The manager of a Hawkesbury childcare centre said children aged 0-5 years had been resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite new research suggesting parents around the country were stressed about the impacts of the pandemic on their child's learning.
Joanne Ware, Area Manager for Community Kids North Richmond, said parents could alleviate their concerns about the effects of the pandemic on children in the care of her Hawkesbury-based centres, as disruption to children had been minimal during the crisis.
"We maintained our educational programs, maintained our staff-to-children ratios, and learning happened at all times of the day - we tried to keep things as familiar as we could for the children, and alleviate stress for them," Ms Ware told the Gazette.
New research by G8 Education - of which Community Kids North Richmond is a branch - in conjunction with YouGov found 8 in 10 (85 per cent) parents of children 0-5 who responded to the survey around Australia, felt their child's learning had been disrupted as a result of the pandemic.
Interestingly, Ms Ware said she thought there was a high proportion of parents of children at her North Richmond centre that worked in essential industries, and relied heavily on the childcare services at Community Kids to keep their children safe and cared for during the pandemic.
"Parents were very unsure at the beginning of the pandemic whether to send [their children] or not send them and what risks were associated with their health," she said, adding that across the board G8 education implemented risk assessment, and increased health and hygiene measures to alleviate parents' concerns and limit the potential of the virus from spreading.
"Many of our families are essential service workers, and they were relying on our service to be a safe space for their children and be available for them while they were out serving the community."
She said the children had coped "really well" during their early learning centre hours during the pandemic.
"They had their familiar educators, in a familiar and safe space, and they are used to hand washing and hygiene practices so the only really different thing was temperature checks on arrival," Ms Ware said.
"We didn't have our educators use masks [which were optional in this setting according to government regulations] because we didn't want them to be confronting for the children," Ms Ware said.
Sarah Falson
Daily Liberal journalist. I love telling people's stories. Get in touch at sarah.falson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Daily Liberal journalist. I love telling people's stories. Get in touch at sarah.falson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
