21/09/2026
🌿 What a wonderful week of learning, connection and inspiration! 🌿
We feel so incredibly proud of our team and the way they continue to embrace every opportunity to learn, grow and share their knowledge with one another. 💚
Last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to welcome Dr Michele Peden, National Lead of Birth to Three, to Victoria for an inspiring week focused on Enabling Environments.
It was a week full of meaningful conversations, new ideas, reflection and lots of those wonderful “aha!” moments that make us stop and think about how we can make an even bigger difference for children every day.
✨ Monday – Goodstart Morwell Central
The week began with Michele spending the day at Goodstart Morwell Central, followed by a wonderful evening session with neighbouring centres, where more than 50 educators came together to learn and share.
We explored how our environments can become the “Third Teacher”, and how the spaces we create can influence children’s learning, wellbeing, relationships and sense of belonging.
We looked at the four dimensions of environment physical, social, temporal and intellectual and reflected on how these are brought to life through our everyday practice.
✨ Tuesday CD Connect
We were so proud to have Lauren Poppenbeck and Bree Slaven attend the CD Connect session and represent our team. 💕
It was fantastic to see so many educators and leaders coming together with that wonderful Vic East energy! There were rich conversations, plenty of reflection and so many ideas shared.
The focus on how leaders can coach, support and inspire their teams to create and sustain enabling environments provided lots of food for thought, and we’re excited to see how this learning continues to flow back into our practice.
✨ Wednesday - Educational Leaders & Birth to Three
Wednesday brought together more than 80 Educational Leaders and Birth to Three educators from across Vic East.
We were particularly proud to have Emma from Nursery One and Ceinwen from Nursery Two attend as Educational Leaders for Educators and bring their passion and curiosity to the day. 🌱
It might have been a little bit of a tight squeeze with so many people in the room 😂, but the energy, enthusiasm and willingness to learn were absolutely amazing!
One of the highlights was the hands on activity where educators worked together to design purposeful learning spaces, thinking about active learning areas, transitional spaces and calming retreat spaces.
There were so many great conversations happening educators sharing ideas, challenging their thinking and imagining new possibilities for the children in their care.
🌱 We also explored the R&R Model, cosy and home-like environments, the impact of physical spaces on learning, colour psychology and the use of natural elements to create calm, welcoming and engaging spaces.
For us, the most beautiful part of the week was seeing how much our educators genuinely care about creating environments where every child feels safe, valued, curious and able to learn and thrive.
A huge and heartfelt thank you to Dr Michele Peden for sharing her knowledge, passion and expertise with us. Your enthusiasm and ability to make us look at our environments through a different lens has certainly left us with lots to reflect on! 💚
And a very special thank you to Lauren, Bree, Emma and Ceinwen for representing our team and bringing this learning and inspiration back to share with our educators.
We are so lucky to have such passionate people who are always willing to learn, reflect and grow together.
Here’s to continuing the conversations, trying new things and creating beautiful, intentional environments where our children can flourish. 🌿💚
