By Tessa McGovack
The 100 years of excellence grants funded our purchase of a ‘withdrawal hub’ for children who find the stimulation of the room challenging for our service WSU Early Learning Penrith. Our preschool room has several children who find the environment challenging and over-stimulating at times. The withdrawal pod has provided them with a space to withdraw whilst still allowing supervision.
All children in the room are more respectful of those who find the noise levels difficult to negotiate, and children can be heard telling others to “use a little voice, X is in the pod”, taking turns to access for some quiet time and generally being more aware of those who need a quiet retreat for a reset. Educators feel they are more able to recognise when children are needing to withdraw and reset, raising their awareness of when the room is becoming challenging for some children.
The application process was straight-forward. As a Director, I certainly appreciated the opportunity to provide something additional for the preschool room which would not have been possible from our standard budget. Many thanks to AGECS for the funding and for what you do to support educators in the ECEC sector.