Childcare services
Long Day Care
At Columba Cottage we provide a safe and nurturing atmosphere for all children.
Each room has a team of passionate educators who recognise the importance of building respectful partnerships with families in order to support the individual needs of each child. Planned and spontaneous learning environments and experiences give children opportunities to:
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Take risks and challenge their abilities
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Recognise and celebrate their own achievements with peers and educators
- Be curious, explore their ideas and use their imagination in a range of settings
- Strengthen motor skill development.
We provide co-curricular activities at no extra cost to families during the day at Columba Cottage, such as our dance program and our movement skills program.
Columba Cottage Long Day Care runs on weekdays between 6.30am and 6.00pm, 51 weeks per year.
We are located on the grounds of St Columba Anglican School at 1 Iona Avenue, Port Macquarie, where you can drop off and pick up your children at our safe and secure drop-off zone.
Safe, secure facilities
We have secure car park access for registered parents only and entry to our building is via a keypad code.
Digital sign in and out
Kiosks are located at the entrance of the facility, making the process of signing your children in and out of the Centre each day quick and easy.
Nutritious eating
We serve shared fruit platters for morning tea and serve your home-packed lunches. Fresh nutritious canteen food can be ordered online through My School Connect.
Daily and quarterly reporting
Storypark, a secure app that provides insights to your child’s learning when and wherever you’d like to read them.
Fee assistance
Child care subsidies are available to qualifying families.
Babies
Trust, comfort and balance help the babies in our Koala and Possum rooms feel safe and happy.
Our newly renovated learning environments incorporate soft furnishings to create a homely feel. Our learning spaces provide opportunities for your children to play and explore while developing trusting bonds with their educators.
Our educators endeavour to emulate home routines for our infants and encourage regular feedback from families to ensure consistency as their precious ones grow and develop.
Daily programs offer plenty of unstructured play but are nicely balanced with intentional educator-led moments aimed to capture “in the moment” learning opportunities.
Early learners
We help our early learners in the Bilby and Platypus rooms develop an understanding of themselves and the world they are in.
We understand that our early learners seek out opportunities to develop an understanding of the world around them. With this in mind, we offer this age group an outdoor environment that offers endless learning opportunities to support developing bodies and minds.
The programs we deliver throughout the year focus on several key developmental areas with the children’s interests, knowledge and strengths intertwined throughout the planning cycle. A typical day offers ample time for unstructured play, allowing the children to explore their own thoughts and ideas. Structured learning opportunities occur daily to prepare children to participate in a more structured preschool program in the coming years.
Early learners are in the Bilby and Platypus rooms and our educators are passionate about creating interesting learning environments, both inside and out; before waiting, watching and noting how the children interpret resources or deepen their knowledge and understanding.
Preschool
Encouraging your child’s personality and potential is essential during the preschool years. Preparing for their school years is also fundamental.
We provide school readiness and pre-kindergarten programs in both of our preschool rooms.
Children are encouraged to explore, create, improvise and imagine.
Literacy and numeracy, as well as social and emotional development in an active, integrated learning environment, are incorporated into our daily program.
We have two preschool rooms, the Kangaroo room and the Emu room. Each is airconditioned and opens out to our state of the art play facilities, giving our children valuable outdoor experiences.
We offer co-curricular activities during the day at Columba Cottage at no extra charge:
- We have developed a Fundamental Movement program to help our preschoolers kick health goals.
- The St Columba Anglican School specialist dance teachers run a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM) based dance program.
Discover for yourself…