Welcome
Cessnock Kids is a privately owned and family run service. The Adneys have over 40 years experience in the early childhood education and care sector.
Erin, Laurence, Chris, Chantal, Melissa and Michelle all enjoy playing an active role in different areas of the service.
Extensive research has shown that the environment of a child’s earliest years has effects that last a lifetime. The first five years in child’s life are crucial to their development. The experiences children have in their formative years can set children up for a positive primary school experience. Eventually these experiences may ultimately shape them into the adults that they will become.
Our goal for Cessnock Kids is to be a service that provides the highest quality early childhood education and care for young children in our local community. We seek to develop a strong sense of belonging in children, allowing them to enjoy play based experiences encouraging a lifelong love of learning.
To meet this goal, we believe that we must create meaningful relationships with every child in a safe, nurturing and welcoming environment empowering them to reach their full potential. We look forward to partnering with families to achieve this goal!
About our Service
To provide the highest quality early childhood education and care service for young children in our community that instills a lifelong love of learning.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
At Cessnock Kids we aim to create a warm and welcoming environment for all families, children, team members and the community as a whole.
At Cessnock Kids children’s holistic development and self-worth will be fostered in a safe, positive, nurturing, stimulating and interactive learning environment where children will be provided with meaningful experiences and opportunities to explore their interests, expand their knowledge, develop life skills whilst having their needs and the needs of their families met.
At Cessnock Kids programs are designed to foster all aspects of each child’s physical, emotional, social, creative, cognitive and language development enabling children to work towards meeting the Learning Outcomes that are outlined in The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF):
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
At Cessnock Kids, we strongly value the importance of play and hands-on experiences. We believe that a balance between developmentally appropriate planned experiences (intentional teaching) and emergent child initiated activities are essential to children’s learning. We also recognise the spontaneous unplanned experiences in which families and children, in particular bring to the curriculum. Our educators implement a range of teaching techniques and methods within the educational program to ensure all children’s interests, strengths and abilities are valued and implemented in our programing cycle. Our programs are designed to promote the “belonging, being and becoming” of the individual child, which is also outlined in the EYLF.
At Cessnock Kids we acknowledge the importance of embracing each family’s expectations and circumstances by respecting their views regardless of gender, race, cultural background, religious beliefs and intellectual or physical ability. Families are, and always will be their child’s first teacher and primary influence over their child. We believe that an effective partnership is built on mutual trust and respect which is essential in providing a high quality service. We aim to build relationships and form partnerships with families to help achieve individual goals for their children.
At Cessnock Kids children, families, educators, staff members, management and the community are all valued as key stakeholders in our service. In valuing the stakeholders within the service, our management team will collaborate with all stakeholders on all matters that directly affect them or their child. Additionally, all stakeholders will continually be encouraged to be actively engaged in ongoing review and modification to our service delivery.
Reviewed: July 2016
- Warm, friendly, family owned and run service
- Qualified and passionate educators
- TWO BEAUTIFUL PLAYGROUNDS! Safe age appropriate places for children to explore & develop
- High quality educational care for children 6 weeks to 6 years old
- Full Preschool Program (i.e. school readiness and transition to school program)
- Child centered emergent curriculum inclusive of art, music, language, literacy, self-help, maths, sustainability, science, sports and so much more!
- Delicious seasonal menu following the Munch and Move guidelines, prepared onsite by our own cooks
- Family access to online individual child portfolios
- Nappies, wipes and cot linen provided for all infants under 2 years old
- Use of educationally appropriate resources on our INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD and other technologies
Three things determine a family’s level of Child Care Subsidy:
- A family’s annual adjusted taxable income determines the percentage of subsidy they are eligible for
- An activity test determines how many hours of subsidised care families can access, up to a maximum of 100 per fortnight, and
- The type of child care service determines the hourly rate cap.
More information about individual subsidy rates and annual cap changes is available in the New Child Care Package brochure.
Some basic requirements must be satisfied for an individual to be eligible to receive Child Care Subsidy for a child. These include:
- the age of the child (must be 13 or under and not attending secondary school)
- the child meeting immunisation requirements
- the individual, or their partner, meeting the residency requirements
For more information please contact Centrelink on 136-150 or visit https://www.education.gov.au/ChildCarePackage
About the National Quality Framework (NQF)
The NQF introduced a new quality standard in 2012 to improve education and care across long day care, family day care, preschool/kindergarten, and outside school hours care.
The NQF includes:
- the National Law and National Regulations
- the National Quality Standard
- an assessment and quality rating process
- nationally approved learning frameworks
(Sourced from http://www.acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework/explaining-the-national-quality-framework)
It gives services and families a better understanding of a quality service, helping families to make informed decisions about the services providing education and care to their child. The NQS brings together the 7 key quality areas that are important to outcomes for children.
- Educational program and practice
- Your child is supported to participate in play and learning
- Children’s health and safety
- Your child is protected from illness and hazards
- Physical environment
- Your child plays in a safe and well maintained environment
- Staffing arrangements
- There are enough qualified staff to give your child the attention they need
- Relationships with children
- Your child is made to feel supported and welcomed
- Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
- Local community involvement and respect and inclusion of all beliefs and values
- Leadership and service management
- Your child is cared for in a positive environmentThe NQS currently contains 18 standards with two or three standards in each quality area. These standards are high-level outcome statements. Under each standard sit elements that describe the outcomes that contribute to the standard being achieved. There are 58 elements in total.
(Sourced form http://acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework/the-national-quality-standard and http://www.acecqa.gov.au/families/what-the-nqf-means-for-your-child)
That’s why the National Quality Framework (NQF) was introduced – to give every child the best start to life and learning.
The NQF introduced legal requirements and a new quality standard to improve education and care across long day care, family day care, preschool/kindergarten, and outside school hours care services.
The benefits for parents and children include:
- improved educator to child ratios in most services
- greater individual care and attention for children
- educators with increased skills and qualifications
- better support for children’s learning and development
- a ratings system to help parents assess the quality of education and care providers in their area
(Sourced from http://www.acecqa.gov.au/families/what-the-nqf-means-for-your-child)
Belonging, Being and Becoming – The Early Years Learning Framework describes the principles, practices and outcomes that support and enhance young children’s learning from birth to five years of age, as well as their transition to school.
The EYLF has a strong emphasis on play-based learning. The framework also recognises the importance of communication and language (including early literacy and numeracy) and social and emotional development. In addition, the framework has a focus on successful transition to formal schooling.
A Families’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework has been developed and is available on the Department of Education and Training website. You can also download a copy of the framework.
(Sourced from https://www.mychild.gov.au/agenda/early-years-framework and https://www.education.gov.au/early-years-learning-framework)