YMCA Belconnen ELC has been providing care and education to the local community of Belconnen for the past 10 years.

We acknowledge that we live and play on Ngunnawal land. We pay our respects to the elders past, present and future and seek to learn about the traditions and ways of Australia’s first people.

We take pride in our inclusive environment and celebrate our many different cultures within our centre and wider community.

We are strong advocates for children and they are each treated with love, dignity and respect at Belconnen. We encourage learning and growth for our children but in their own way and time.

Our outdoor garden is a part of our program and we play outside in all the weather Canberra throws at us. As this is such a big part of our program, we are just about to start up a big outdoor garden project which extends on from our nature garden project.

This year one of the new programs we have started is our ELLA project in our 4-5-year-old preschool room. ELLA is a language program which stands for “Early Learning Languages Australia”. This program will introduce the children to different languages and dialects, which will encourage appreciation of linguistic diversity. Our preschool children are currently learning Japanese.

We use the RIE Approach within our infant spaces. We focus on not overstimulating our infants but rather building strong trusting relationships with them by implementing the key educator approach, allowing free movement and space and providing the most relaxed, respectful care moments.

Each day at our centre we embrace the opportunities to grow and learn together as at YMCA Belconnen ELC, we know “It Takes A Village To Raise A Child”.