Our Program and Approach
Honeybee is a childcare centre dedicated to providing quality education and care for children of Commonwealth Bank direct employees and the general community. True to our name ‘Honeybee’, we work together to create a cohesive and collaborative community that offers every child, family and staff member the right to feel respected, safe, cared for and valued.
Since our establishment in 2015 to meet the needs of Commonwealth Bank families by providing a childcare service, it has been our key focus to grow and nurture genuine, warm and caring relationships to create a harmonious environment. At Honeybee, these relationships are at the core of how we work, creating a feeling and culture that is recognisable as soon as you walk in the door.
Our commitment lies in the belief that children learn best when they feel happy, safe, secure, and free to be themselves. We value children’s learning and connect our daily work with new theories and research to enhance the learning potentials and possibilities of each child.
Our program intentionally provides opportunities and activities based upon the Early Years Learning Framework, for your child to discover and pursue their own interests and strengths. We encourage children to laugh, think, question and learn. Their sense of self and confidence grows as they make connections with each other, and build warm, trusting relationships with our team.
At Honeybee Child Care Centre, we are proud of our reputation within the local community of providing rich education and care that concentrates on individual children in a family-focussed and supportive way.
We greatly value the strong relationships between our staff, children and families, and we look forward to the opportunity of including your family in the life of our centre.
Our Specialisation
In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of specialisation.
At Honeybee our area of specialisation is ensuring that we grow and nurture genuine, warm and caring relationships between children, families and educators.
We incorporate this into our program through the use of Playspaces®. Our educator team have undertaken Playspaces® training with Dr Robyn Dolby and engage in consistent rituals with families at drop off and pick up time to ensure a smooth and positive transition every time children arrive and depart Honeybee. Our Playspaces® training has enriched our understanding of ‘Attachment Theory’ including Circle of Security. When children arrive and depart, educators are sitting at the child’s level and are present and emotionally available for children and parents. A conversation takes place between the adults so that the child understands that the responsibility shifts from the parent to the educator and the educator is ready to look after them.
We use the ‘Row Boat’ metaphor:
‘The parents and educators share a metaphor whereby they imagine two little rowing-boats coming up next to each other and the child steps out of the parent’s boat and into the teacher’s. The parent’s job is to row their boat up nice and close to the educator’s boat, and then both the parent and educator must hold their boats steady, so the child can take that step from one boat to the other securely.’
We feel that the children benefit from this specialisation because they feel safe and secure and quickly develop a sense of belonging. Relationships between children, educators and families are enriched as we notice more of what is going on for children, their play ideas, interests and developing friendships. Children’s emotional development is enhanced and they are confident to explore and learn in a safe and secure environment.
Our Quality
Our centre has been independently assessed by the Department of Education NSW under the National Quality Standards, and are proud to be rated as Exceeding the National Quality Standard.
However what matters most is what our families think...
"Honeybee is an excellent centre, which is safe, warm and provides lots of fun times for our two boys. Simone and her amazing team have been a crucial part of our family since the first day it opened its doors. We love that the centre has carers who are warm and so clearly care about the children as individuals. What was also important to us was the large and varied outdoor space, which is so important for our two very active boys!" - Honeybee parent
"My daughter has grown into a happy, confident toddler who loves to go to Honeybee everyday. At Honeybee, the teachers are caring and supportive, they observe and develop each child to their own needs. Simone, the Director, is always there to listen, support and provide guidance. Thanks to everyone in Honeybee for making it a wonderful learning experience for my daughter." - Honeybee parent
Our Environment
Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within relationships and interactions between children and staff, and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting, homelike learning environments for children - whatever our setting.
Honeybee is a state of the art centre established in January 2015. The centre is situated in a co-corporate building, however as soon as you walk through the doors there is a lovely calm feel with natural light shining through the windows of every room. There are five rooms to cater for 79 children per day and one large playground that boasts a hill for rolling, lots of room for running and a beautiful outlook onto Darling Harbour. The centre also offers a drop off parking facility.
Honeybee has developed a culture and feeling that really strives to be a home away from home. Many people comment on the relaxed feeling, the dedicated team and lots of happy children. The team work hard to ensure that each individual child’s needs are taken care of and that each child feels a sense of security and support around them. When children feel secure, they are more open to learning and therefore each relationship is important to us.
Our playground is our outdoor learning environment and includes natural elements such as sand, grass, water, mud, leaves and twigs and kitchen gardens. Wherever possible we avoid using lots of fixed, plastic equipment in our playground. Instead we provide an ever-changing array of challenging and interesting activities and equipment, explored by children and educators together. These activities help with the development of children’s gross motor skills, enhancing their overall health and wellbeing as they discover their strengths and abilities and feel inspired to create, imagine and play.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At Honeybee, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2017 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.
