KindiCare Excellence Awards 2022

The KindiCare Excellence Awards celebrate the top performing early childhood education and care centres right across Australia.

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2022 Award Winners

Tasmanian Regional Winner

Goodstart Early Learning Prospect Vale

KindiCareAugust 29th, 2022

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Goodstart Prospect Vale is an equal regional winner in Tasmania this year, with a KindiCare Rating of 9.4, and this small town service is in great demand.

There are currently more than 100 families on the wait list for this long day care just south of Launceston, and Centre Director, Bianca Schipper, says her service’s excellent reputation and low staff turnover are really attractive to local mums and dads. Bianca says, “We get families coming back, five or six years after their child has finished with us, saying how wonderful the experience was,” and everybody loves the service’s nature program! Goodstart Prospect Vale has an inspiring outdoor classroom, with a permanent outdoor educator stationed in it five days a week, rain or shine. Bianca says, “It’s an all-weather, year-round outdoor classroom and the only time we don’t go out, is if there’s a weather warning. We have wet weather suits for the children, which they can easily access if it’s raining outside, and all the rooms get to go out and learn with our outdoor educator.” Just as the weather changes, so too, does the learning program. The outdoor educator covers different themes each week, with lots of hands-on activities for the children, and she also incorporates changing interests into the program, which means they may learn about insects one week, and dinosaurs the next. There’s also a community garden, fruit-laden orchard, and chickens at Goodstart Prospect Value, with lots of great changes afoot. The service is working with a local Aboriginal artist, Grant ‘Tank’ Shaw, to transform the community garden into a fully edible bush tucker garden. Indigenous crops, including finger limes, Warrigal greens and black peppermint gums are new to the orchard, and a fully edible tea garden is also in the works. Bianca says, “At Goodstart Prospect Vale, each room has their own time to sit down and have a cup of tea, so we’re growing a variety of caffeine-free herbal teas.” Another popular feature of this excellent regional service is its nature playgroup. This regular event was suspended during the pandemic, but when it’s up and running, the nature playgroup is a chance for families in the wider community to visit Goodstart Prospect Vale’s outdoor classroom and participate in its nature program – weekly on Wednesday afternoons or monthly on Saturdays. All of these nature-based initiatives have helped to grow the service’s great reputation, and its KindiCare Excellence Award speaks volumes about the quality of this wonderful learning environment.

Information correct as at July 1 2022
Learn more about Goodstart Early Learning Prospect Vale.

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