Acacia Children’s Centre – Richmond
Open 7.30 am-6.00 pm
Monday to Friday
13 Belgium Avenue
Richmond, VIC 3121
Phone: (03) 9429 6150
email: acc@acacia.org.au
Contact: Tammi Tran
Centre Structure
The centre is licensed for 42 full-time places with the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) and consists of three age groups:
- Inala Room 0-24 months
- Cardinia Room 24-36 months
- Yarran Room 3-5 years (funded kindergarten)
Upon enrollment, a child will be placed in a group according to his/ her age and will generally remain with that group for the entire calendar year. A child can be moved to another room if a vacancy exists in consultation with parents, and educators. The number of children that can be catered for is limited by the size of the room.
Our Centre Philosophy
As educators, we believe that children should be respected as individuals. We consider each child to be an exceptional individual with special potentials and needs that should be recognised and attended to. We believe in valuing and developing each child’s strengths, interests, skills, abilities, and knowledge to extend their learning. We believe in providing opportunities for children to explore, discover, create, and imagine.
Celebrating Diversity:
We believe in the significance of cherishing our culture and its value in constructing our identity. Therefore, we understand the importance of recognising each child’s culture and acknowledge that their culture, beliefs, and customs play a part in building their self-identity. No child should be discriminated against based on gender, culture, or race. We also respect individual backgrounds and customs of families.
As educators, it is important that we notice, recognise, and respond to our diverse learners by providing meaningful learning experiences for them. Creating inclusive settings and learning environment where children can explore, participate, and contribute will allow them to feel empowered and take ownership for their learning. We believe that it’s important to listen to the children’s ideas, voices, and interests when we interact with them. We value the development of children’s interaction, social, emotional, and physical selves through play experiences and meaningful activities. All children develop at their own pace, so consideration and understanding should be taken at all times.
Educational Programs:
Through our programs, we can create opportunities for children to enhance their knowledge about their world. We will provide high quality programs by guiding children’s development in ways that take into account each child’s interests, strengths, experiences and needs. We believe the environment plays a major role in the success of an early childhood program. It should enhance the children’s interests in all developmental domains. The environment should take into consideration the social skills, communication skills, physical abilities or challenges, and learning styles of the children being served.
Educators will provide educational programs based on children’s needs and interests, and should be flexible enough to adapt to developmental changes. A regular program that caters for all areas of children’s development should and will be provided. This includes social/emotional, language, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, and sensory developmental skills through STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths).
Partnership with Families:
To provide a high quality learning environment, we believe that building positive collaborative relationships between teachers, children, and their families is critical. This would allow educators to plan, assess, and evaluate and ensure that the children’s and parents’ voices are always included and being heard. We believe in genuinely asking children’s ideas and following children’s behavioural queues on what they would like to explore and want to happen next as this would allow children to be a part of community of learners. It is also important for parents and families to feel comfortable in sharing their ideas for our room programme and sharing their aspirations and goals for their children.
We create a safe, welcoming, and stimulating environment and sense of belonging. As partnership with families, we develop and maintain positive relationships based on honesty, trust, and respect. We consider families a vital aspect of our program.
It is important to communicate with parents on a day to day basis regarding the children’s individual needs. It is important to provide parents with written information on children’s daily routine, bottle administration, and nappy changing. Children’s daily routine (eg. What they ate, bottles, and sleep time) will be documented on the whiteboard so that parents can be aware and informed of their day.
Partnership with Community:
As educators, we also believe in building positive relationships with our local community. Acknowledging and recognising the support and help from our community allows children to explore their surroundings.
National Rating
Acacia children’s centre have been rated as meeting the National Quality Standard set be ACECQA.
Please check the link below to see more about this rating
files.acecqa.gov.au_files_Quality area 2 web
Quality area 6 web Quality area 7 web
