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At YMCA Canberra Early Learning Centres, we recognise that It Takes A Village To Raise A Child.
We have places available for Infants, Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers.
Our Centres are located in Belconnen, Gungahlin, Holder, Holt and Jamison.
YMCA Canberra ELC’s are independently reviewed as a Safeguarding Children and Young People organisations with the Australian Childhood Foundation, meaning we are the safest place for your children to be when they are not with you.
If you, a family member or friends would like to book a tour of one of our Centre’s, then please call us today 6242 4040 and let us become part of your Childs’ Village.
Thanks to our friends from Crux Media for this beautiful video:
Access to YMCA Leisure Centres for you and your family members: Please don’t forget that as part of our current Enterprise Agreement, that you and your family members (residing at the same address as you) are able to access the YMCA Leisure Centres. You will need a letter of authority from the HR Team to be able to gain access.
Please contact us at HR.Canberra@ymca.org.au
When people talk about YMCA Canberra OSHC @ Kaleen Primary, we want them to talk about our place in the community, and how we are working hard to establish our presence here.
Over the last year, we have experienced a massive transformation in terms of an increase of numbers resulting in a centre split, as well as a total staff turnover. Though staff and children have finally settled coming into 2019, the changes have been significant for us and for our Kaleen families, so we wanted the change to bring its own positive rewards.
Helen Keller once said “alone we can do so little, together we can do so much,” and we have found this through the Kaleen community, and boy oh boy do we do a lot together!
We began our transition into the community by developing a “Passport to the World” program at After School Care, where every week in 2018 we would ‘visit’ a new country and the kids would get a stamp in their personal passports and colour in our giant wall map!
We encouraged families to participate by teaching us about their home countries, whether it be in the form of traditional cooking, cultural dresswear, songs in different languages or ancient stories.
By learning about the cultures that live within our small community, we were able to better understand how to appreciate and respect each other, and allowed the children the chance to embrace their heritage with their peers. This program was an amazing stepping stone which lead the children to seek out opportunities to use aspects of their new global knowledge. We still host trivia tournaments and talent shows to showcase these skills, and families are always welcome to watch!
Once we knew more about the community and its people, we wanted to know more about the environmental landscape we found ourselves a part of.
We began taking regular walks through the Kaleen surrounds, each time exploring something new and exciting about the area. We found Treasure Dam, a place to dig up hidden crystals and precious gems, Goblin Tunnel, where a Goblin hides and tells riddles when you pass, and Ant City, a giant ant colony metropolis right in the heart of Kaleen! We would often encounter animal friends and want to learn more about them. Did you know that a group of echidnas is called a parade?
The children organised Clean Up Kaleen, where they went out into the community and picked up enough litter to fill multiple garbage bags! We encourage all of our kids to be Earth Warriors and help save the planet, and they love seeing a clean Kaleen!
Sharing philosophies with the school about culture and enviornment, we were welcomed with open arms by the Principal at Kaleen Primary, and he encouraged us to participate in the P&C, which opened many doors for us in terms of helping the school.
We love volunteering in the canteen and at any school events, whether it be counting coins for a sausage sizzle or making the decorations for a winter wonderland disco- we always have a ball!
For over sixteen years YMCA Canberra OSHC @ Kaleen Primary has been a very big part of the local community, and we look forward to finding new ways to contribute to it, belong within it and do more together!
YMCA Canberra Children’s Services is a proud partner in the SPARK program supporting women and men into a qualification and career in early childhood.
We partnered with Ginninderry, CIT and North Belconnen Community Services to deliver the Certificate III in Children’s Services.
In March students participated in an information session which included group activities as part of a selection process.
The program is supported by Holt ELC with practical work placements and guidance given to the students 2 days per week.
In 2018 Holt ELC supported 5 students with all of them successfully completing the qualification and many moving into employment with the YMCA.
Earlier this year, one of our SPARK Students, Cynthia, was featured in a news story in WIN TV.
Earlier this year, the teams from Early Learning and Outside School Hours Care combined in a professional development day to engage and reflect on educational practices.
Professional development is a critical part of life as an educator and YMCA Canberra Children’s Services is proud to be able to support high quality opportunities for educators to come together and learn.
This year’s conference focussed on three themes – professionalism and values based practice, supporting children’s behaviour and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
Highly regarded guest speakers were asked to present and contribute to thinking with our main speakers, Toni and Robin Christie (Childspace) coming in from New Zealand.
The 150 participating educators provided feedback on the conference which overall was very well received and has led to beginning planning for our next conference in early 2020.
YMCA Canberra has launched an internal project to review and improve how we procure goods and services. The focus includes: Ensuring we partner with suppliers who share our values and provide high quality goods and services; Achieving value for money in order to maximise the funding we can provide to our Youth Space and other community programs; Applying good governance; and Seeking opportunities to support indigenous and local businesses. The project is supported by a team made up of representatives from each business unit.