KU Phillip Park Children's Centre

2-10 Yurong Parkway
SYDNEY NSW 2011
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  • Monday to Friday 7:30am - 6:00pm
Babies Toddlers Preschoolers NSW Fee Relief – Childcare

Our Program and Approach

At KU Phillip Park, we see childhood as a time of playful possibility, where children become imagined explorers, discoverers and inventors as they act upon their natural curiosities to learn through questions and be in relationship with others. We also believe as children respond to the world around them, we can better support them to become all they desire to be, by sparking in them a love for lifelong learning.

Our education programs illustrate our professional commitment to inquiry and interest based teaching and learning. Educators respond to the individual needs, interests and experiences of each child. We also value opportunities to promote social skills and positive interactions between children by creating small group learning initiated from children’s shared interests and thinking. In facilitating social, emotional and physical development through social settings, we are able to build upon their confidence, self-esteem and resilience.

Our programs are founded upon the belief that children learn best in settings where they feel safe, secure and loved. It is through relational play that the infant and toddler aged child begins to make sense of the wider world of relationships, especially with significant others beyond their home and family.

Our learning environment is constantly changing to respond to the children’s play ideas, needs, interests, and projects that they are involved in on a daily basis. We utilise the natural and built environment to give context to their learning and play by providing a range of everyday materials, objects and tools that reflect real life experiences. We regularly set up curriculum areas that promote music, art, active movement, dance, dramatic play, cooking, puppetry, water and sand play, construction, science and technology, to extend children’s current interests. Early literacy and numeracy are integrated throughout these experiences and the routines of the day, and are most visible in storytelling opportunities, circle times as individuals and groups in planning their day and communicating their ideas.

We greatly value the strong relationships between our staff, children and families, and we look forward to incorporating your family in the life of our centre.


We Focus On

In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of focus.

At KU Phillip Park, we focus on Building a Community of Inquiry and Investigation.

We incorporate this into our programs in partnership with our community through regular walks, outings and excursions to local sites of significance, such as The Australian Museum, Botanical Gardens, Art Gallery, visits to Cook and Phillip Park and neighbourhood walks to local businesses and restaurants.

We anticipate that through these known and unknown journeys into the local community the children will have opportunities to revisit, reflect and retell shared experiences beyond the centre gate. This focus encourages relationships with places, people and objects as landmarks of our community and extends children’s natural curiosity.


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...

“Having watched my three children grow and excel through play based learning, I will be saddened when the time comes for our boys to move onto ‘big school’. The boys enjoy their days at the centre and have developed strong relationships with their peers and educators.” - KU Phillip Park parent

"The team at KU Phillip Park are as devoted to our children's emotional and physical development as we are as their parents. We know that the educators there care for our children in a way beyond being an educator. They see our children as individuals and acknowledge that they need to be supported on a variety of levels in different ways. "Thank you" isn't enough to show them that we appreciate all that they do for our children." - KU Phillip Park parent

Our Environment

Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within the relationships and interactions between children and staff, and children and their families. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting and homelike learning environments for children to be surrounded by.

KU Phillip Park is strategically located next to Cook and Phillip Park, which offers an array of natural and man-made landscapes that include towering trees and historic architecture for children to view and engage with.

Our playground is our outdoor learning environment that 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 open ended items that can challenge and stimulate creativity, where children and educators can create things together. Additional outdoor activities can 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 Awards

The KU Phillip Park team were awarded the 'Making the KU Difference to Quality' Award in 2019, recognising the team's commitment to providing a high quality program to support the best outcomes for the children in their care.

The Annual Making the KU Difference Awards were introduced a number of years ago, as a way of acknowledging KU staff who have made a significant contribution to KU. These annual awards are open to all KU staff, at any level (either individual staff or a team), who have worked above and beyond their normal duties.


Our Reconciliation Action Plan

KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU Phillip Park, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to present it here.


Other Features

Child Care Subsidy
Cooked Meal
Designed Centre
Extended Hours
Hat and Sunscreen
Lunch
Transition to School
Public Transport
Play-based Learning
Parking
Outdoor Play
Nappies
Storypark
Education for Sustainability
photo of Sheryl Xu

Sheryl Xu

Director

Sheryl is a university qualified early childhood teacher with over 20 years’ experience working with young children. She has been working at Phillip Park Children’s Centre since 2023 and was proudly nominated for a 2023 ‘Making the KU Difference Award’.

Sheryl is passionate about Early Childhood Education and trusts that each child’s journey is unique and should be tailored to their individuality. She fosters a playful learning environment where children’s voices are valued and integrated into the curriculum.

Sheryl leads a strong, collaborative team, building respectful and genuine relationships with families and communities. Her approachable demeanour, enthusiasm, and dedication create a warm, welcoming space that celebrates cultural diversity and inclusivity.

Our Team

Our team of early childhood educators are qualified, experienced and highly responsive. All educators hold specialist qualifications in early childhood education. A key component of our high quality program is founded upon the positive interactions between our staff and children.

We pride ourselves on the multicultural competency of our team, who speak several languages and are representative of a variety of energetic age groups. Some members of staff have been at the centre for over a decade, offering a great wealth of experience and knowledge of the local community and early childhood education.

We look forward to welcoming you and your children to KU Phillip Park.

The daily fees for 2024 at KU Phillip Park Children's Centre are:

  • Infants: $199
  • Toddlers: $199
  • Preschoolers: $196

This is the full daily fee. If you are entitled to Child Care Subsidy, this will reduce the daily fee you are charged.

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, KU has remained very proudly a not-for-profit provider of quality education for more than 125 years. In the past, KU has taken great pride in offering the very best services with minimal increased fees wherever possible. However this year is different, escalating operating costs have meant that in 2024 we are forced to increase fees at a higher rate than we would normally.

The fee increase will ensure we can continue to improve the quality of our services and invest in our highly skilled teachers and educators. We recognise our staff are the heart of KU as they build strong nurturing relationships with children and families whilst continuing to provide a high-quality learning program. These are vital factors that contribute to what is most important to us all – the best outcomes for children.

Overall, KU services hold the highest ratings across the National Quality Standard, with 82% of our services either Excellent or Exceeding, compared to the sector benchmark of 45%.

KU does not distribute our profits to shareholders or send them offshore.

About Child Care Subsidy

Child Care Subsidy is the main payment to assist families with the costs of childcare. It is paid directly to the childcare provider and passed onto families as a fee reduction wherever families meet the criteria. The level of subsidy you receive, as well as the number of hours you will be subsidised, depends on your individual family’s circumstances.

If you do not already have one, you will need a MyGov account linked to Centrelink to claim any subsidy you may be eligible for, and to find out more information, please contact Centrelink on 136 150 or visit www.dese.gov.au.

NSW Start Strong Fee Relief

From 2024, the NSW government has provided additional fee relief funding, based on $2,110 per eligible 4 year old child attending a preschool program within a long day care service. This funding is applied as a weekly credit to the gap fee after CCS has been applied or to full fees where a family does not receive CCS. The Start Strong fee relief will not impact CCS entitlements.

If your child is 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on, or before 31 July 2024 and enrolled at an eligible long day care service, you will receive up to $500 in fee relief.

Start Strong fee relief funding is for children who are 4 years old on or before 31 July 2024, and can only be accessed in one service. This could either be in a community preschool or long day care service. If you have a child who may be eligible, please discuss this with your service Director.

The NSW Department of Education requires parents to sign the ‘Fee Relief Declaration and Consent’ form at the time of enrolment. Your eligibility for Start Strong fee relief Funding is conditional upon signing this form.