Education

Raising happy, healthy, engaged children is the goal for parents, carers and educators alike.  But what does it take to make learning and education a lifelong joy? Can educational outcomes be personalised for each child, no matter what their ability? and when should learning begin? 

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Why Windermere’s Family Day Care Educators enjoy guaranteed pay

“I may be self employed and contracted to Windermere but I am paid consistently and regularly. I don't have the worry of feeling I need to chase up payments from clients at all,” says Danielle.

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6 ways for your children to be healthy eaters

We’ve listed some practical ways you can ensure that mealtimes are happier and healthier rather than feeling like you are a member of the “food police”.

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Simple strategies to help you child settle into kinder or care

Whether it is starting at kindergarten or childcare, there are some practical things you can do to assist your little ones to make the transition.

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Enriched kinder program boosts children's essential skills

Once a week the kindergarten children visit Monash University facilities to practice skills under the guidance of their educators and students from the Monash Department of Occupational Therapy.

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5 things you can do to improve your child’s literacy

We’ve developed a list of suggestions that you can do with your preschooler to help foster their emerging literacy (reading and writing skills).

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Children have field day with outdoor learning

The outdoor classroom setting also allows the children to connect with nature, themselves and their community.

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Building Learning With Family Day Care Outings

Excursions are valuable because “children learn by being hands on and doing things for themselves.”

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A kinder day at Windermere

The children have access to both the indoor and outside play areas during the day. There is a variety of toys provided which encourage imaginative play, fine and gross motor skills and problem solving.

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Need nurturing, high quality family day care?

“We use professional development to identify problems and concerns and support our educators to find and use appropriate resources,” says Robyn.

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Family Day Care Educator combines being a mum with career

From a personal point of view Danielle says being a Family Day Care Educator allows her to combine earning an income while being available to her own children. “It is the best job on the planet for running your family and your own business,” she says.

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ELC and kinder children graduate together

Poppy, William, Frankie, Maali, Allira, Heathcliff, Peta, Annabelle and Lorienne, who are now five and six years old, have all attended the centre since its first year of operation in 2013.

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Why parents love family day care

The flexible hours mean that the Family Day Care option is particularly suited for working parents and carers who have non-standard work hours or school age children who require before and after school care.

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New kinder teacher brings ground breaking change

The Abecedarian teaching approach is an evidence based teaching approach that prioritises language development in young children. Learn how we implemented the teaching approach here.

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Beating Holiday Stress

The festive season is meant to be a time of joy, but for many it can be a time of stress, anxiety, disappointment and loneliness. Things don't always go to plan, so here are some steps you can take to help manage stress and anxiety during the holidays.

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Help Cally & Makrem this Christmas

The festive season is well and truly upon us and for most of us it's a precious and happy time spent with family and friends, but for some it can be a difficult and lonely time. Circumstances can mean families, like Cally's and Makrem's, find themselves needing the most basic of items - food, money to pay bills and gifts for children.

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Keeping more kids on track

Delving into topics including drug and alcohol awareness, cyber bullying and safety, anger management and anxiety and depression: this year alone Windermere's 8 week Kids on Track program has reached over 120 grade 5 and 6 students, giving them the skills to make better informed life choices.

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Flipping Family Violence on its head

Two women are killed every week as a result of family violence - across our work with families, schools and community groups we strive to drive this number down. Our Building Respectful Relationships schools program creates and builds positive perspectives and behaviours in students around gender. This year alone we have reached over 170 year 9 students at Cranbourne Secondary College.

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Inclusive Practice

Each industry has its own buzz words, phrases, and acronyms and as an Educator it’s easy to use these when communicating with a parent. However, it’s vitally important that parents and carers both understand what inclusive practice is and what it means for their child.

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Harmony Day 2016

'The beauty of this program, which engages students in a range of activities, is its simplicity. By coming together, they drop any preconceived ideas they may have held and realise​ just how much they have in common.'

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DIY Autism Starter Kit

To help determine the best way to meet the needs of people with ASD, Windermere has developed a ASD kit to help case workers and carers.

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Integrating a special needs child successfully into long day care

Eve was a premature baby and had a lot of health issues including trouble feeding resulting in delayed growth. This meant having a peg fitted into Eve's tummy to ensure she received the correct amount of nutrients and kilojoules everyday which was closely monitored by a dietician. When we first met Eve and her family, they where using a long day care service however, their GP referred them to Windermere.

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It Takes A Community

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is an old African proverb which basically means that raising a child is a community effort. In a broader sense it also means that every individual and group outside the family structure, such as an Early Learning Centre or Family Day Care, has an impact on a child’s wellbeing.

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Building Respectful Relationships

We are thrilled to say that our new Initiative Building Respectful Relationships has been a great success. Over 100 Year 8 students from Cranbourne Secondary College, underwent the program facilitated by two members of our Counselling team with specialist knowledge of family violence, relationships, sexual assault and gender-based violence.

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Young mums, early educators

Striking the right balance between work and family life can be tough, but that was never an issue for a Garfield mother who managed to roll both into one.

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