Hello and welcome to Kanga's House Child Care Centre. This information has been put together to let you know a little more about the Centre and what we aim to do.

 

 

 

Kanga's House is open Monday to Friday from 8.00am to 5:30pm for our under 2 year olds and 8.00am to 6.00pm for our 2 to school age children, 48 weeks per year. Children are accepted between the ages of 3 months to school age.

 

The Centre has 99 children per day:

 

 

 

Vacation Care runs through the month of January when the Day Care Centre is closed. It runs from 8.30am - 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday. Children aged 3 months to school age are accepted. The number of children will depend on demand.

 

 

The Centre was established in February 1981 as a 73 place Community based Child Care Centre following a written submission from the Student Union of the University of New South Wales to the Minister of Social Security. Since then we have been funded by the State and Federal Governments, (currently only the State Government) and the University of New South Wales. In 1991 the centre expanded to include 16 UNSW Work based child care places. In 2008 the Centre increased its numbers from 89 to 99 children per day to include 10 more 0-2 year old places.

 

 

We believe that childhood is a unique and valuable stage of life and are committed to the care, overall development and education of each and every child. Our aim is to work in partnership with parents to ensure the centre provides individualised care to each child and encourage a love of learning. We provide a loving, secure and stimulating environment, supported by high staff child ratios, in which each child can develop to their full potential.

We believe that children learn through play, using a hands on approach and that social interaction is a very important aspect in their learning and the building of confidence, empathy and self-esteem. Above all children learn when having fun, feeling valued, making friends and finding their own place within society.
We are very fortunate to have children and families that come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and together we value and explore these, with a view of understanding shared and different views, to develop an appreciation and understanding of ourselves and others.

 

 

Coming to this Centre can be an exciting and stimulating experience for your child, full of variety, creativity and social interaction. Through play (participation and involvement) we encourage children to care for each other, to learn how to co-operate and consider others, become independent, self motivated and have non-sexist attitudes. The staff provide a program that is based on their individual observations and documentation of each child, in close communication with each family. This Centre believes every child is entitled to high quality care and is committed to the overall development of each and every child. As Froebel said "Everything should be done to facilitate the flowering of childhood in children".

 

The environment is thoughtfully organised to meet these needs, providing climbing and open play areas, quiet areas, book corners, art and craft, home corners and a wide range of toys, equipment and experiences for different types of play. We feel it is important to have a flexible program that offers many choices of activities for children, so they can freely choose to do activities that interest them. Through their interests we encourage children to gain a wide range of knowledge and skills that will equip them well for school and life. Our program particularly aims to develop their emotional, social, cognitive, language, creative and physical development underpinned by a confident self esteem.

 

 

Kanga's House is an Incorporated body governed by a Management Committee to which the Director and staff are responsible.

 

The members of the Management Committee are:

The Committee meetings are held monthly and are open to parents of children enrolled in the Centre and to staff representatives. The Committee welcomes suggestions and comments on the management of the centre.

 

 

There are 30 staff at the Centre with a wide range of qualifications, which include university trained teachers, TAFE trained child carers, Mother craft nurses, experienced untrained carers, administrative staff, cooks and cleaners. The qualities of the staff are a direct reflection on the quality of the care provided to the children and the centre as a whole and Kanga's has always been fortunate to employ staff of the highest calibre.

 

 

WE are a NUT FREE centre to safe guard those child who have an anaphylactive reaction to nuts. The Centre has one full time cook and one half time cook who provide an excellent selection and variety of fresh food, vegetables and fruit for all the children. Care and thought is put into the weekly planning of menus to ensure a nutritious and balanced diet is provided, including special dietary requirements for children with allergies and other dietary needs.

 

The emphasis is on whole food and plenty of raw fruit and vegetables. We promote and encourage a salt free and sugar free diet. Three meals are provided daily with extra snacks available from the kitchen on request. Lunch is a hot meal with a fruit platter to follow. We do not use a set weekly menu but do repeat children's favourites every now and then and each week includes 1 vegetarian meal, 2 red meat, 1 chicken and 1 fish meal that are rotated over the weeks to ensure all children experience the different foods and the menu is displayed at the centre. Morning and afternoon meals may be sandwiches, or other such fair with fruit to follow. Birthdays are usually celebrated by parents bringing in a cake for their child to share with the other children, has to be nut free.

 

Please contact Centres individually to arrange a visit, or to seek further information.

 

 

The waiting list priority is as follows:

 

Our waiting list is opened for new enrolments from 1st November to 30th September ever year.  Re-enrolments are taken in October (see below).  You must remember to come back in October to re-enrol to maintain your name on our waiting list.  We do not send out any reminders.

 

 

Re-enrolments 1st to 31st October only.  This is for families who are already on our waiting list.

Offers are made in November for the following year.

If you do not re-enrol each October, your child's name will be deleted from our waiting list as we will assume you no longer require a place.

 

 

 

Children can attend 2, 3, 4 or 5 consecutive days, please ask centre for patterns of attendance.

 

Salary Sacrifice (if UNSW staff member) OR Child Care Benefit is available.

 

MORE INFORMATION

Please contact the Director on 9662 8353 or 9385 5449 Fax 9662 6747, Email kangashouse@unsw.edu.au

 

52 - 54 Barker Street Kingsford 2032 (Opposite Main Gate 14 on Barker St, entrance at rear in Harbourne Lane)