At Lincoln University Early Childhood Centre we operate a primary caregiving system which means that your child (and family) is assigned to a particular ‘primary caregiver’. A primary caregiving system is one designed to ensure that your child is linked to one special teacher who assumes the major responsibility for ensuring your child’s needs are being met while they attend LUECC. This teacher also becomes the main contact person for communication between your family and LUECC. Using primary caregivers makes it easier to develop trusting partnerships between teachers and families, where personal information about your child’s learning and development can be shared, respected and used to plan for your child.
As your child’s primary caregiver we will actively seek to develop an intimate knowledge of routines, interests, development, and temperament of your child and incorporate your caregiving practices from home as much as we can. All this ensures that with time and open communication, meaningful relationships develop between caregivers, children and parents, forming the basis for trusting and secure attachments. We work in partnership with you to provide a warm, caring and stimulating environment for your child. We believe that secure, nurturing relationships with caring teachers enable children to build strong attachments, the foundation for all future learning.
Your child’s primary caregiver will be assigned during your pre-visits. She will then be responsible for talking with you and supporting your child’s settling process, meeting you and your child’s needs as they integrate into LUECC. Nikki and Sarah are the primary caregivers for the infants (birth - 19/20 months). As children near 20 months they join Ginny in the toddler group and begin the gradual process of transitioning from the nursery to the preschool. These toddlers spend the majority of their time in the nursery with supervised visits in the preschool (called transition) with Ginny, this is to gradually help the toddlers become accustomed to the preschool's routines and staff in a safe and relaxed way before they turn two. Sophie, Rosie, Katrina and Debbie are the preschool primary caregivers, each teacher having a small group of children aged between 2-5 years. This ensures continuity for our children and families, with each child having the same primary caregiver from when they begin in the preschool until they leave for school.
It is important to note that primary caregiving is not exclusive caregiving. All of our teachers work as a team to ensure positive experiences for all of our children and their families. As your child settles into LUECC, their primary caregiver will initially fulfil all of their caregiving needs, though once your child’s sense of belonging has been established, your child’s care giving routines will be shared amongst core staff. At this point your child’s primary caregiver takes overall responsibility for ensuring the nurturing and learning needs of your child (and all the children in her small group are being met, writing your child’s weekly email or daily notebook (infants) and writing learning stories, learning notes and anecdotes to go into your child’s profile book. As the primary caregiver they support your child’s routine during their time here, so they are the best person to talk to if there are any changes or concerns about your child and/or their routine.