Currawong Childcare Centre is a 90 place long-day care centre located within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The centre caters for children aged 6 weeks to 6 years. It is open between 7.30 am to 6.00 pm. The centre operates for 52 weeks of the year.
This unique centre has an open door policy, inviting parents and carers to be a part of the daily program as much as is possible. Parents are encouraged to make a visit to the centre a part of their day.
Prams are also available so parents and Carers can take their child for walks in their breaks if they wish.
The centre provides all that your child will require for the day.
Meals served provide your child with 50% of the recommended daily intake of all nutrients. Morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late snack are served to children on a flexible timetable depending upon individual children's needs. The menu is planned in consultation with parents and the children and therefore has a wide variety of foods.
The centre uses a nappy service, there is no extra cost if you wish to use this service.
Linen for sleep times is also provided, and is laundered by the centre.
The centre has six rooms, two groups of 15 children in each age group, offering individualised programs for children in each age group.
Specialised music and movement programs are offered in all age groups.
In the Baby Unit we have three rooms, each group has 15 children, the younger group for babies aged 6 weeks to 12 months and the older baby group for children aged 12 months to two years.
In our babies rooms we follow each child's individual routine or needs during the time they are in our care. We have a basic daily pattern which includes meal times, nappy changes, non directive play and planned experiences.
The temporal environment reflects the individual needs of each child. Staff establish partnerships with parents that build on maintaining the relationship between home and the centre's routines.
The children's programs are developed to compliment their individual routines. The range of stimulating and educational activities is implemented in a flexible schedule. The activities provided for babies aim to foster security, relationships, confidence, exploration, anticipation and responsiveness.
For very young babies the staff understand that one-to-one interactions are of the utmost importance and that people are the most interesting objects in the babies' environment.
Staff read stories, sing songs, play with puppets, play peek-a-boo games and provide a range of experiences that create fun, anticipation and surprise. The staff also provide props, role modelling and verbal stimulation to encourage older babies in all developmental areas by broadening their scope of play.
We have an open door policy at the centre. This policy encourages mothers who are breastfeeding to continue feeding once their child has started care we have a lounge and rocking chair available. Parents/carers are also welcome to visit in the playroom during the course of the day. Prams are available so that parents/carers can take their infant for a walk, or stay and play in the playroom.
This daily pattern is flexible according to individual children's needs each day.
The playroom is an open-plan setting, providing space for a variety of play experiences, tummy time, crawling, rolling and toddling.
During the course of the day carers note observations of individual children at play. These observations are used to plan future play experiences and to keep a developmental portfolio of each child for parents.
Toddlers
The toddler unit has two rooms with 15 children in each group.
The programs in the toddler rooms incorporate a variety of experiences that to aim to facilitate imaginative activities, curiosity and thinking, imitation and prediction, and expenditure of a lot of energy. Staff interactions with the children enhance all aspects of the program, as the staff verbally and non-verbally challenge the children in their play.
The children's imagination is encouraged through the provision of open-ended, creative experiences, e.g. painting, drawing, collage, music, dancing, drama, dressing up, story telling and play dough.
Exploration of new challenges is encouraged through regular changing of experiences and the environments, e.g telephones and keyboards, dolls and cradles, dress-ups and hardware tools.
Planned and incidental small and large group experiences with the telling of stories, rhymes and finger plays encourage language development through initiation and prediction.
Gross motor development is encouraged through both indoor and outdoor programs. These include obstacle courses, bikes, scooters, climbing, sliding, crawling, jumping and circle games.
The room's environments change regularly throughout the day as does the children's needs and interests. The playroom is aesthetically appealing to the children, decorated with their artwork.
Our program is designed to encourage all children to learn and thrive according to their individual developmental needs and interests. Developmental portfolios are maintained for all children including observations of their play and long and short term goals set by parents and staff. We use the observations, goals and the children’s interest to plan stimulating, challenging and developmentally appropriate experiences which extend each child's learning in all developmental areas.
We have an open door policy in the centre. We enjoy having parents visit our room. We encourage parents to continue breastfeeding. We provide a warm and inviting atmosphere with friendly staff who are always willing to help.
The playrooms are set in an open-plan environment which allows for flexibility in planning play experiences and setting up the room for the children.
The playrooms have been divided up into various learning centres for the children including: puzzle tables; dramatic play; book corner; construction areas and quiet hiding spaces.
Preschool
Preschool children thrive on responsibility, so our daily routine and transitions aim to encourage independence. Our daily routine includes a combination of non-directive play experiences indoors and outdoors and group times, meal times and a rest/quiet time. Group times include stories, show and tell, games and group work on current topics of interest and morning meetings. The pre-school program ultimately aims for the children's preparation for school. The programmed environment includes an integrated approach to support peer collaboration, for enquiry, problem solving, experimentation and risk taking. In keeping with the philosophies of Reggio Emilia, children are encouraged to follow through with their own ideas as a vehicle for learning. Under Southside Community Services Inc.'s management the centre has recently joined a Reggio Emilia Network, and will be incorporating more aspects of the philosophy in our Program Planning Policy.
In collaboration with the developmental milestones from our Program Planning Policy, local schools advice and parent expectations, activities and experiences are planned to ensure that children have the skills required for starting school. Through planned and incidental group times and activities, staff interaction, role modelling and support, children are encouraged to work together on problems and projects. Staff play an active part in extending children's physical play so that they are empowered to feel competent in acquiring new skills.
Our program is designed to encourage all children to learn and thrive according to their individual developmental needs and interests.
We use the observations and goals set for each child to plan stimulating, challenging and developmentally appropriate experiences which extend each child's learning in all developmental areas.
We promote self esteem and independence in a nurturing, relaxed and fun environment. The children are also exposed to a variety of languages through stories, songs, games and learning some simple words/greetings. Children are also encouraged to share any other languages they know, thus assisting in the children developing an awareness, understanding and acceptance of our culturally diverse society.
