Narrabundah Children's Cottage - Australia

Program Image

Program

  • Type of Program: childcare
  • Age Served: 6 weeks to 5 years
  • Funding Sources: Parent fees, fundraising, government funding, Education Dept. and the Commonwealth Dept.
  • Presenter: Robby McGarvey (Director)
  • Address: 6 Yamba Place
    Narrabundah, A.C.T., Australia 2604
  • Telephone: 02 62863369
  • Fax: 02 62607319
  • Email: [email protected]

Program Purpose

To provide family support via quality care and educational programs for children aged 6wks to 6yrs old.

Program Description

The Narrabundah children’s cottage is a small cosy centre operating out of an older renovated home. We are a community based childcare centre, offering top quality care/educational programs in a homely family environment. We come under the umbrella of the Southside community services and have been operating as a long day care center since 1980. Our Centre is licensed by the ACT. Office of childcare We are also a three year accredited center, which means we are an approved center for families requiring childcare benefit All families using an approved center are eligible for government assistance when paying childcare fees. Our fees are $197.00 per week full time. $44.50 per day and $25.50 per half day. We are licensed for 35 places each day at our center. Currently 65 children are using our facility each week.

Our Pumpkin Room is the nursery room, which Caters for 10 babies and younger toddlers (6wks-2yrs). In our Bilby Toddler Room we have 9 toddlers (2yrs-3yrs), and our Jumbuck Room caters to 16 Preschoolers (3yrs-5yrs. We value other caring groups within our neighborhood and encourage an interchange of ideas, resourses, and respect for each other’s needs by ensuring a small group from our preschool room visit an aged care facility once a month and the residents from this facility visit our preschool room once a month.. Visits to the local Narrabundah Primary School are arranged regularly with a variety of multicultural and indigenous resources available for our use.

Each room at the cottage offers a library service where-by the children are able to take home a book each week from their room library. We also provide a parent library for parents to use as needed Our music specialist teaches the "Magical Music Program" to each group on a weekly basis. The Staff at the cottage are a team of 12 childcare workers who have worked hard to ensure that quality of care is maintained and improved by continuing to learn new skills, monitor and use best practice methods. We are a diverse team of individuals sharing our life experiences, knowledge and expertise to make the Cottage a happy learning facility for all- children, parents and staff!

Most Unique Program Feature

Our Magical Music Program presented by Larah Hilhorst is a program of age appropriate musical experiences presented each week to the three groups. A variety of indigenous and multicultural songs and dance are included in the program. Each program is planned and presented on a weekly basis. Musical experts from different fields of music are also incorporated in the program and parents with interests in music are also invited to share their skills and musical talents with the children at magical music time.

Edited by Michael Kalinowski