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 local Early Childhood professionals, we have a strong commitment to the provision of quality care and education. We work alongside our team on a daily basis. We value and recognise the importance of professionalism, and ensure that all educators and staff have exceptional skills and experience for their position. We are passionate and invest in professional development offering only the best practice in early childhood education and care.
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.
Catherine and Diane Pelle are both proud mothers and our guiding rule of thumb is to provide our families nothing less than we would expect and want for our own children. We have a strong passion and commitment to care and education for all children and families at our service.
With 10 years’ experience within the Early Childhood Education and Care sector, together we own and operate Explore & Develop Emu Plains, Penrith and Penrith South. We manage our time by working a week in each service. We have both established relationships and friendships with the children in our care, their families, our educators and staff. We believe this is an essential ingredient to having successful businesses.
It is truly our privilege to be trusted with the education and care of your child. Our hope is to become a valued extension of your family— as you are to ours.
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
