Goodstart Early Learning Orange - Kite Street

Strong relationships are the foundation for confident, curious learners 💛

Goodstart’s key educator approach ensures every child is known, supported and feels safe - through consistent, nurturing connections with educators and meaningful partnerships with families. These bonds help build wellbeing, resilience and a true sense of belonging from day one.

Discover how this approach supports your child’s learning journey: https://brnw.ch/2

Last week we had a special visitor to the centre “Flora the explorer”.

Flora along with her friend “Greenie”taught us all about the different types of animals we find in the world - amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammal. Flora taught us how to sign Greenie’s name.

Throughout the show she danced and did lots of acrobatics and even did a few tricks with hula hoops.

We got to balance a peacock feather on our hands and noses, jump around like kangaroos and sing a song about fish.

Our Preschool 2 children recently went to Woolworths on an excursion as they needed a few ingredients to make their lunch (meatballs and pasta) and afternoon tea (smoothie ice cream bowls).

After a quick safety discussion they were off on an adventure with shopping bags and a shopping list. They needed bananas, strawberries, frozen mango, yoghurt, mince, pasta and pasta sauce.

Once we got to Woolworths we checked our shopping list and headed to buy all the ingredients, ticking them off so we didn’t forget anything. Once we had selected our items we headed to the checkout to pay.

When we got back we washed our hands ready to make the meatballs and prepare the smoothie ice cream bowls.

Our meatballs were delicious with most children giving them a go and we are extremely excitedly afternoon tea “ice cream”.

Did you know we invested $65.5M into our social purpose last year, a 14% increase on the year before? 👏 At Goodstart, we're proud of the impact we have on children, families and communities. As a not‑for‑profit, every dollar we earn is reinvested to improve outcomes – from high‑quality learning and educator development to extra support for children who need it most.
Because when we put children first, the impact goes further 💛

The research is clear 📚 reading aloud is one of the most powerful things we can do for our children.

When we read with a child, we’re doing far more than sharing a story. We’re building the foundations for language, confidence, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning.

Decades of research shows that children who are read to regularly:

💛 Build stronger language skills
Hearing rich varied language in books exposes children to far more words than everyday conversation alone. This growing vocabulary helps them understand, communicate and make sense of the world.

💛 Develop early literacy skills long before they learn to read
Through stories, children learn how books work – that print carries meaning, that pages turn left to right, and that stories have a beginning, middle and end. These early understandings make learning to read feel familiar and exciting.

💛 Strengthen phonological awareness
Rhymes, rhythms and playful sounds help children hear the building blocks of language.

💛 Grow their comprehension and thinking skills
Talking together about a story, predicting what might happen, wondering how a character feels, and connecting events to real life helps children develop memory, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking.

💛 Experience connection, comfort and joy
Shared reading fosters calmness, closeness, and moments of joint attention. These warm interactions support a child's sense of security and belonging.

Most importantly, children who experience positive, engaging reading moments from a young age are more likely to develop a genuine love of books - something that matters even more than early literacy skills alone.

Reading is simple, joyful, and sets children up for success in school and life.

Here is a list of some of our favourites below 👇

Influenza (flu) is serious but isn’t as scary if you’re vaccinated. A flu vaccine offers families and children the best protection from serious illness.

The yearly flu vaccine is free for children aged 6 months to under 5 years, Aboriginal children aged 6 months and over, and children with serious health conditions. It is recommended for everyone aged six months and over.

Children aged 2 - 4 years old can get a free nasal spray flu vaccine in NSW. It is gentle, painless, and needle-free.

Find out more and book your family’s flu vaccine today via the link in the comments.

We have limited vacancies in our Nursery, Toddler and Preschool rooms for children aged 6 weeks to 5 years. Come and join our community that strive for excellence! Book a centre tour online, or by phoning the service and chatting to our dedicated and passionate educators on 63620106.

Last night at our May staff meeting we were lucky to have Courtney, a Paediatric Physiotherapist from Canobolas Kids Health attend. Courtney shared her knowledge and answered questions from our staff.

This was valuable for our educators to learn to look for signs and gain knowledge to help the children with their development. Such a valuable resource for our centre and to build community involvement.

Canobolas Kids Health have regular parent information sessions on various topics that are worth attending. Head to their page for more information.

Last week we had some dinosaurs visit our centre along with Dave from Just Dream Productions.

As soon as the children saw Dave they were excited to see him as he had been at the centre recently with his Things that Creep and Crawl show. They were excited to see what he bought with him this time.

Dave shared some dinosaur facts with the children and then showed them fossils before heading outside to mine for some treasure of jewels and dinosaur teeth.

Then it was time to be introduced to Tilly, Annie and Toby, some of Dave’s dinosaur friends. Everyone was able to meet and pat the three dinosaurs.

We ended the show with decorating our own dinosaurs to take home.

Today is a day we set aside to celebrate and honour our mums, nans aunties and the mother figures in our lives.

We wouldn’t be who we are without your love, encouragement, dedication and hard work you do everyday.

On Friday we had a special afternoon tea and craft activities to celebrate our mums, nans. Thank you to all that attended.

Happy Mother’s Day! 💐