Galada Kindergarten

🧧✨ Lunar New Year celebrations at Galada Kindergarten ✨🧧

This week, our four-year-old kinder children at Galada Kindergarten have been joyfully celebrating Lunar New Year as part of our Mandarin program.

The children carefully folded, cut and assembled their own lanterns, strengthening fine motor skills while demonstrating wonderful focus and teamwork.

They read stories about Lunar New Year and watched an educational video to learn how families celebrate.

They explored the traditions of the Lion Dance and built and decorated a horse, recognising that this year is the Year of the Horse, using recycled materials.

Through art, language and cultural exploration, our children are building confidence, curiosity and respect for diverse traditions in meaningful ways. ️

🥪🍎 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/

✨ Limited 3-year-old kinder places still available in 2026 ✨

We currently have a small number of 3-year-old kindergarten places available.
Our program supports children to build confidence, independence and a love of learning through play-based experiences in a nurturing and safe environment.

Places are limited so we encourage families to get in touch to find out more or arrange a tour.

📞 Contact us today to enquire.

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.

☀️ 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.

🌟 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.

💛 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!

🧒✨ Stick Man Creations! ✨🪵

Recently, a group of our kinder children got creative by making their very own stick men using popsicle sticks and yoghurt lids! 🙌🎨

This hands-on experience encouraged the children to:

🖐️ Strengthen fine motor skills
🎯 Practise spatial awareness
💡 Follow visual instructions
🌟 Use their imagination to bring their “stick people” to life

It was wonderful to see the children exploring, problem-solving, and proudly creating their little characters. Such a simple activity, yet filled with learning, teamwork, and fun! 💛

🌟 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/