Consultancy Services
Since 2008, we've provided a variety of mentoring, consultancy and support for educators and services throughout Australia. We have a range of support services available both in person and online. We love working with services and educators to help them be the very best that they can be, and to overcome challenges in a meaningful way.
Contact us for a FREE initial consultancy call.
We will provide you with recommendations, resources and support catered to your unique practice and challenges!
Mentoring and Coaching
Educational Leader Mentoring
Being the educational leader should be an exciting opportunity - you have the chance to mentor others, provide pedagogical guidance for the service and be totally awesome and inspirational! Sometimes though, that isn't quite the case. You might be new to the role and feel uncertain or overwhelmed. You may have been in the role for several years and need to reignite your love for it. Either way - we can help! Through 1:1 mentoring, we can work through your challenges and help you find the joy in your role. This may take the form of face to face or online support and may be one off or on an ongoing basis.
Nominated Supervisor Mentoring
We know that being a nominated supervisor isn't always easy. The to-do list is a million miles long, the policy and compliance matters are always demanding your attention, and somewhere among all that, you are trying to be a visionary, inspiring leader. Luckily, we have been there! Whether you are brand new to the role or have been doing it for a long time, we can help. Our support is 100% customised to suit you. It may include face to face visits, online coaching via Zoom, email support or more focussed support with a specific project or problem. Our aim is to work with you to build your skills and overcome the challenges, not to 'fix' the problem for you. This is where meaningful growth as a leader occurs.
Practice-Based Coaching
It's one thing to come along to a training session, take in the information and go back to your service and attempt to put it into practice. It's quite another to to have an experienced consultant work with your team in their own environment, observing their practice and providing meaningful feedback and support 'in the moment.' Coaching in Context is a great way to strengthen the skills, knowledge and practice of yourself or your educators.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! We love coming to visit services. Depending on your location, there may be travel costs involved. We recommend booking a free initial consultancy call below to discuss your needs with our team. We can then put together a quote for you for onsite support.
We are in the process of setting up long term mentoring and support packages and will be adding these to our site over the coming weeks and months.
If you're not sure what support you need, we recommend booking in a FREE 15 minute initial consultancy call. This allows you to unpack your challenges, concerns, or ideas with one of our experienced consultants, who can recommend best next steps.
Playground Design and Development
Why Choose Inspired EC?
- Our design team are experienced early childhood consultants and former educators - we know PLAY!
- Our landscape crew are experienced, skilled and understand how different it can be completing works in an early childhood setting (they are used to endless questions from 4year olds and 'unusual' requests from educators... and us!)
- Your service will be provided with documentation of the design, collaboration and development process (very handy for evidencing the changes made and the reasons behind these. Perfect for A&R and also when new educators and families start at the service)
- We embrace your unique context, location, local culture and native plants
- Collaboration and connection are key!
If you are ready to make a difference in your outdoor space - we would love to hear from you!
We strongly believe that we can work with you to design and develop a space that you love, and more importantly - that the children love.
When we completed our very first playground design and development project in 2010, we couldn't have imagined just how many playgrounds we would go on to make an impact on! Our process for playground design and development is quite unique in its collaborative nature. We work closely with your educators, management, families, community and perhaps most importantly - the children, to create spaces that are playful, natural and inspiring.
Playground Design
Each of our playgrounds are unique, designed to connect children with the natural world, provide ample opportunities for learning in all areas of development, while also being fun, beautiful, full of things to discover and having a low environmental impact. Our redevelopment process is organic and is intended to create a plan for the future of your service.Â
We welcome children, family and staff input; the more the better! We understand that each service is different with different needs and our designs reflect that. Involving all stakeholders, particularly the children, creates a beautiful sense of community ownership within the space, which in turns creates a wonderful sense of belonging.Â
Playground Construction
We think it’s important to have long term goals to work toward over the years which is why we like to create BIG picture design concepts. However, we understand that most services aren’t able to afford everything at once, which is why we are happy to renovate your service in increments. We’ll work with you to split the design up into different areas and introduce these different elements one by one as cashflows allow.
Once the design concept has been finalised and confirmed we’ll begin the construction process. Most services prefer to do construction during the holidays, however we are also able to temporarily fence off sections of the playground: we find that children enjoy watching and feeling involved in the construction process.
Regulatory Support
A&R Prep
While your assessment and rating visit should be a reflection of your everyday practice, we understand that many services and educators become nervous in the lead up to their visit and worry that they will freeze! We regularly visit services and provide meaningful feedback on matters of compliance and quality practice. Our visits usually take place over several hours and include observation, discussion and review of documentation, policies, procedures and the physical environment. Services receive a comprehensive report after the visit, with actionable steps that they can take prior to their visit. Our visits provide educators with reassurance and confidence in their own ability to advocate for the work that they do and the way that they do it.
QIP Support
Does your Quality Improvement Plan need some work? Perhaps you are coming up to A&R and you are worried that your QIP isn't up to scratch? We can review your QIP and provide meaningful feedback that will support your team to feel confident moving into A&R. This may be a remote review, or where possible, one of our consultants will come into your service and observe how the practice connects to the QIP. If you don't even know where to start, we can come in and do a QIP development workshopping session with your team - getting everyone focussed and on the same page!
Regulatory Authority Submissions and Responses
Over the last five years, we have worked with many services who have received A&R reports that they were not satisfied with, or have received compliance or show cause notices. The support for each of these has been varied, however this usually involves detailed discussions about the matter and in the event of compliance concerns, advice and support with implementing appropriate changes such as policy development or review and the development of procedures and practices. Our support often includes the drafting of formal responses to these matters in a thorough, comprehensive and professional manner. As a result of this support, the regulatory authority has instructed several services to engage our support on an ongoing basis as a condition of their service approval.
"We’ve been very fortunate to have had the support of Tash and the Inspired EC team. Tash has provided us with continuing training, Educational Leader support, Management support and Assessment and Rating preparation. Her passion and enthusiasm are contagious, her knowledge is deep and wide-ranging and her genuine desire to make a difference is infused in everything she does. We’re grateful to have Tash’s help to guide us in continuously reflecting and improving our practice towards a more authentic experience for the children in our care. Working with Tash is undoubtedly the best investment we’ve made. Thank you Tash!"
Milia
Leichardt Little Stars
Service Support
Policy Revision and Guidance
We know that policies are a vital part of service operations, and that many policies are required under the national regulations. We regularly work with services to review and amend policies to ensure that they are not only compliant, but meaningful to the individual service. As such, we expect that service stakeholders are highly involved in this process.
Management Committee Support
For seven years, Nicole was a nominated supervisor of a community based long day care service and saw first hand, the challenges that volunteer, parent run management committees face on a daily basis. Asking parents to take on management of a service is a massive responsibility, and many committees do not feel equipped to handle the challenges of service operations. We work with management committees to bridge the gap. This support may include attending committee meetings, providing training to management committee members, facilitating planning sessions and email/phone support for specific matters (HR, service practices, policies etc.)
Recruitment Support
We know how hard it is to get the right team for your service. We have worked with many services over the years in the recruitment process. We recognise that this looks different in every service, and our support has ranged from drafting advertisements, reviewing applicants, preparing interview questions, sitting on an interview panel and preparing position descriptions and employment agreements, as well as supporting the new team member to transition into the service.
Inspired EC is committed to child safety, we want all children to be safe, happy and empowered.
Inspired EC would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work, live and play. We feel privileged to share this land and the knowledge that is held within it. We pay our respects to Aboriginal elders past, present and emerging. We commit to working in partnership with Aboriginal communities and to inspiring and supporting those in the early childhood profession to do the same. We hope that you also identify, connect and respect those who have looked after the land you are on for tens of thousands of years. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
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CALL US
You can give us a call from Monday to Friday, between 9am and 4pm AEST on (02) 49478112
EMAIL US
You can flick us an email any time - we would love to hear from you! [email protected]Â
VISIT US
Our beautiful home is at 157 Floraville Rd, Floraville NSW 2280.
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