Case study: Network Child Care Services uses Storypark for AQI compliance

Susan Menchinton, Pedagogy Lead at Network Child Care Services shares her experience of using Storypark to support AQI compliance.

‍

“Before using Storypark, Supervisors and management would say that the AQI is hard to sustain because there are so many small things that can trip staff up on any given day. There are so many checklists, notations and reporting to be done, and educators often struggle with demands on their time (and motivation to undertake administrative requirements). Storypark makes this streamlined, and more quickly / definitively done.

‍

Another area of concern is around the AQI advisor’s judgement of the staff’s skills with  Interactions when they do an inspection. There are firm guidelines for staff to follow, but this is a fairly subjective observation of practice, on the day, by the Advisor and the Supervisors get frustrated with that. If staff are confident in their skills and completion of requirements this can lead to an easier and more effective outcome with the advisor.

‍

Stories in Storypark satisfy the requirement in Learning Environments for photo evidence with written observations. We made our weekly ‘standard’ for Storypark interactions with families match what’s required for AQI compliance. Staff now do stories for each child, to that standard, and have ditched the written log they had to produce for the city. 

‍

It’s really a bang-for-a-buck situation where they do the family engagement requirement as well as the one for observation documentation, at the same time. Stories also satisfy the requirement to make records of any ways staff are supporting children with exceptionalities. 

Storypark’s community posts also satisfy AQI requirements for family outreach and engagement. Now that staff are doing these for each room, this is even more targeted to family needs.

The routines feature in Storypark directly supports AQI compliance - Food Records, Sleep Checks, Toileting Diapering Records, Daily Observation for Infants and Early Toddlers (under Other). Once staff get used to entering this information on a device instead of multiple pieces of paper, they absolutely love it, and supervisors, inspectors, love that it is recorded and archived for viewing at any time. 

‍

We also find it very helpful for oversight: Supervisors can quickly check that records are up-to-date and accurate, right from their office. We found this very useful when we were training the centre staff last year on routines and we got all supervisors to check the last day’s records first thing in the morning across all children. This would show them immediately if something wasn’t recorded (like a child listed as still sleeping, etc. Overall, this is one of our favorite Storypark features, especially when you add in attendance. 

‍

We are also using the absence notifications' feature' in attendance to support our Safe Arrival policy to comply with these requirements under the AQI.

The particular strength of the attendance feature as it relates to AQI is the ability of staff to have just the one access point and record for attendance throughout the day, particularly when children move rooms, instead of having (on paper) a main sign in-sign out page, plus transitional attendances for movement in the building and another one for the playground, or walks. Storypark makes this so easy. Time stamps and staff names are recorded automatically, and the record is stored and accessible at any time for inspections.”

_____

Supporting Infant, Toddler and Preschool assessment and AQI requirements

Here’s a cross-section of the AQI requirements to ‘exceed expectations’ within the Infant, Toddler and Preschool assessments which Storypark directly supports:

‍

• Evidence that the individual goals of children are incorporated into the program plan
• Information is accessible to parents on the curriculum model
• The supervisor reviews Program Plans and signs them weekly
• Evidence of opportunities to discuss developmental progress with families
• Photo documentation of learning experiences available 
• Staff recall past experiences to extend current learning opportunities
• There is current documentation which demonstrates that observations of children are used in the development of learning experiences
• Portfolios regarding each child's development are accessible to families.
• External agencies/professionals attend meetings to plan appropriately for children with individual support needs 
• Routine Care Practices: Daily information chart is available to be taken home
• Evidence of documentation for each child’s interactions and/or learning experiences during the day
• Displays include family involvement in activities and/or events
• Arrival and departure times are completed in pen
• Written verification of attendance after each group transition
• Learning experiences are adapted to meet any child’s individual needs
• Staff adapt expectations based on the individual needs of the children
• One planned and/or documented cause and effect learning experience offered weekly.

____

Read more: Measuring quality in ECE