat says. “I learnt this when I spoke to one of my grandma’s carers and she said so many of the residents just want or need one thing that they can look forward to, to keep them going.”
Nat says they started taking the kindergarten children regularly, then extended it down to the younger studios to embed it across their service.
“We would always take five or six kindergarten children to allow the connections to continue between the children and their grandfriends. The dementia patients, would love our babies, and together we got to create and witness some special moments.”
The Little Scholars Ashmore campus started its intergenerational program last year, after working with Griffith University’s Dr Jennifer Cartmel and PhD student, Jelisa Tan.?
Jelisa did her placement at the campus and prepared resources for team members and families. She shared slideshows, floor books and fact sheets with an emphasis on the benefits of the intergenerational program and its progress.
Friendships blossoming
With our intergenerational program, the children visit with their grandfriends fortnightly. They do crafts, play games, sing songs, share morning teas and have meaningful chats. For their young-at-heart mates, the visits help alleviate challenges of isolation, and brings joy, feelings of self-worth, developing new friendships, silliness, and fun.?
"Celebrating the role older community members play in the development of children is something to be fostered and celebrated. The program is one of the most popular aspects of our services, we’ve found our community loves finding occasions to see the different generations come together and share in a common experience,” Jae says.?
Help your child develop important life skills and new friendships, we help bring out the best in your child. Book a tour.
Supporting the Community
Speaking of our community, we have a special love for a charity that supports some of the most vulnerable members in our community. We support Baby Give Back, made up of a passionate team who are about helping vulnerable babies, children and families in our community.?
The idea for Baby Give Back was born when founder Carly Fradgley had completed her family and wished to pass on her baby items that were still in excellent condition. Taking inspiration from sister organisation St Kilda Mums, Carly began collecting items and connecting with agencies, and her garage quickly became a makeshift storage shed for the donations received.?Eventually, Carly left her job in law to become CEO of the now Baby Give Back.
Quickly growing, and the need in the community ever increasing, Baby Give Back moved into a warehouse in Burleigh Heads in 2018 and then into a larger home in Varsity Lakes in 2020. Their team works tirelessly to ensure that vulnerable babies and children have an equal start to life and Little Scholars is a proud supporter and partner.
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Our teams and our families come together to raise money and collect items throughout the year that go to families in need.
Items that are often most needed include:
Baby Give Back assisted 9,524 local children in 2022. This included helping 2,366 children directly impacted by the floods. Devastatingly, 42% of the children they supported were affected by domestic and family violence, and that remains a top issue for 2023.
June 6 is Baby Give Back's annual Every Child Counts Annual Giving Day, during which all donations will be TRIPLED by their generous partners (including us!). So, for example, a donation of $5= $15, $25 = $75 and $100 = $300 and so on. Last year’s Giving Day raised $410,000 which is incredible, but let’s try to top it this year! Click to donate:
The Collective
Do you know about our campus-wide, multi-faceted initiative we call The Collective? It's designed to enhance each child’s learning and development, and best support our educators’ time spent with children.
We're thrilled that The Collective was featured in The Sector - Early Education News
Learn more about how campus manager Alice Micklewright?and her Burleigh team came up with this unique, streamlined approach which allows for educators to have freedom in how they document and plan for children. Click below! ??
Reconciliation Week
We marked Reconciliation Week in our campuses in May, an important week to acknowledge and honour that reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians.
At Little Scholars, we believe it’s vital that all Australians show support and learn about the crucial impact that culture, family, and community play in the life of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
Finally, we honoured the incredible women in our lives this month as we celebrated Mother's Day.
Each campus hosted an event to celebrate mums and mum-figures, and the children were thrilled to share the day with them.
Mums, we appreciate everything you do for us. From Little Scholars' standpoint, we appreciate you so much as parents, as co-educators, your ideas, your feedback, your encouragement and your interest and participation in your children's early education.
Thank you!
Finally ...
Did you know? According to the 2020 Close the Gap report, 86.4% of Indigenous four year?olds were enrolled in early childhood education compared with 91.3% of non?Indigenous children. From 10 July 2023, there are changes to the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) activity test for families with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children. The changes mean families can get at least 36 hours of subsidised care per fortnight for each Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child in their care. This is regardless of their family’s activity level.
We'll see you next month!
For more information on Little Scholars,?visit our website?and book a tour!