Our Program and Approach
KU Wonnayba provides Long Day Care services to meet the needs of families in the local community, as well as staff and students from The University of Newcastle.
We have an open and inclusive home-like environment, where relationships between children, educators and families are all given the opportunity to flourish and develop. We follow the National Quality Framework, aiming to raise quality and drive continuous improvement and consistency in the education and care services that we provide.
Our program offers children the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of learning experiences and activities, each specifically designed to promote children’s confidence as capable, active participants in their own learning. Children are presented with a range of activities including gardening, arts and crafts, music and movement, physical play, block building, sand and water play, science experiments, early numeracy activities such as counting and measurement, and early literacy activities such as reading, drawing and writing.
Our programs are designed to help children solve problems, make choices, understand the consequences of their behaviour and learn to talk about and negotiate solutions. This guidance is given in ways that are nurturing, appropriate to your child’s age and development, and above all, make a positive contribution to your child’s self-esteem.
At KU Wonnayba, 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 educators, children and families, and we look forward to the opportunity of including 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 Wonnayba we focus on Relationships and Wellbeing for Children.
We incorporate this into our program by taking the time to develop deep, meaningful and respectful relationships with each child and immersing our knowledge of the child into the activities, experiences and environments we provide throughout the centre.
We feel that the children benefit from this focus because building strong secure relationships is paramount to achieving desired educational learning outcomes for children, as children need to feel safe, secure and supported before they begin to explore and learn. Relationships are the most powerful context for learning. Our area of focus helps children to competently learn and build social skills and make connections with other children.
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...
“Thank you all for your care, support, amazing attitudes you bring to our days. We couldn’t be happier being part of the very special Wonnayba world.” – KU Wonnayba parent
“I feel very lucky to have found Wonnayba. The care and nurturing that my son receives from his educators is outstanding, as well as the support given to me, as a parent, around his development”. – KU Wonnayba parent
Our Environment
Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within relationships and interactions between children and educators, and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting, homelike learning environments for children – whatever our setting.
Refurbished since its days as the original University Caretaker’s cottage, KU Wonnayba retains its home-like atmosphere in a beautiful, natural bushland setting.
Our playground is designed to maximise the use of the natural environment and allow children to play and explore as they would in their own backyard. We offer stimulating activities that arouse children’s curiosity and encourage them to choose from a variety of planned experiences, expanding their learning potential. Our playground includes natural elements such as sand, water, grass, mud, leaves and twigs, and we also offer gross motor experiences such as climbing, jumping and physical play. We foster the holistic development of each child so they feel inspired to create, imagine and play.
Our Awards
The Annual 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.
In 2018, Brooke Meadows at KU Wonnayba was awarded the Making “the KU Difference” Award to Quality.
In 2015, the team at KU Wonnayba was awarded the Making “the KU Difference” Award for Families.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU Wonnayba, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.
