Sandcastles childcare Chatswood

Spacious and resource-rich environments  

Our Chatswood child care centre is designed to be a home away from home that encourages every child’s exploration. Our resource-rich early learning environments have been carefully designed to immerse your child into a world of exploration, curiosity, and learning.  

Each learning space extends onto our beautiful outdoor environment, which encourages endless opportunities for play! Our outdoor environments include a natural garden, mud kitchen, sand pit, climbing equipment and risky play for children to safely develop their strength, balance, and self-confidence. 

Long-standing and passionate team 

Our team of passionate educators make up the heart of the child care centre. Our experienced educators are passionate about helping every child succeed in discovering their identity and become confident learners. We are a multicultural early learning centre with several languages being spoken across our team including Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Italian, Filipino, Bangla, Portuguese and Spanish.

Healthy and delicious meals prepared on site  

Our child care centre provides children with nutrient-rich, unprocessed, and seasonal foods created to please even the fussiest of eaters. Our chef caters to the unique dietary requirements of every child.  

Here at our Chatswood child care centre, we believe that by encouraging active participation in food preparation (such as preparing and helping cook the meal), children learn to appreciate and understand the importance of healthy eating.

We look forward to partnering with you and your family to provide information, support, and high-quality early education and care in your child’s formative years. Contact our Family Support Team by calling 1800 413 958 or by enquiring  now to start your journey with us.  

Play is essential to every child’s learning and development. It enables children to make decisions, learn, take risks, and have fun. Our experienced team plan play-based learning activities in line with national standards. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) is designed to engage in your child’s interests and allow them to experience each day in a new way, supporting their learning in the lead-up to primary school.  

Our Early Learning Curriculum also provides children with :

Real Life experiences: Children participate in fun and exciting experiences such as harvesting the veggie garden, caring for our worm farm, caring for insects in the classroom, basic cooking skills, and engage in cultural celebrations and experiences.

Sustainability Program: Each age group participates in a sustainability project that help children embed sustainable practices into everyday life. Children learn about recycling, conserving water, growing food and the importance of looking after and protecting our planet. 

Music and movement programs: Our music programs include yoga and meditation and have been designed to help develop fundamental skills that help support children’s self-regulation, memory and concentration.

Sports program: This program includes Zumba and physio, and is designed to encourage activity and movement, while also building the children’s motor skills.

Cooking classes: The educators enjoy teaching the children how to prepare age appropriate meals and snacks, which encourages little ones to try new things and develop a love of healthy food. 

Community engagement activities: We have excursions to our local gardens Beauchamp Park, pet shop Pet town, fruit shop New Yen Yen and local primary school Chatswood Public School and Our Lady of Dolours to assist our preschool children with their transition to “big school”.

Xenia

I began my career in early childhood education and care in 2007 and started working at Sandcastles Childcare Chatswood in 2020. I hold a degree in dramatic art in Italy where I cooperated with a variety of early learning settings to implement children’s development and wellbeing though dramatic arts. In Australia, I studied a Diploma of early childhood. I worked as educator, room leader and centre director developing experience in supporting children’s families and educators in their learning and discovery journey.

I have developed many years of experience as an early childhood educator and learning leader. I enjoy taking part in the creation of learning programs and research activities related to self-regulation, development of creative thinking and social skills, support of bilingual and multicultural learning and dramatic arts for early education and care settings. I’m very passionate about children’s development and I thrive to enhance each child’s potential creating support and guidance for families in their little one’s learning journey.

Over time, I have learnt that children are capable and passionate learners. My teaching is guided by the idea inspired from Maria Montessori that we should not help a child doing something that they feel they can do themselves. I believe in children’s ability to be creative and critical thinkers. I think that supporting children’s development and wellbeing is a strong contribution to building a better future for everyone. Building strong emotional, critical and creative thinking skills will enable children to thrive in their future life with confidence and hope.

Being involved in a social environment will enable children to develop empathy and understanding for others and their own world. Relationship with other children and adults support children in developing the idea of a shared society with agreements and common grounds to live happily together. Early Childcare settings offers qualified teachers which is an extra support to families in their children’s learning journey. It is not just about the children; it is also about the families being able to share thoughts and ideas with professionals that have specific knowledge and understanding of children development.

Our team is a group of amazing human beings and are very experienced educators. Everyone in the team have been here for a long time and they develop their passion to support children learning like a family. Our educators and teachers support learning and growth with creative ideas, passion and profound respect for children and families. Our team is very multicultural. We speak a variety of languages and represent different cultural backgrounds.

We support our families by being there for families and children, being open to dialogue and conversation. By being around at pick up and drop of and by saying hello, having a chat and taking an interest in their lives. I enjoy sharing my knowledge to support parenthood with chats, conferences, sharing articles and ideas.

Rooms:

Starfish (0-2 years)  

Learning starts from before birth. Our nursery Educators have created a welcoming and nurturing environment where each baby feels safe to explore and discover new things – through their senses, their communication, cues (body language, facial expression, and sounds) and by experimenting. 

 On any given day you can see the nursery children engaging in all types of meaningful play, such as water play, music time, story time and more. Each day provides a brand new, exciting opportunity for our nursery children.  

Fairy Penguins (2-3 years) 

Our Teachers and Educators encourage the toddler children to learn through play to help enhance their sensory-motor development. This learning happens through carefully planned music, dance, games and reading experiences. On any given day the children can be seen developing their numeracy by building a tower, sorting objects, pointing and identifying shapes and patterns and participating in counting songs and games. 

Children in our toddler rooms are encouraged to participate in group play. Group play is important, as it helps our toddlers develop important social skills such as, turn taking, developing self-confidence and emotional self-regulation. Our team helps children through talking, planning and role modelling.  

Dolphins (3-5 years) 

Preschool is a unique time for learning with peers and developing skills for later learning.  Our play-based preschool program encourages active engagement in learning and supports a range of positive developmental outcomes including resilience, independence, critical thinking, and creativity. 

Offerings:

Our child care and preschool service provides the following:

• Nappies included
• Breakfast
• Morning tea
• Lunch
• Afternoon tea
• Veggie garden
• Music program
• SMART Interactive Whiteboard
• In-house cook
• Halal meal options
• Fully air-conditioned
• Large, natural play environments
• Water play area
• Early Childhood Teacher
• Government Approved Kindergarten program
• Merchandise (Backpack, hat, jumper)
• Vegetarian meals option
• Mindfulness program
• Self-regulation program
• Zumba classes
• Gross motor development program
• Excursions in local community
• Family and community events
• Community Library
• Bedsheets provided
• Mud Kitchen and natural garden
• Recycling station
• Outdoor program

A centre tour is a convenient way to experience the centre of your choice and meet with our qualified educators at a time suitable to your family schedule. Sandcastles also offers the virtual tour option in all our centres. Click here to book a tour online.

On the day of the tour, you’ll have the opportunity to observe practices and interactions within the centre environment. You’ll be able to see all the rooms and playgrounds, ask the team members any questions you have in mind, and get all the information you need to make the best decision for your child.

Sandcastles Family Support team will add your child’s name to our waitlist if one of our centres is currently full in your child’s age group. We will then contact you as soon as a place becomes available.

We also do monthly check-ins to review the availability, and you will receive a text message confirming if you’re still happy to remain on the waitlist each month. If you would like to get an update at any point, you’re welcome to reach out on our Web Chat or give us a call. 

Our Family Support team can also help you find more G8 early learning centres near you, with the same offerings at the Sandcastles centre you are interested in that have immediate availability.

It’s common for a child to experience separation anxiety when they first start child care. When you’re getting ready to start child care, you can help your child overcome anxieties by visiting the child care service together for a Stay and Play session, and easing into new routines at home.

Click here to read more tips about how to make the transition easier for your child.

Most of our Sandcastles child care and early education centres offer the following:

• Nappies and wipes
• Sunscreen and hats
• Nutritious meals prepared by our in-house cook

Some centres also provide sheets and formula, so you may not need to remember to pack them.

For nursery children, be sure to bring: nappy rash cream, dummies, bottles and teats, comfort toys or blankets, three spare outfits, spare socks and a plastic bag for wet clothes.

For toddlers and preschool or kindergarten-aged children, it’s best to bring: spare underwear, water bottle or sippy cup, sun hat, closed-toe shoes, two spare outfits, spare socks and a plastic bag for wet clothes.

Plus anything else your individual child may need, such as breast milk, a sleeping bag, a comforter or medication.

It’s best to speak to your centre of choice for a full list of everything included.

Sandcastles uses Xplor Home as our family communication app. It is the best and easiest way to keep track of your child’s day.

After you enrol your child with the centre, you can utilise Xplor Home to book child care days, manage your account, receive the photographs that capture your child’s learning, learn about your child’s progress, as well as keep up-to-date with upcoming centre events and important information.

If your child shows signs of an infectious illness when they arrive at the centre or becomes sick during the day, you may be notified that you need to make alternative arrangements or pick up your child from the centre, and keep them home until they are no longer infectious. While we understand that this can be inconvenient, Sandcastles is committed to maintaining a healthy environment and reducing the risk of infection for all children.

Under the Child Care Subsidy (CCS), families are allowed 42 absence days per child, per financial year. These can be taken for any reason, including public holidays and when children are sick, without the need for families to provide documentation.