Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten

11/02/2026

🥪🍎 What should I pack in my child’s kinder lunchbox?

It’s one of the most common questions we hear from families — and you’re not alone!

To recognise National Lunchbox Week, we’ve put together a helpful blog with practical, realistic lunchbox ideas to support children’s growth, energy and learning.

Our latest blog covers:
✔️ What a balanced kinder lunchbox looks like
✔️ Simple, friendly resources
✔️ Tips to make lunchbox packing easier (and more enjoyable!)
✔️ Why water is the best drink choice

There’s no such thing as a “perfect” lunchbox — just what works for your child and your family 💙

👉 Read the blog here: https://childrensprograms.whittlesea.ymca.org.au/healthy-kinder-lunchboxes-for-everyone/

04/02/2026

From 2 March 2026, our current Early Learning Facebook and Instagram pages will be closed as we move to one shared platform:

👉 Y Whittlesea Early Learning on Facebook
👉 .earlylearning on Instagram

This change supports:
✔️ Child safety and privacy
✔️ Consistent, high-quality content
✔️ A clearer, more connected way to share what’s happening across Early Learning

Our new pages will share updates, stories and information from all seven of our Early Learning services, including:
• Diggers Rest Early Learning Centre
• Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten
• Galada Kindergarten
• Kirrip Kindergarten
• Mill Park Heights Child Care & Kindergarten
• Orchard Road Community & Early Learning Centre
• The Heights Kindergarten

👉 What’s not changing:
You will continue to receive centre-specific updates, communication and information directly from your child’s educators via Storypark and Xplor.

We encourage all families to follow our new pages to stay connected and keep up to date with everything happening across Y Whittlesea Early Learning.

💛 Thank you for being part of our community. We look forward to connecting with you in our new space.

27/01/2026

☀️ Hot Weather Safety Reminder for Families ☀️

With Victoria experiencing unprecedented temperatures, there has sadly been a renewed increase in children being left alone in cars. Even on mild days, temperatures inside a parked car can rise dangerously fast with devastating consequences.

We encourage all families to please:

🚗 Never leave children unattended in cars, even for a short time
⏰ Follow centre collection and drop-off policies, especially during busy pick-up times
🧴 Be SunSmart and mindful of heat exposure throughout the day

🔥 Outdoor safety reminder:
On warmer days, please also remember that playground equipment, artificial grass and other outdoor surfaces can become extremely hot and may cause serious burns. These surfaces should always be checked before children play.

🐾 And a reminder — the same applies to pets. Never leave animals in cars or on hot surfaces.

21/12/2025

🌟 Celebrating the impact of Early Learning in 2025 🌟

As the year comes to an end, we’d love to acknowledge the incredible impact our Early Learning sector has had throughout 2025.

This year, together we achieved:
👶 130,766 early learning visits
🏡 1,679 early learning families supported
📚 14,600 hours of kindergarten delivered

These numbers represent so much more than statistics, they reflect relationships built, learning moments shared, and children supported to grow, explore and thrive every day.

We are deeply grateful to our families, our dedicated educators, and our wider community, and most importantly, to our children, who make everything we do so meaningful. Thank you for making 2025 such an amazing year.

19/12/2025

💛 Celebrating 20 Years of Beck at the Y! 💛

This year, we proudly celebrate an incredible milestone, 20 years of 'Boss Beck' as she is known, for being part of the Y community 🎉

Beck began her journey with the Y in 2005 as a casual educator at Mill Park Heights Child Care, and over the years also shared her skills as a swim teacher and within our school holiday programs, supporting children in many different ways. From there, her passion and leadership saw her grow into the 3-year-old kindergarten teacher and later Centre Coordinator, where she made a meaningful impact on children, families and fellow educators.

In 2017, Beck stepped into the role of Centre Manager at Orchard Road Community & Early Learning Centre, playing a pivotal role in setting up and opening the brand-new site and shaping it into the thriving centre it is today.

In 2023, Beck took on her current role as General Manager of Early Years, now overseeing seven early learning centres and kindergartens and leading a team of around 200 dedicated educators across our community.

Across two decades, Beck’s commitment, leadership and passion for early learning have left a lasting mark on the Y and the many lives she has touched.

👏 Thank you, Beck, for 20 incredible years with the Y, we are so grateful for everything you do!

17/12/2025

🌟 Empowering every child to thrive 🌟
As the year comes to an end, we’d love to share with our families and community the incredible impact our Early Years Engagement Support (EYES) Program has had across 2024–2025.

Now in its fourth year, the EYES Program continues to make a meaningful difference for children, families and educators across our early learning services. This year alone, EYES provided targeted early intervention and inclusion support to 133 children across our kindergartens and early learning centres.

Alongside direct support for children, the program has strengthened educator confidence, improved early identification and built strong partnerships with families—ensuring every child is recognised, supported and empowered to reach their full potential. 💛

We are incredibly proud of the EYES team and extend a heartfelt thank you to Funda and Maxim for their dedication, passion and the amazing impact they have made over the years.

🔗 Want to learn more about the EYES Program?
Follow the link below to read more about how we support every child’s unique journey:

https://childrensprograms.whittlesea.ymca.org.au/tailored-support-for-every-childs-unique-journey-the-eyes-program-at-the-y-whittlesea/

15/12/2025

💚 Thank you, Mill Park Secondary College💚

We are incredibly grateful to Mill Park Secondary College for their amazing support and generosity. Their school community proudly raised a total of $2,730.53 for the Y, with some of the College’s leaders visiting Mill Park Heights Child Care and Kindergarten to see the impact firsthand.

Funds raised throughout the year with R U OK Day, out of uniform days and other fundraising efforts will directly support our Early Years Engagement Support Program and go towards creating more educational packs for families of young children with developmental delays. These packs include sensory tools, learning resources and activities that families can use at home to help build skills, confidence and connection.

A huge congratulations and thank you to the Mill Park Secondary College community on this wonderful achievement and for making such a positive difference in our local community.

11/12/2025

⭐Looking for Christmas Gift Ideas? ⭐

As we get ready to launch the School ReadY Program across all Y Whittlesea centres in 2026, we’re excited to share the storybooks your children will explore throughout the year. These are beautiful, engaging titles that support early literacy, language development, imagination and a love of reading.

Remember, you can also borrow all of them for free from your local library!

The 2026 School ReadY Program stories include:

-We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
-The River
-Rainbow Days
-How to Catch a Star
-Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
-The Very Hungry Caterpillar
-Heads and Tails
-When the Waterhole Dries Up
-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
-Simon Sock
-Shoes from Grandpa
-Wombat Can’t Sing
-Any Alphabet Picture book, e.g., A-Z Aussie Alphabet Book
-Kissed by the Moon
-Big Rain Coming
-White Sunday
-Shadow Catchers
-Stellarphant
-Wombat Stew
-Stuck
-The Three Billy Goats Gruff (or any other Fairy Tale book)
-Frank’s Red Hat
-Mad Magpie
-Starting School

📖Whether you choose to buy them or borrow them, sharing these books at home is a wonderful way to strengthen your child’s confidence, vocabulary and storytelling skills.

Happy reading!

10/12/2025

✨ Exciting News for Our Y Whittlesea Families! ✨

We’re proud to share that the School ReadY Program, developed by Y Western Australia and currently being piloted at Orchard Road ELC, will be introduced across all our centres from February 2026.

This innovative program helps children build strong foundations in early literacy, language, social and emotional wellbeing, and early numeracy — all through play-based, intentional learning.

Early results from our Orchard Road pilot already show wonderful growth in children’s confidence, vocabulary, comprehension, and storytelling skills! 💛

In our latest blog, you’ll learn:
✅What the School ReadY Program is
✅ The research behind it
✅ How it supports 3 & 4-year-old kindergarten children
✅ What the pilot looks like in action
✅ Which centres are part of the 2026 rollout

👉 Read the full article: https://childrensprograms.whittlesea.ymca.org.au/innovative-learning-at-y-whittlesea-early-learning/

We’re so excited to bring this program to all our Y Whittlesea Early Learning, giving every child the strongest start to their school journey and beyond.

10/12/2025

🎄✨ Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten at Donnybrook Carols! ✨🎄

Over the weekend, our Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten community joined the Donnybrook Carols celebration—and what a wonderful evening it was!

Some of our children, families and educators had a fantastic time enjoying the music and connecting with our local community. Events like these are such a special way for our kindergarten to come together, celebrate the season and build a strong sense of belonging.

A big thank you to everyone who attended and represented our kinder with such joy and enthusiasm. 💛

We love being part of the Donnybrook community!

05/12/2025

A very big thank you to all our wonderful families for their support 🎁

Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten Today we were absolutely blown away by the generosity of the children, families, and staff at Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten. They collected and donated a wonderful selection of toys and food to support the work of The Salvation Army this Christmas season.

Their kindness will make a real difference.
Because of their giving hearts:

🎄 Children who might otherwise miss out will wake up to a gift on Christmas morning.
🍽️ Families doing it tough will have food on the table and hope in their homes.
❤️ Our community will feel a little brighter, a little lighter, and a whole lot more loved.

Thank you, Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten, for showing what Christmas is truly about—hope, generosity, and caring for others. Your support helps us bring joy and practical help to local families right here in our community.

We’re so grateful. 🙏❤️