and the Ministry of Education have introduced new food and eating guidelines and ECE regulations which all Early Learning Centres and Preschools must follow.

These came into effect as of the 25th January, and all Early Learning Centres and Preschools must follow them.

There are four key features which we, as a Centre need to follow.

1. Children are supervised and seated while eating.

There is no change for us here.

We currently follow this practice

2. There is an adult present at all times (for every 25 children attending) that must hold a first aid qualification.

There is no change for us here.

ALL of our permanent teaching team hold a first aid qualification and undertake a refresher every 2 years.

That is 21 of our staff!

3. Where food is provided by parents, we (Swannanoa Preschool Inc.) MUST promote best practice as set out in the Ministry of Health: Reducing food-related choking for babies and young children at early learning services and MUST provide to all parents a copy of this document.

Please find this document attached.

You are encouraged to follow these guidelines when providing food for your child.

A breakdown of this information is displayed over the page.

4. Where food is provided by the service, we MUST follow the guidelines as laid out in Ministry of Health: Reducing food-related choking for babies and young children at early learning services (Document attached.)

When we (Swannanoa Preschool) are providing food within our curriculum practices (such as cooking, science experiments etc) we MUST follow the guidelines within this document.

We will be discussing these guidelines as a team over the next couple of weeks and in consultation with our parents and whānau will decide if we need to update any of our policies relating to food and reducing choking risk.

We understand these guidelines may impact on what you wish to send for your child to eat in their lunch box and welcome any discussion or queries.

Ngā mihi

Jo

Centre Manager