Throughout the course of the year, learning students from University, TAFE, and other institutions come and go through our early childhood services. While their time with us may be only a matter of a few weeks, we can have a positive, lasting impact on their learning journey, which in turn has a lasting impact on the early childhood industry. Your own development as a child care worker can also be influenced by how you view learning students. Consider the following ideas when welcoming your next TAFE or university student into your early childhood service:

See The Student As Being On A Learning Journey

The student is working toward being a well rounded professional, but they are not expected to be there yet. The journey takes time and just as we support children in their development by helping and challenging them, so to we need to support and challenge our students.

Consider which part of the journey the student is on. Are they are the beginning of their studies or well into their course? Our expectations of a new learner need to be very different to that of a student about to complete their course.

Assign A Mentoring Staff Member

It can become very confusing for students if a number of staff are overseeing their placement. Assign one staff member to mentor and support the student, and where appropriate, have them work the same rostered hours.

Introduce The Student To Children And Families

Children usually take it upon themselves to ask about unfamiliar people, but it's a positive experience for both the student and the children to have a proper introduction. Children can then learn how to say the student's name and a little bit about them.

Take The Time To Explore The Student's Written Work

The student is an adult learner and ultimately responsible for their written assessments. However, if we are to be effective mentors, we need to understand the expectations of the learning institution and how we can best support the student. Familiarise yourself with what the requirements are, what the student needs to be competent at by the end of the practicum, and what kind of experiences the student may need to implement in their time. Do this on a daily basis, discussing with the student what they need ready for the next day.

Offer Constructive Feedback

Simply citing the students work, or signing their attendance is not offering the best of our own experience and learning. Comment on the positive things about their interactions, teamwork, efficiency and written work. Offer suggestions and ideas on how they can build upon their strengths and challenge their growth areas.

View The Student With A Balanced Perspective

This is the biggest trap centres fall into when supervising students. They tend to see students in one of two extremes.

1. As 'just a learner' - which can lead to the centre staff viewing the student as either an annoyance or extra hired help who can do all the 'dirty work' OR

2. A 'new best friend' - which can lead to the student being an outlet for staff for complaining or gossiping about the centre.

A professional mentor will know how to balance the student being a cooperative team member, but will be wise in their judgment of sharing 'in house' information about the service.

Practicums are part of the learning process, and ultimately part of developing new staff for the Early Childhood Field. When mentoring learning students remember the practicums which best supported you and why....and then be part of the positive memory of another early childhood professional as you support, guide and grow them.

Direct Mail, when done correctly, produces great results. The problem is that most people don't really understand what direct mail is, and confuse it with plain old mail. Let me briefly explain the difference. Now bear with me; this may seem a bit simplistic but most people actually misunderstand what makes direct mail different from simply mailing out an ad. Consequently, many marketers get poor results from their mailing campaigns. Mail is, well... mail. Mail is simply something that gets sent out to someone. It's as simple as that. It could be a letter, an advertisement or a catalog. You get the idea. But direct mail is a bit different.

Have you ever reflected on why direct mail is called direct mail? Direct mail is called that because it is mail that asks for a direct response. A direct mail piece can be a letter, postcard, door hanger, brochure, or even some kind of unusual attention-getting item. Crafting an effective direct mail piece is an art rather than a science.

Let's discuss the factors that affect the response rate to a direct mail campaign. One of these factors is the quality of the list. Another is the timing of the mailing. (In other words, the time of the week, month, or year that you mail out a piece may affect the response rate.) In addition, response rates will vary with the quality of the creative copy that you send out. What I mean by that, is that all the different components of the copy in your direct mail piece will affect the response rate you get. These components include the headline, the benefits you create, the credibility you create, and even the paper you use. And finally, the offer that's presented will affect the response rate.

For success, it is absolutely critical to track each campaign you run as to list service, timing, list specifics, copy particulars, rate of response and sales generated. Improving each aspect of your campaign can have dramatic effects on your sales growth. Keep in mind that having 100 responses and 2 sales is not nearly as good as having 5 responses and 4 sales. So while the rate of response is good to measure, and it is good to get up as high as possible, the ultimate measures of success are the number of sales and the dollars of sales that are generated by your marketing investment.

Next, let's talk about the components of a well-crafted direct mail piece. It's important that you craft a direct mail piece that addresses the concerns and needs of your recipients. If you want it to be effective, then don't send out a vanilla, yellow page-type ad. (If you open up the yellow pages, you'll see ad after ad of the same message with different company names. Unfortunately, the same thing holds true for many mail pieces.) We often get very vanilla mail pieces. They don't spark any interest or emotion.
An effective direct mail piece should:

1) Be personalized if possible
2) Be crafted as an ad in letter form
3) Address the concerns of the recipient
4) Be stated in terms of benefits rather than features or advantages
5) Highlight the things that set you and your service/product apart
6) Ask for a direct response from the recipient; and
7) Include an incentive to take action now.

Now many of those list items are things that you would normally say are kind of a "no-brainer". They're things that you would obviously address in your marketing piece. Yet piece after piece that I know I receive - and I'm willing to bet you receive - don't have those components in them. Many of the marketing pieces sent out are focused on the products and services someone is trying to sell, rather than on the recipient, their needs, and the benefits that you and your product and service could provide. In addition, most mail pieces that I've seen focus on saving money (which, of course, attracts price-shoppers). So in the rest of this article, we're going to discuss the components in an effective direct mail piece.

The first component we're going to discuss, and one which many people believe to be the most important component of effective sales copy, is the headline. Basically, if the headline doesn't immediately capture the reader's attention, the rest of your copy won't be read. The job of a headline is to capture the reader's attention.

The next step in crafting an effective direct mail piece is to clarify the benefits of what you are offering. It's important to recognize that a person will be most motivated to act when they clearly see what's in it for them. People generally are not motivated by the features of a product/service, or even by the advantages. They're mostly motivated by the benefits that a product or service provides.

There's one more very important step in creating an effective direct mail piece. You need to get them to respond to you. You need a response mechanism, preferably with an incentive for taking immediate action.

The response mechanism would typically be one of four approaches:

1. You want them to call you
2. You want them to come by your office
3. You want them to email you, or
4. You want them to mail back a reply card

You need to be very clear as to what you would like them to do, and you need to have at least one or two mechanisms for them to respond with. Now in conjunction with that call to action, you should incorporate an incentive to prompt them to act sooner than later. That prompting can be related to a certain date or within a certain timeframe. A couple of ways to add an incentive are, for instance, to offer a free gift or a free analysis. You could offer a free report you've developed. What you want to do is give people an incentive to respond to you if they have any interest at all.

So to wrap up, direct mail can be an excellent means of finding new prospects when done correctly. You need to be mindful of your marketing investment. You need to track your expenses, your response rate, your conversion rate, and the sales generated. If you craft a direct mail piece correctly and run consistent campaigns, you can generate a consistent stream of quality prospects.

As a parent, it is only natural to worry. You will worry about every possible thing that might happen as well as things that will probably never happen. As much as you would like to be there one hundred percent of the time with your child it may not be possible. There are some steps that you can take to help your child remain a bit safer in a day care setting.

Picking Your Day Care

When you first decide that you are going to need a care than you should start looking ahead of time. Planning ahead will take some of the pressure off when it comes to finding a day care setting for your child and will give you more time to thoroughly investigate your options. There are certain safety issues you should take into consideration when choosing a day care. The same safety issues you consider at home for your child are not that different from what you should expect from a day care.

Fencing and Other Barriers

The ratio of adult to child may be low, but children are quick and a good day care center realizes this largely through experience. No matter how much you pay attention little ones tend to wander. Although a day care center that has a high adult to child ratio is probably a much safer place for your child.

A fenced in area where children can play outdoors will reduce the risk of your child wandering off. Not only is a fence important by the type of fence is also important a fence that little bodies cannot potentially squeeze through and get stuck in is a huge safety measure.

Many day care centers are divided up into age appropriate rooms; the barriers in and out of these rooms are an important safety measure. Many facilities use half doors, and baby gates to keep the children in one location where it is easier to account for them but where the rest of the center can easily see what is happening in the room.

Sanitary Measures

Where ever children congregate there is bound to be germs festering. As a parent there are some things you can do to lower the incidence of illness. Teach your child from an early age about good hygiene practices; bathe them as soon as they come home from day care. Teach them not to drink after other people and to cover up when they cough.

Take a good look around your care center and see if there is hand sanitizer in and around baby changing stations, and near where food is eaten.

Child Pick Up Policy

Just to be safe make sure that your day care center only allows your child to leave with the folks that you have listed, keep the list short to avoid any confusion. Ask that the care provider ID's everyone that comes to pick your child up, even if they have been there before.

It may sound a little drastic, but many day care centers have many people coming and going all day long, and it is easy to remember someone's face and associate it with the wrong situation. It is best to be extra careful than risking something will happen to your child.

Day care is often a necessary part of life for parents, taking a few extra precautions never hurt anyone. Better to be safe than sorry.