Meeting the National Quality Standards requires a lot of work, but the most frustrating thing is, this is work that you are already doing! Yes, you are meeting all of the standards in practice, however, providing evidence that you are indeed meeting the Quality Areas is a whole other kettle of fish.
Now, we have some good news and some bad news in relation to this. The bad news is if you aren’t yet using Storypark, you may need to stick with your current method of evidencing the requirements (sorry!) The good news is, for those of you who use Storypark, I am here to share a few ways that Storypark can help you meet (and exceed) the compliance requirements for the NQS.
Quick note: The compliance areas are things you will already be doing, Storypark is simply a smarter and easier way to record information and provide evidence of the ways you are meeting the compliance requirements.
So let’s dig in and discover the 4 ways you can evidence compliance of children’s routines.
#1 Educators must perform sleep checks while a child is sleeping and look at their breathing, colour and movement
Solution – Educators are able to perform sleep checks and then keep a record of them within our shiny and new Daily Routines feature. Automatically saving the evidence of the records without one single lost or misplaced piece of paper is a more efficient way to work!
#2 Educators must meet the needs for sleep and rest of individual children, documenting rest times for each child
Solution – Once again, the incredible Daily Routines feature helps you to record and store all of these very important records. With just one click of a button and they are also shared with family! Also, a great way to build relationships with families by keeping them informed of sleep/rest times (especially for under 2s!)
#3 Provide food for children and have water available at all times. Supporting home routines in the centre
Solution – Daily routines enable you to record what children have eaten, so families are aware of the menu and amounts of food children have had. For those of you who provide cooked meals for the children, you can also use the Community Post feature to share the weekly or daily menu. For children with specific health needs, you can use the Child Notes feature to discuss a child’s diet and food intake. Posting learning stories about cooking activities, physical activity and healthy eating is also a great way to support a healthy lifestyle.
#4 Nappy changing and hand washing is required regularly (2 hourly) for under 2 children, following the policies and procedures of the service.
Solution – Storing all of your staff policies and procedures on Storypark is a surefire way of knowing that all staff members are aware of important information. There are multiple ways you can use Storypark for this. You can load them into your centres ‘About’ page, you can create a teacher only ‘Room’ and share them in there, or you can share them in your planning area. In addition to this, recording children’s nappy changes and handwashing using the Daily Routines feature will ensure your records are up to date and accurate when you are assessed.
As you can see, the documenting and filing of essential records needn’t be a colossal task involving a lot of paperwork. With the right tools, it just becomes part of what you already do so well.
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