SDN Children's Services Inc. Annual Report 2010

Message from the President and the CEO
SDN is setting the standard for early childhood education and care, and operates well above government requirements
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2010 is the 75 th anniversary of the graduation of the first
seven trainees from the original SDN Nursery School Training
Centre (as it was then called). This milestone reminds us of the
significant role SDN has played in ensuring that education as
well as quality care is provided for our community’s youngest
children. From 1932 to 1974, 786 predominantly young women
were trained in Nursery School methods and approaches at our
College. (See page 18 for more about the College.)
This commitment to the learning and education of adults
who will work with children, as well as to the learning and
education of the children themselves, is still a strong element
of SDN’s culture and character. The motto of the College from
1946, ‘For the little ones, the best’, continues to inspire us as we
commit as many resources as possible to upgrading buildings
and playgrounds and providing the best quality staff possible.
For many decades, the Executive Committee (as the
Board was then known) made regular visits to the Branch
Committees who ran the centres. This tradition continues
today, with Directors keeping in touch with the inspiring dayto-day
realities of our business by visiting each centre and
program annually.
On a recent visit to a Sydney centre, I was told how the fouryear-old
children’s passion for art had been stimulated by a visit
to the Art Gallery of NSW to see an exhibition of abstract art. The
children had taken with them their drawing books to record their
impressions. One little girl in particular had understood absolutely
what abstract art was: her drawings were extraordinary, leaping
off the page and staying in my mind for ages. Such visits are so
rewarding. Susan Salter
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Leadership
For 50 years SDN’s teachers’ college shaped early childhood
teaching; today, SDN is still helping define our sector with
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considerable thought and practice leadership. For example, our
Strategic Plan for 2010–2012, Realising the Potential of Children,
has as one of its goals ‘being known, recognised and listened
to as leaders in the sectors in which we operate’. During this
past year senior management participated in the Federal
Government’s discussions that are shaping the new Early Years
Learning Framework — a practice guide for Australia-wide early
learning and child care.
I was delighted that the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet and ARACY (the Australian Research Alliance for
Children and Youth) invited me to address a dinner hosted by
the Governor-General at Government House, Canberra, on some
of SDN’s initiatives in reaching out to children facing challenges.
Ginie Udy
This national advocacy also helps us progress another
aspect of our mission, that is to address inequalities that
children face by getting issues of marginalisation included in
national policy and practice debates.
Leadership has been critical to all our achievements, and
as we reflect on SDN’s history even more than usual this past
year, we are struck again by the fact that it is as much a
story of women’s histories as anything else. Our past leaders
displayed the key values we still consider important today:
being trustworthy, reliable, inclusive, respectful, creative and
innovative. It is no surprise that we continue to attract strong,
competent and caring women to leadership roles. Profiles of
our Senior Management Team are on pages 22 to 23.
Growth
The photo opposite was taken at our Glebe Children’s
Education and Care Centre while we celebrated the first
anniversary of SDN assuming management. We were
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fortunate that The Hon Verity Firth MP, NSW Minister for
Education and Training and our local Member, could join
us. SDN Glebe epitomises the importance we place on
developing links with the communities in which we operate,
employing talented early childhood teachers and educators,
and integrating the different components of our service.
With the opening of our newest child care centre in
Canberra, our strategy of developing more child care hubs is
taking shape. Acacia, in the Attorney-General’s new building
in Barton, joins Bluebell in Belconnen, Lady McKell at
Goulburn and our preschool at Crookwell to offer SDN’s model
of long day care, coupled with university trained teachers.
In NSW, we successfully applied for a Federal Government
grant of $1.6 million to build a new child care centre at
Milperra in Western Sydney. Work is proceeding quickly, with
an expected opening date in early calendar 2011.
We are very gratified to see we are on track with our goal
of growing from areas where we already have a presence.
Business outlook
The business outlook for SDN is positive. We have a
solid financial base and a balanced risk exposure. Our
new Enterprise Agreement and extensive professional
development have strengthened our position as an Employer
of Choice. There is a strong demand for our work, as shown
by the historically high attendance rates at our centres. The
State and Federal Governments are increasingly looking to
fund the kind of service delivery models we have developed.
We have been consistently successful in about 50% of our
tender applications and are confident in our capacity to meet
demand and grow. We are also confident that our current
goals of providing more scholarships for young Aboriginal
children, employing more Aboriginal staff and working
8 SDN Annual Report 2010