Not-for-profit
The Centre is not a commercial business. We are managed by a committed group of parents, with extremely dedicated and highly qualified educators. We have a transparent accounting system and are in sound financial shape, which means we can focus on what is best for our children, rather than shareholders’ profits.
The Co-operative
At Windsor Community Children’s Centre we are a community-based not-for-profit long day care centre and kindergarten. Our Centre is run by a Board and Co-operative made up of WCCC educators and the parents of the WCCC children. Our Co-op meets once a month to make decisions about running the Centre, for our children now, and for the families of WCCC in the future.
We are involved in strategic planning and policy development and setting the goals and priorities for the Centre. We aim to develop a culture where children thrive and the WCCC service offerings continually evolve and improve. We plan and co-ordinate communication with parents and organise social events to bring the WCCC community together.
We are the ‘Community’ of Windsor Community Children’s Centre. We’d love you to join us.
Ratios
A benefit with our centre is that we exceed the National Regulations for educator-to-child ratios. In each of our Infant Toddler rooms, there are four educators caring for up to 12 children. The current ratio is 1:4 meaning we have an extra educator to ensure meaningful engagements and high quality practice. Each of our kindergarten rooms have two educators each with an extra educator working between both to cover breaks. The ratio for over 3 year is 1:11. With up to 16 children in each space we are working at a maximum ratio of 1:8 which allows for a higher quality of interactions between educators, children and families in the overall learning journey.
Qualifications
Our educators are extremely highly qualified with most possessing either a diploma or degree-level Early Childhood qualification. We value the professional journey of our educators and the overall impact they can have on the programs we provide. The result of this is that all four key roles in our kindergarten environments are filled by Early Childhood Teachers that hold a degree or Masters in Early Childhood Education. This also means that a number of our educators within our infant toddler space are trained kindergarten teachers allowing for a different perspective to child development, education and care.
Outdoor space
Our outside yard is a hidden treasure to those that view our centre. We have a large open space that caters to a multi-aging indoor/outdoor program. This means that children from our younger rooms can move through the space to engage with older children, siblings and other educators. This supports the overall community feel we believe we provide at WCCC where children are exposed to multiple peer and educator relationships that will challenge them as well as support their ongoing learning journey. We aim for a more natural look to our outdoor space where we encourage children to explore and take risk. In coming into the centre you will find children climbing trees, engaging in water play, climbing, finding little nooks and connecting with nature all year round.
Meals
A nutritious and varied pescatarian menu is provided for our children each day. Morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late snack are all cooked on-site by our qualified chef. We have a community garden that we sometimes look to for ingredients for our meals and encourage children and families to plant and nurture the environment for this purpose. All allergies and intolerances are catered for. The Centre is nut-free and we work hard as a community to provide messages and support to a nutritious lifestyle.
Model centre
We have been a model education and care service for universities such as Swinburne, Melbourne, La Trobe and RMIT for many years. Students and educators from multiple disciplinaries are regular visitors to our Centre where we are able to showcase what we believe to be best-practice. This has seen the centre connect with multiple external organisations in promoting topics such as inclusion, mentoring and Indigenous perspectives within education where our knowledge, ideas and practices can be shared in strengthening the profession and guiding others on their own journeys.
Policies
All of our polices are available in hard copy at the front office. Current families can view the policies using the password.