Kirrip Kindergarten

🥪🍎 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/

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!

🌏How do people around the world make art?🎨

Last week, the Butterfly group wrapped up their shared inquiry by exploring Pacific and Oceanic arts.

The children learned about Māori koru pattern painting from New Zealand. The koru, inspired by an unfurling fern leaf, represents new life, growth and family. As the children painted flowing koru patterns, they explored curved lines, balance and symmetry while expressing their creativity.

We also discovered Fijian flower lei making, learning how leis are traditionally created using flowers, leaves, shells and colourful materials. In Fiji, leis are worn during celebrations and welcoming ceremonies to show love, respect and happiness. Creating their own leis supported children to practise patterning, threading and fine motor skills, while learning about the importance of nature in Fijian culture.

What a beautiful way to finish our inquiry, celebrating art, culture and creativity from around the world 💛

🌟 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/

💚 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.

⭐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!

✨ 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.

🌟 NEW BLOG POST: Keeping Every Child Safe 🌟

At the Y, nothing matters more than the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care.

We’ve just published a new blog that unpacks the Y’s national advocacy for stronger child safety across the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, including why we’re calling for:
✔️ Two qualified educators in every room
✔️ Stronger, more consistent national regulation
✔️ Mandatory child safety training for all staff
✔️ Better oversight of agency and labour-hire educators
✔️ A system-wide approach that puts children first

These reforms aim to make sure every child, in every service, is safe — no matter where they live or learn.

🔗 Read the full article here:
https://childrensprograms.whittlesea.ymca.org.au/keeping-every-child-safe-the-ys-national-call-for-stronger-child-safety-in-early-childhood-education-and-care/

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