Additional - Policies

The policies of RITZY SCHOOLS are built on these key seven areas against which all early childhood education and care services are generally assessed and given a rating. The seven quality areas are:

1. Educational program and practice.
2. Children’s health and safety.
3. The physical environment.
4. Staffing arrangements.
5. Relationships with children.
6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities.
7. Leadership, service management and effective administration.

Our programs are based on conversations among educators, children, their families and the broader community, which supports teaching, play and collaborative interactions. At RITZY SCHOOLS, we value and respect children’s evolving capabilities, experiences, points of view and concerns. Our educators listen to children and use a variety of documentation to record children’s significant experiences and their responses to the early learning environment.
The key RITZY SCHOOLS policies in this are cover the following topics:

• Supporting Participation
  Our commitment to supporting participation contributes to children having a strong sense of identity and wellbeing; being a confident learner; and being an effective communicator. By listening to children, our educators support children’s active participation and it is incorporated into all daily routines and learning opportunities.
• Early Learning Program Development
  Our guidelines assist our educators to think deeply about the way they implement the approved learning framework in our centres and also help them to adopt holistic practices, be responsive to children, and to plan and implement learning through play.

All children have the right to experience high quality education and care, in a learning environment that provides for their protection through appropriate supervision, safe experiences and environments, and emergency preparedness. RITZY SCHOOLS is committed to ensuring that each child’s health and safety needs are met. This includes meeting individual health and comfort requirements, implementing effective hygiene practices and effectively managing injuries and illnesses. The key RITZY SCHOOLS policies in this are cover the following topics:

• Administering Medication to Children
• Medical Conditions Management (including allergies, Anaphylaxis, Asthma, Diabetes and Epilepsy)
• Child Protection
• Child Safe Environment
• Excursions
• Food and Nutrition
• Incident Management
• Infectious Disease Control and Unwell Children
• Sun Safety and Heat Stress
• Visitors to the Centre
• Water Safety

At RITZY SCHOOLS, we ensure legislated staffing ratios and qualification requirements are met at all times. We are also committed to ensuring our workforce is appropriately motivated and experienced for its critical role in enhancing children’s learning and development. They achieve this by developing warm, respectful relationships with children, by creating safe environments for children, and by encouraging children’s active engagement in their learning programs.

Children are central to everything we do. The relationships our educators develop with children are critical in helping children feel valued, competent, capable, safe and secure. RITZY SCHOOLS educators sensitively engage and guide children’s interactions with others, as they explore their own identity and develop more complex social skills and relationships. Our educators also positively guide and support children to develop skills in regulating their own behaviour. The key RITZY SCHOOLS policies in this are cover the following topics:

• Behaviour Guidance
  At RITZY SCHOOLS, children are provided with support, guidance and opportunities to regulate their own behaviour. Where challenging behaviours exist or develop, we promote proactive partnerships with families to positively support children’s behaviour. Behaviour guidance strategies will not under any circumstances involve the use of any physical punishment, isolation, humiliation, intimidation or negative labelling by RITZY SCHOOLS staff.

Every child belongs within their family, their cultural group, neighbourhood and wider community. In the work we undertake, families are our primary partners and RITZY SCHOOLS is committed to genuine collaborative relationships between families and early childhood professionals; relationships where we can value each other’s knowledge of our children, communicate respectfully and freely with each other, share insights and engage in shared decision-making. We encourage families to be involved in the centre, to provide input into learning programs, to spend time with our educators and to contribute their skills and resources to the centre to enhance children’s wellbeing, learning and development. The key RITZY SCHOOLS policies in this are cover the following topics:

• Family Rights and Responsibilities
  Our educators ensure practices in the centre that respect families’ rights and responsibilities. Equally, at our centres our families have a responsibility to conduct themselves in a lawful, safe and responsible manner, respect the rights of others, and use appropriate language. Poor behaviour towards any other person is unacceptable, including: all forms of bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, actions that put another person at risk of harm, or threats of any kind. Upon enrolling, families agree to the RITZY SCHOOLS Family Rights and Responsibilities policy as mentioned here (and available in hard copy on request). Should families fail to comply with these responsibilities RITZY SCHOOLS may exclude them from the Centre, although their children may not be excluded.
• Collection of Children
  Only parents/guardians and authorised nominees are permitted to collect your child from our centres, and we encourage all families to ensure these contact details and arrangements are kept up-to-date. So we can ensure the safety of your child at all times, photo identification will be requested from any authorised nominee who is unknown to our staff. If your child has not been collected from the centre by closing time and we are unable to contact you, we will contact the authorised nominees listed on your child’s enrolment form. In extreme circumstances where we are unable to contact one of your authorised nominees by closing time, we will contact the necessary authorities for the safe collection of your child. This is why it is important that your contact details and those of your authorised nominees are kept up-to-date at all times.
• Enrolment and Orientation
  We aim to establish mutually respectful and supportive relationships with families throughout the enrolment and orientation process to promote positive outcomes for your child, and to ensure legislative requirements are met. Throughout the process, families are invited to take a tour of the centre and are encouraged to raise any concerns or questions about the operations of the centre.
• Family Feedback
  We actively encourage families to provide feedback about their experiences with the centre at any time. It is our policy that any problem, issues or disputes are managed fairly and promptly, and are resolved as close as possible to the source of the problem. Families can raise concerns with one of the numbers mentioned in the Contact US menu, or email to our Support Team, and someone will be assigned to be responsible for dealing with the issue.

At RITZY SCHOOLS, effective centre leadership across all our services is vital. It promotes a positive organisational culture, builds a professional learning environment and commits to continuous improvement. The key RITZY SCHOOLS policies in this are cover the following topics:

• Responsible Person
  We have a legally Responsible Person physically present at RITZY SCHOOLS centres at all times. The name and position of the Responsible Person in charge of the service at any given time will be displayed so that it is easily visible to anyone from the main entrance.
• Page Confidentiality, Privacy and Digital Information Security
  We collect personal information of parents, guardians and children for the primary purposes of providing early childhood education and care services and advocating for the well-being, protection and development of children. We will only use your personal information for the purpose it was collected or a reasonably expected or related secondary purpose. Personal information will generally be collected from you directly through the use of our standard forms, over the internet via our website, via email communication with you, or through a telephone conversation with you. Personal information collected by us will be stored securely in paper form or electronically at a our centre and/or at RITZY SCHOOLS Support Office. We may store, process or back-up your personal information on computer servers that are located overseas, including through third party service providers who assist us in operating our business. We will take all reasonable steps to protect any personal information that we hold from unauthorised use or disclosure. If you would like a copy of any Goodstart Policy or Procedures, please contact your Centre Director or our Support Office.
• Copyright and Intellectual Property
  All RITZY SCHOOLS-related documents, materials and tools(including its policies, procedures and learning and educational programs) belong to RITZY SCHOOLS and cannot be copied or reproduced, in any way, for use outside of RITZY SCHOOLS.