At CURIOSITY Early Learning Centre, we prioritise the well-rounded development of our young learners, fostering social and emotional competencies alongside academic growth.

Children aged 3-5 years attend a minimum of 5 days per fortnight, with a flexible schedule of 3 days one week and 2 days the following. We strongly encourage families to access our Long Day Care services, offering additional days to further support your child’s development. 

Emphasising the importance of secure attachment, accessing care from one site contributes to enhanced child engagement and learning. We understand the diverse needs of our families and strive to be as flexible as possible with session bookings, prioritising the safety and wellbeing of our staff and children. 

Upon acceptance of your child’s enrolment, a meeting with the ELC Director is arranged to finalise the process, including the nomination of attendance days. This collaborative approach aims to build a strong partnership between us where common goals are shared, and expectations of the service and families are agreed upon. This partnership ensures your confidence in knowing that your child’s wellbeing and engagement in their educational experiences are our top priorities. 

During this meeting, we kindly request you to present your child’s immunisation records and any current plans related to asthma, anaphylaxis, allergies, eczema, or other underlying medical conditions requiring attention. Conversations around your child’s inclusion needs will also take place, and we encourage families to provide any Allied Health documentation (speech, occupational therapy, paediatric, etc.) that informs our planning for a child’s inclusion at the Centre. 

CURIOSITY is registered as a Child Care Facility offering Long Day Care from 7am to 6pm. Child Care Subsidy is available to all Australian Resident families, subject to meeting immunisation requirements. Entitlements are determined by an activity test, and eligibility details can be found on the Human Services website: Child Care Subsidy Eligibility 

Early Learning Program (3-5 year olds): 

9:00am – 3:00pm 

$90 per day 

Drop-off from 8:30 am, no later than 9am where possible, with pick up before 3:20 pm. 

Long Day Care (3-5 year olds): 

Before Program Care: 7:00 am – 8:30 am – $15 per session 

After Program Care: 3:20 pm – 6:00 pm – $22 per session 

These sessions include a light breakfast (Morning Sunrise) and afternoon snack (Afternoon Delight). 

Late Fees: Ensuring Punctuality and Smooth Operations 

To maintain the smooth operation of our services, children still in attendance at 3:21 pm will be booked into After Program Care, attracting CCS. Our service closes at 6 pm, and families who have not collected their child prior to 6 pm will incur a $20 fee for the first 15 minutes and a charge of $1 per minute after 6:15 pm.  

At CURIOSITY Early Learning Centre, we strive to provide quality education in a supportive and flexible environment, ensuring your child’s holistic development is our utmost priority. 

At CURIOSITY Early Learning Centre, we recognise the importance of maintaining the quality of care during holiday periods as we do throughout term periods. Our fees remain consistent during holidays, and families can refer to the pay schedule for before and after care times.

Session times remain unchanged during holiday periods, offering families the option to opt out of the Holiday Program without charge. Notification of the Holiday Program bookings will be communicated to families in Week 6 of each term. 

To keep costs manageable, our budgets are established on ‘full attendance’ for each session, and therefore, we do not provide refunds for missed sessions. Sessions cannot be swapped for alternative days within the weekly period. Should families wish to make changes to their Complying Written Agreement, a two-week written notice is required when reducing days of care or changing session bookings. These changes are considered and implemented under the discretion of management. 

Understanding that organising care for an unwell child can be challenging, we emphasise the importance of not sending a child with a temperature of 37.5 degrees or more or showing signs of general unwellness. While every effort is made to minimise the spread of illness at Curiosity, we rely on families to make informed decisions based on the wellbeing of our staff and other children. 

In cases where a child is absent for more than two weeks, a written notification to the ELC Director is required for consideration of fee waivers. 

To ensure your child has a comfortable and enriching experience at CURIOSITY ELC, please provide the following items daily: 

• A labelled drink bottle with fresh water. 
• A labelled fruit/vegetable container with ready-to-eat snacks. 
• A labelled lunch box containing a healthy snack, lunch option, and a treat. 
• A labelled school hat (left for laundering each week). 
• A labelled change of clothes, including underwear. 
• Library folder on the day your child borrows. 
• A pair of labelled gumboots, to be left at the Centre. 

CURIOSITY ELC is committed to promoting healthy eating patterns and is a ‘Nut-free’ and ‘Nude Food’ centre. In support of sustainability, we kindly request families not to send food with wrapping. Food scraps will be recycled into compost, and other rubbish will be sent home for families to manage. 

Our Before and After Program sessions include breakfast and afternoon foods, incorporating the input of the CURIOSITY ELC community into our ‘Morning Sunrise’ and ‘Afternoon Sunset’ menus.  

Children actively participate in meal creation, fostering a sense of community.  

An example menu could include fresh fruit, yoghurt, cheese toast, boiled eggs, and porridge for breakfast, and pancakes, vegetable sticks and dips etc for afternoon tea. 

Our menu plans will sit in accordance with the Healthy Eating Advisory Service and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. 

At CURIOSITY ELC, we believe that children have the right to explore their environments freely and with ease. With this in mind, we will have some compulsory uniform items that align to the school’s current branding and styles, and we recommend other suggested items for you to purchase at your discretion. 

Download our Uniform Information Booklet

Compulsory School Issue Items: 

• Bucket hat 
• CURIOSITY polo shirt 
• Navy pullover jumper 
• Library folder (Take Home Bag) 
• School Bag 

Additional Compulsory Items – available as school issue or generic purchase through Kmart or similar 

• Good Shepherd Navy beanie 
• Navy blue shorts 
• Navy blue track pants 
• Plain White or navy socks 

The incentive to opt for school issue items is that they are branded ‘Good Shepherd Lutheran School’ and may later be worn when commencing in Foundation. However, we accept that a generic purchase realises cost savings. 

Additional Compulsory Non School Issue 

• Velcro sneakers (please ensure that these are not high tops, and they are flat soled and have ample grip)  
• Non-Compulsory 
• Gumboots (these may remain at the Centre)  

We encourage children to be expressive in their play and appreciate that at times this involves ‘messy play’ There can also be times where things don’t quite go as planned and accidents happen. To prepare for these times, our friends at CURIOSITY ELC will need to have a spare uniform including underwear in their bag for ease of change when these times occur. 

Please label all items including underwear as you will be surprised how quickly items ‘grow legs’ and go for wonderful wanderings. 

We understand that toilet training is a developmental milestone that does not always stick to a determined time frame. We do expect that families commence toilet training before their child begins with us at CURIOSITY ELC. Developmentally, children between the ages of 18 months – 3 years are capable of developing these skills, so we encourage you to support your child in this area.  

We understand that this is not always possible as each child is different, and this is an area of development that requires consistency from home to care at CURIOSITY ELC. Nappy change facilities are available to provide dignity and care to children when needing to be changed. Nappies and pull-ups are required to be provided by families. 

Teaching your child hygiene practices such as wiping and directing flow appropriately, flushing, and hand washing is extremely important in preparing to start at CURIOSITY ELC. 

Your child’s care in this area will be discussed at enrolment and transition. 

At CURIOSITY ELC we program for the whole child and will be responsive to the emotional and physical needs of the individual child. These moments will be provided both inside and outside for the opportunity to connect with nature and also to provide comfort indoors. We believe that having the opportunity to rest and relax assists a child’s self-regulation allowing them to sustain play and learning. 

Provisions are in place for children to relax in quiet areas within the Centre and a designated rest space where mattresses are provided for the children. Families are asked to send along a small pillow, sheet and a blanket for their child which can be stored at CURIOSITY ELC if their child would like to access a time to sleep throughout their day. These items need to be clearly labelled in a small bag and sent to the centre each Monday. On Friday’s we encourage families to take their child’s items home for laundering if used throughout the week. 

With a strong connection to Good Shepherd Lutheran School, CURIOSITY ELC accesses the wealth of resources that are available at the school. Having this point of connection supports our strategy of making early connections for a happy and comfortable transition into our school’s Foundation entry point.  

Creative Arts Specialist – Our children have specialist music and movement lessons with the school’s specialist educators who will work alongside the staff at CURIOSITY ELC. 

Physical Education – Our children access the school’s physical education learning spaces such as the courts, playground, oval and gym. 

Library Visits – Each week the children walk to the school library and participate in rich Literacy and Language activities. There is also an opportunity for your child to borrow a book each week for you to enjoy together at home. 

Nature Play at Deborah Grove – Each week the children can access the natural learning space behind the school that Deborah Grove offers our school community. Our cross-campus buddies assist us with safe practices as they explore alongside Good Shepherd’s youngest of learners. 

Chapels and Assemblies – Throughout the year CURIOSITY students attend some Chapels and Assemblies at the school where a time of worship and learning from God’s Word will take place. Parents will be notified of these events with an invitation for you to join us. 

Cross Campus Buddies – Being connected to the school gives our children a great opportunity to engage in learning opportunities with older children and foster friendships in preparation for their transition to Foundation. 

Community Garden – Participation in weekly visits to our garden, conveniently located onsite at CURIOSITY for year round planting and harvesting.  An award-winning part of our ‘Living & Learning’ at Curiosity.

Community Events – Everyone loves a party and that’s why each year Good Shepherd Lutheran School begins the year with a whole school event. This event is a great time of connection with the wider community and provides an opportunity to meet some new families. CURIOSITY ELC will have a specially marked out area to gather our community and enjoy a time of food and conversation. 

Families in Action (FIA) – Our partnership with families is a high priority for us as we build connections between home and the learning environment. We offer volunteer training for our families to join us in offering learning opportunities to our children as inquiries evolve. We also extend invitations to families to join us as we take initiatives in the children’s learning through different expressions such as woodwork, science experiments and gardening etc. 

Our team of educators at CURIOSITY ELC and Good Shepherd Lutheran School are passionate about creating a seamless transition from our Early Learning Centre to the School. Having a wide variety of connection points through their first two years at CURIOSITY allows for wonderful opportunities to become familiar with the staff, buildings and community of learners, making the transition to ‘big school’ a happy and easy experience. 

Throughout your child’s 3-4 year old program with us, they have the opportunity to work and play alongside children in small group projects to build their confidence and to secure their attachment to this new environment. 

We work closely with Allied Service providers and the Foundation Team to meet the individual needs of every child to ensure that the transition to school is successful and celebrated by all involved.