The doors are open
We opened the doors of Bellarine Children’s Centre to the families and expecting families of Geelong on Monday 23rd June.
It was a very exciting day for David Gordon, the owner of Bellarine Children’s centre. David has been designing and building the centre for over 3 years now, the building stage took longer than planned due to the centre’s eco friendly design.
We received a very enthusiastic response from families all over the Geelong region, we received over 50 enrolments in the first week alone and our numbers of children are increasing daily. We have opened 2 children’s rooms at this stage The Great Barrier Reef and Uluru rooms. The staff in The Great Barrier Reef provide care for children from 6 weeks to 3 years, Uluru staff provide care for 3 to 5 year olds as well as before and after school care. We are hoping to open The Daintree Rainforest room in August, the 2-3 year olds will then move into this room from The Great Barrier Reef room.
Liz Hunter is our Qualified room Co-ordinator in Great Barrier Reef. Liz is an experienced and highly skilled mature infant care Co-ordinator who has been working with children for over 12 years. Liz understands the needs of young babies and provides parents with the security of knowing their young children are being cared for by an experienced and nurturing caregiver.
Katrina Ditkun is our Qualified Room Co-ordinator in Uluru. Kat provides the children with a relaxing yet stimulating early learning environment where children are encouraged to explore, create and imagine…..
Our Qualified staff are accompanied by our wonderful team of Early childhood Assistants.
We would also like to welcome Libby Buck to the centre. Libby will be working in the office alongside myself on a Tuesday and Friday. Libby is very knowledgeable and experienced in the administration side of Children’s Services as she has been in the field for over 15 years.
We would also like to say a very special thank you to Jo Spicer for all the passion, guidance, innovative ideas and knowledge in the building and licensing process of Bellarine Children’s centre.
Please feel free to come into our centre to meet our staff and tour our facilities.
Open day
We had a wonderful open day on Saturday 5th April, there was a wide response from the community with a steady stream of Children, Parents and Grand parents coming in to have a look out our service.
The Children's rooms were set up with learning experiences, the visiting Children explored each room and were kept very busy with stories, puzzles, water play, art activities and also a special visit from a Clown who did some face painting and balloon sculpting.
We are at the stage now where the building is complete, final touches of paint are going on and the landscaping is well under way. The design of our gardens has been a big process as we are hoping to create outdoor play spaces that provide an abundance of opportunities to develop Children's senses . Our gardens provide open ended play for Children of all ages as they are each unique to the Children in that room. The Outdoor surface is designed to create varied terrains, pathways, bridges and sensory discoveries that will engage Children in many different forms of play.
A creative open ended outdoor play area provides an array of valuable learning experience's for Children across all areas of development.
A special thank you to Newcomb Secondary College art students who are creating murals for our gardens. These murals are designed to reflect each theme within the Children's Rooms.
We are hoping to have more of an idea about when the centre will be opening in the next few weeks, we can apply for a license from The Department of Human Services when our Outdoor area's are complete. Thank you for your patience on this, we already have a number of Children enrolled and are looking forward to giving an opening date to Families.
Feel free to come into the Centre Monday – Friday 10am – 2pm. I will be available to show you through the centre and explain the services we offer.
Leanne Tevaga
Director.