Wattles (6wks – 15mths)
Our nursery provides a warm, safe environment for your baby.
It’s well-resourced with caring and gentle educators who develop nurturing relationships with your baby.
We recognise the importance of maintaining your home routine to our best ability to ensure your baby’s daily transition into our care is always as smooth as possible.
During this first year of your baby’s life, they are developing a picture of themselves based on the experiences they have and the relationships they create.
We offer lots of different activities so they can engage in essential sensory exploration to enhance their cognitive and motor skills.
We do things like playing with soft toys, feeling different textures, arts and crafts, tummy time, mirror play, listening to music, story time and outdoor play.
Specially designed with safety features and age-appropriate toys and furniture, our nursery is a place where your baby can freely learn about the world in a cosy, safe environment.
Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework, Belonging, Being and Becoming, is at the heart of our approach to early years education.
In Wattles, we provide a ratio of one educator to four children.
Acacia (15mths – 24mths)
Our centre provides a stimulating and fun environment to enhance your child’s learning in their early years.
As a toddler, children are opening up to new challenges as their communication skills expand and they learn to concentrate, experiment and play.
Our educators support this magical phase through a program of play-based learning activities to help them explore their own interests and strengths.
Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework, Belonging, Being and Becoming, is at the heart of our approach to early years education.
The framework’s emphasis is on play-based learning.
This includes things like singing to help your child learn about language; drawing with crayons to help them express their feelings and encourage writing; playing with shapes and patterns to develop their problem-solving skills; and group activities to build their social skills.
At our centre, you will find plenty of spaces that inspire your child’s creativity and imagination, so important for building social skills and self-confidence.
Our toys, play equipment and resources are the types that would typically be found in the home, to help your child feel comfortable.
In Acacia, we provide a ratio of one educator to four children.
Banksia (3yrs)
Our educators support children in their learning, keeping in mind the uniqueness of every child regarding interest and abilities.
We also involve parents in the learning process of their children by providing daily reports of activities accomplished with their children.
In this room there is a big focus on toilet training to prepare moving to the older rooms.
This process is carried involving parents input and is guided by the child’s readiness for this step in life.
Again, you will find plenty of spaces that inspire your child’s creativity and imagination, so important for building social skills and self-confidence.
Our toys, play equipment and resources are the types that would typically be found in the home, to help your child feel comfortable.
Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework, Belonging, Being and Becoming, is at the heart of our approach to early years education.
In Banksia, we provide a ratio of one educator to five children.
Gumtrees (4yrs)
Palmwoods Early Learning Centre offers junior kindy between 3 to 4 years.
As children begin to be more independent at this stage, our educators support them by focusing on play-based teaching programs that allow them to resource their own learning.
Our educators engage learners in fun outdoor activities where they can learn to manage their learning.
As children interact through play, they learn the importance of sharing and fairness.
They learn to take risks and tackle challenges that come from social interactions which build their emotional resilience and shape them to be better versions of themselves.
Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework, Belonging, Being and Becoming, is at the heart of our approach to early years education.
Examples of activities carried out through the day are:
- Construction: creating and building
- Messy Learning: sandpit, mud kitchen, gardening, water-play
- Physical Play: riding, climbing, balance, running, jumping
- Discovery: culture, science and the natural world
- Language and Performing Arts: music, singing, drama, storytelling and puppetry
- Expressive Arts: painting, printing, cutting, pasting, sculpture
- Imagination: dressing up, role and pretend play
- Quiet Places: puzzles, books, yoga and relaxation
As children are a bit older, Gumtrees educator ratio is one educator to 11 children.
Ironbark (5yrs – Kindergarten)
Traditionally, kindergarten is a learning program that is delivered by a qualified early childhood teacher, typically 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, for children in the year before school.
In a long day care setting, we expand the traditional kindergarten program to include learning and care for all the hours that our centre is open.
Our bachelor trained early childhood teachers provide a 7 1/2 hour daily kindergarten program with our team of educators caring for children outside of this time.
The kindergarten program is guided by the Qld Kindergarten Learning Guidelines (QKLG) and the National Quality Standards (NQS).
These guidelines ensure that our curriculum supports physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and language development.
This age group, in particular, is guided by QKLG outcomes.
Also as part of our Kindergarten program STEM (science, technology, engineering & maths) activities are incorporated as these are increasingly becoming a part of daily life in some way.
Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
EYLF Outcome 1:
Children have a strong sense of identity. At Palmwoods Early Learning centre, we view children as capable individuals and respect their rights to get involved in decision making on matters that affect them including their learning.
EYLF Outcome 2:
Children are connected and contribute to their world. Our curriculum for this age group is designed to take a naturalistic approach to teaching and learning that fosters a connection with and social responsibility for the environment.
EYLF Outcome 3:
Children have a strong sense of wellbeing. The kindergarten program encourages a respectful and supportive relationship between the educators and the learners that promotes the children’s mental health and overall wellbeing.
EYLF Outcome 4:
Children are effective communicators. We provide children with technology, tools, and activities that give them access to information and allow them to express their ideas and investigate the information they receive.
EYLF Outcome 5:
- Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
- Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts.
- Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media.
- Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work.
- Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.
