POLICIES & GUIDLINES
Nature Crew Playgroups are predominantly run outdoors, connecting children to the natural environment and their local community. Our facilitators will run activities that are designed to encourage learning through all areas of early childhood development through nature play.
Please read our policies in detail before signing up for any program.
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1. Clothing: Parents/ Guardians are responsible to provide appropriate clothing and closed-toe footwear. They should ensure children are dressed according to weather conditions.
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2. Messy Play: By signing up for Nature Crew you agree and understand that the child will be exposed to mud, water or paint at different occasions.
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3. Sun Smart Policy: Children should be dressed according to Sun Smart guidelines (sunscreen, hat, t-shirt etc). Its not Nature Crew staff's responsibility to provide sunscreen and constant reminders about that during the term.
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4. Snacks: Parents/guardians are responsible for providing snacks and water bottles for their children and ensuring that children don't share food without parents' consent because some children might be unsupervised by parents and might have food preferences, allergies or intolerances.
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5. Nature Walk: Bush playgroup nature hunts involve walks on uneven ground, over large rocks or running water. With this, parents must understand that there is a level of risk associated with the activities and should only participate if they themselves or their children are capable of such activity. By enrolling your child/ren in Nature Crew, parents/guardians agree and understand that they are responsible for the safety and well-being of their child/ren during the entire duration of playgroup sessions and Nature Crew or its staff aren't responsible for any injury you or your child gets during the session.
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6. Risk Assessment: Each of our sessions is conducted after following stringent risk assessment protocols. Our facilitators will guide you about the snake, magpie, and general bush safety tips at the start of the term but by enrolling your child/ren you assume all responsibility in the event of (not limited to): falls, cuts, bruises, snake or insect bites or serious injury.
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7. Medical Emergency: In the event of any medical attention or costs, the parents/guardians are responsible for covering these costs (e.g., ambulance charges).
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8. Protocols for Extreme Weather Conditions:
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At Nature Crew, we believe that all weather is good weather. We consider the weather extreme when it exceeds 36 degrees Celsius, heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, hailstorms or winds above 30km/hr.
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By enrolling your child, parents/guardians understand and accept that in above mentioned extreme weather conditions, Nature Crew may change the venue for that particular session indoors (within 10 minutes of the original location) or postpone the playgroup to school holidays. Parents/guardians will be informed of the change of venue via a WhatsApp group message in the morning.
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In case the session is postponed due to extreme weather or lockdown, we will move it to the same day of the week during the school holidays. It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to attend the rescheduled session. Refunds or makeups will not be issued if the child is unable to attend the makeup sessions within the given time limit (1 year for active members ONLY).
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Note: The makeup sessions can only be made up by current/active members during the school holidays. You have up to one year to make up for the missed sessions as long as you are actively enrolled in one of our playgroups.
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You automatically lose eligibility for make-up sessions if you are not enrolled for the following term.
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9. Cancelling The Session: If we need to cancel a session i.e. not able to make it up during the school holidays, parents/guardians will be offered a refund for that session. Refunds will only be issued if a session is canceled (i. e. not rescheduled) by Nature Crew. In that case, you will allow up to 2 weeks for the refunds to be issued before reaching out to Nature Crew administration.
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10. Change Of Mind or Circumstances: Refunds will not be issued for a change of mind or change of circumstances. Nature Crew offers a trial session before joining the term to help parents make up their minds about the term. Refunds will also not be issued if parents fail to attend the playgroup session due to sickness or other commitments.
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11. Notifications Of Absences & Make-up sessions:
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Please inform us of any absences by 5 PM the day before your scheduled session. Timely notification is crucial for us to manage our resources and potentially offer makeup sessions. Regrettably, we cannot accommodate makeup sessions for absences reported after this deadline.
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Make-up sessions are offered in place of missed sessions from throughout the paid term. Make-up sessions can only be used during the school holiday sessions or sessions run on other days/locations than regular sessions for active members only.
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In case you missed a session due to sickness or other commitments, it's then your responsibility to make up that session at other locations during the term or school holidays.
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12. Transferring Your Enrolment: Nature Crew sessions can't be transferred or used for a different child than the one they are booked for.
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13. Destructive / Reckless Behaviour: Nature Crew staff have the right to cancel a child’s enrolment if the parent/child is unwilling to follow Nature Crew's terms and conditions. This includes destructive or reckless behavior. In this case, Nature Crew will refund the remainder of the term fees (if any).
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14. Attending Without A Child: No person is permitted to attend the playgroup without a child or for observation purposes.
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15. Walk-ins: You are not permitted to attend the playgroup without prior submission of the enrolment form and fees for the day or term in full. Failure to do so will authorize the Nature Crew facilitator to ask you to leave.
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16. Parent Involvement: Parent involvement is a critical part of playgroup and you are responsible for helping your child with different tasks and activities unless otherwise advised by the facilitator. You are however exempted from being involved in activities if your child is enrolled for bush kindy, forest school or a drop of school holiday workshop.
17. Siblings: Siblings under 14 months of age are welcome to attend the playgroup for free under strict parental supervision. All siblings above that age are eligible for a sibling discount of 5% by using the code SIBLING.
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18. Allergies: Nature Crew Playgroups organize all the activities keeping our allergy children in mind. If however, you haven't disclosed the allergies on the enrolment form then Nature Crew is not responsible if your child is not able to take part in that activity or any reaction to that allergen. All parents are obliged to follow the rules regarding allergies. If Nature Crew staff informs the parents/guardians to avoid a certain allergen in the form of food, it's their responsibility to adhere to that rule. Failure to do so might result in an action taken against the parent/ guardian to protect the child with allergies.
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19. Sickness Protocol: In case of a child being sick and having a contagious sickness, Nature Crew facilitators have the authority to request the parent to take the child home to keep other children safe. No refund will be offered in such circumstances.
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FURTHER QUESTIONS
Please let us know if you have any other questions regarding our policies on the following email address.
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Email: info@naturecrewplaygroups.com
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