Our Centre

In the infants room at Kirinari Early Childhood Centre, we provide a nurturing and loving environment for children (from birth to 2 years) to grow and develop in. The environment is stimulating and offers many opportunities for the children to explore and learn.

The competent, passionate and qualified Educators who care for the children, have had many years of experience. All Educators provide a genuine and personal interest in and dialogue with each child as a developing individual.

Each Educator in the room creates secure relationships with the children and their families. Communication is centered on the child through a partnership approach between the Educators and the family. This builds knowledge of the routines, interests, development and temperament of each child and the caregiving styles of the family.

Activities are provided to the children to enhance their language, social, fine/gross motor, emotional and cognitive skills. These activities are planned based on the Educators observations of the children and on each child's personal interests.  These include:

• Drawing with all sorts of mediums, for example: texta's, pencils, chalk, paint etc.
• Pouring activities using water or sand.
• Play dough and finger/brush painting.
• Music activities with various instruments and dancing.
• Obstacle courses and puzzles.

Our caregiving routines and rituals are created to be predictable experiences for the children. This helps the child to learn what to expect in their day, supporting a respectful and trusting relationship between the child and their caregiver. Each routine activity is rich in language, cues and responses. The Educators provide enough time for the child to participate in their routines, creating meaningful and naturally satisfying caregiving experiences.

The Kirinari toddler room is called The Wombats. It is for children 2 years to 3.5 years.

It is a great, fun room that has a strong child-centred program. We are a busy room with many extended activities in place to stimulate the children's cognitive and intellectual development. We provide an environment that promotes autonomy and fosters self-esteem. Our art  and craft activities are responsive to the needs of our very creative and hands-on toddlers.

We provide a sound, safe and changing physical outdoor environment. We have a playground surrounded by native plants and gum trees. Our indoor area is spacious with two extra rooms for group times,  dramatic play and block construction. We have a designated sleep room to ensure our toddlers can rest and sleep to give them all the energy they need to grow and develop.

There are places for 20 toddlers. The dedicated, professional Educators have various recognised qualifications and a wealth of early childhood experience.

We encourage our parents to be an active part of their child's  day by bringing new ideas that help enrich the program. Parents are welcomed to bring aspects of their home culture into our Centre.

In the Kangaroo room at Kirinari, we provide a nurturing and educational environment for children from 3 years to school age. The environment is stimulating and offers a wide range of experiences for children to explore and develop in.

The competent and qualified Educators who care for the children have had many years of experience and are continually updating their knowledge and skills to provide better quality care for the children. All Educators are enthusiastic and genuinely interested in the development and individual needs of the children.

The daily program focuses on individual and group-based activities which are geared to the needs, interests and strengths of the individual children. The program covers all areas of development - including emotional, social, physical, cognitive and language development.

The room is divided up into working areas including dramatic play, block/construction play, book/quiet corner, arts and crafts, exploratory play, puzzles, home corner, math play and language and literacy development. Our outdoor environment is large with many native shrubs and trees throughout the environment. We have a large play structure called Slide Mountain, swings, a sandpit, a mud hut village, yarning circle, dry creek beds, and ample space to run around and ride bikes. We teach an environmental policy that encourages us to compost food scraps, recycle paper and care for our vegetable garden, where the children plant and look after the garden by weeding and watering the plants.

We regularly utilise the facilities on campus here at UC by going for walks, visiting the post office, library, Ngunnawal Centre, the bushtucker garden and exploring the oval and bush areas around the campus. We have a qualified music teacher come to the Centre each Wednesday and have Yoga sessions with our in-house Yogi. We also have Duncan Smith and his family, the Wiradjuri Echoes, an Indigenous dance group, visit us once a month to perform for the children and to share Indigenous stories and activities with the children.

Parents in the Kangaroo room play an active part in the development and running of the program. Parents assist with making resources, joining in on group activities and celebrations and adding ideas to the weekly program.