Regional Winner SA
Community Kids Mount Gambier Early Education Centre has been named the top performing centre in regional South Australia in the 2024 KindiCare Excellence Awards!
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
Community Kids Mount Gambier Early Education Centre is our Regional State Winner for South Australia, with an Excellent KindiCare Rating of 9.0, and this accolade is a testament to the huge effort the team makes to give children the best possible start.
At Community Kids Mount Gambier the educators are passionate and caring, and children’s wellbeing is at the centre of everything they do.
This childcare family is wonderfully diverse, with lots of different backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives coming into play, and the educators share a common belief that children’s differences should be celebrated, autonomy supported, and voices valued.
To ensure early learners feel supported and heard, the educators build strong relationships with them and their families, and the dynamic learning program is carefully designed to nurture the child and support their growth and development.
Educators draw on different pedagogies (the how of teaching) to deliver high-quality early childhood education and care, and Centre Manager, Kerri Scherer says, “We value the experience and knowledge each educator brings, and support each other to share and explore ideas and try new things with the children.”
This makes for a fun and enriching early learning experience, and the educators get a lot of value out of G8 Education’s training hub.
This hub contains a whole library of training materials to make ongoing professional development and upskilling relatively easy for the team, and the children benefit from the fresh and innovative ideas their educators bring to their practice.
And whether the children are on-site or out the gates, belonging is always central to the program at Community Kids Mount Gambier.
This is supported in lots of different ways, and some recent highlights have been the emotion journals children have created with educators, which prompt drawing, writing and conversations about emotions, and also the centre’s cultural map of the world.
Kerri explains that, “This map is an evolving and collaborative feature in the kindy room. It’s enabling the children to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others, as educators and children share conversations about their culture and what is special to them.”
There are also lots of incursions and excursions that build community connections with different groups, and the centre’s musical collaboration with Mount Gambier High School and kindness initiative with a local hospital have been particularly popular.
Kerri explains that, “The children have visited the high school to experience playing instruments with their music classes and seeing the school orchestra perform.
“They have also drawn pictures and walked to the hospital to deliver pictures to patients and nurses, which were beautifully received.”
Another thing that’s been beautifully received is the centre’s 2024 KindiCare Excellence Award!
The team is thrilled to be named Regional State Winner for South Australia, and Kerri says, “We are proud to reflect on the practice that has got us here, and excited for the future, as we discuss the possibilities of what we can achieve.”
Here at KindiCare, we look forward to seeing what comes next at this wonderful Mount Gambier centre, and congratulate Kerri and her team on their amazing effort and successes so far.
Learn more about Community Kids Mount Gambier Early Education Centre
Information correct as at 1 July 2024