Explore & Develop Emu Plains is conveniently located at the foot of the Blue Mountains – 273 Great Western Hwy, Emu Plains. The service offers a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment for children aged 6 weeks to 6 years old, 7.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday.
Our aim is to provide a welcoming home like environment where children and families feel they belong, and they are part of a community. Families can feel assured that the owners of the service will be available on site daily, together with an experienced and highly qualified team of educators.
Explore & Develop Emu Plains foster an emergent curriculum. This means that educators develop and deliver the education and care program based on the culture, interests, abilities and needs of each child. The program evolves over time to support each child’s learning progress. The educational program has a specific emphasis on play-based learning, which allows children to explore, wonder and be curious in their environment. This supports children to problem solve, think rationally, use skills of trial and error, and much more.
The benefits of play can be seen as a positive approach to learning that accommodates for educator involvement. This is important as we believe that educator involvement is crucial to support each individual child in their learning. Through play and interest’s, children learn to be independent in their learning however recognise when they need assistance. This, in turn, allows for educators to foster and scaffold children’s learning.
Another component of our curriculum that is very important to us is creating time for our families and building family partnerships. We feel by doing this we are able to find genuine ways to listen to and communicate with families. We want our families to feel valued, respected and empowered in their role as parents/guardians. By working in partnership, families better understand their child’s learning and development and children are much more likely to reach their potential.
Owned and operated by a local Early Childhood Education & Care Professional.
Explore & Develop Emu Plains educational curriculum is guided by Australia’s National Curriculum: The Early Years Learning Framework (ELYF). The EYLF supports our team of early childhood educators in extending and enriching children’s learning, from birth through to transitioning to school.
We actively seek ways to engage our local community, as our curriculum includes teaching and connecting the children to the world in which they live. This helps to invoke a sense of curiosity and fuels children’s inquiring minds. We have demonstrated at our Penrith and Penrith South services that we passionately support local community events – Relay for Life, 65 Roses Day and NAIDOC Cup, just to name a few. We plan to continue these partnerships at Emu Plains.
We believe the inclusion of indigenous perspectives and culture has many benefits for all children. Explore & Develop, as a group, have a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and working party. As an extension of this our service will develop our own RAP.
Our indoor and outdoor environments have been thoughtfully designed to create environments that are nurturing and stimulating. They incorporate appropriate levels of challenge and risk that engages a child’s natural curiosity and builds on their independent exploration.
Cathy Spain leads our Emu Plains team of educators and staff. Cathy is a qualified early childhood teacher and brings a wealth of experience to Explore & Develop Emu Plains. Cathy previously worked at our Penrith South service, where she embraced the role of Educational Leader since 2014.
Diane Pelle is a proud mum and her guiding rule of thumb is to provide her families with nothing less than she would expect and want for her own children.
She has a strong passion and commitment to care and education for all children and families at her service. With over 15 years’ experience within the Early Childhood Education and Care sector, Diane owns and operates Explore & Develop Emu Plains, Penrith and Penrith South.
Building trusting, respectful and collaborative relationships with children, families, educators and staff are of paramount importance to Diane and she believes these relationships are fundamental in achieving quality outcomes for children and to having a successful business.
It is truly her privilege to be trusted with the education and care of your child. Her hope is to become a valued extension of your family – as you are to hers.
273 Great Western Hwy
Emu Plains 2750
Phone : +61 1300 00 88 00
Service Email: emuplains@exploreanddevelop.com.au
Monday – Friday
7.00am – 6.00pm
