We are conveniently located in the heart of Newcastle CBD. We’re situated in a historical building that is striking with its fine brickwork and monochromatic dark red facade.
The building was originally designed as a shipping warehouse in Federation Warehouse style and was converted to an early childhood education and care service in the 1970’s.
Our site binds us to Newcastle’s history and provides a platform for our service, children, and families to learn about the city we live in and connect with our community. Images of local Newcastle landmarks — including Lake Macquarie — are positioned in our play areas, which assist children and families to foster their sense of belonging to the local community.
Building on this sense of belonging, our curriculum is child-led and centred — it follows rather than leads children, responding to and expanding on their expressed interests.
We view children as inventive, enriched, and vibrant human beings who are actively constructing their own experiences. We aim to respond reflectively and respectfully to the skills and interests of our children and their families, creating a curriculum that is not only developmentally appropriate but also culturally and individually suitable.
We offer families flexibility with their work/life commitments by providing extended hours. We are conveniently located next to an undercover parking station for families who require all day parking (carpark fees apply).
We value staff engagement in professional learning and development and are committed to providing ongoing access to the latest professional development and upcoming early childhood research. We seek to foster a culture of learning amongst our educators by regularly providing access to industry events, courses, conferences, and publications.
We believe that school readiness is not an isolated program, but an ongoing process that occurs over many years. We aim to provide a play-based curriculum that prepares children not only for school, but for a lifetime of confident learning.
Care for ourselves, care for each other and care for our world: these values underpin everything we do and communicate at Explore & Develop Newcastle East.
Our learning environments are designed to foster children’s natural curiosity, sense of wonder and creativity.
A state-of-the-art fingerprint sensor will allow families to gain safe access to our premises.
As owner of Explore & Develop Newcastle East, Cherie supports a skilled team of educators to deliver the best outcomes for your children.
She believes in open, authentic and honest relationships and providing a safe space for your child and family to flourish.
A highly skilled educator, Cherie has almost three decades of experience in the early childhood education and care sector.
With children of her own, Cherie deeply understands the perspectives of families and takes a personal approach to support the needs of every child and family at the service.
Our warm and calm nursery room provides a home-like space for children to build their sense of security and belonging. Your baby’s developmental and emotional needs are a priority to us, thus we focus on providing high quality care, following children’s individual routines and ensuring consistency between your home and our service.
The indoor curriculum offers stimulating experiences and age-appropriate resources, which allow for own pace exploration and discovery, whilst achieving key developmental milestones.
We pride ourselves in offering a safe and nurturing environment where children build trusting and secure attachments with their educators and strong partnerships with families are formed. Regular updates and open communication with families are key features of our collaborative family approach, as we acknowledge the unique needs, beliefs and values of our families.
With the comfort of a home away from home environment, we provide a welcoming breastfeeding space for you and your baby and offer a comprehensive orientation process, gently transitioning your child into our care.
Our focus in the infant room is to provide a calm, nurturing and safe environment for children to continue developing their sense of belonging and identity, while still following their individual sleep and feeding routines.
Our indoor curriculum, linked to the Early Years Learning Framework, is rich with meaningful, age-appropriate experiences and natural materials, fostering open-ended play and discovery whilst building children’s connections with others and their emergent independence.
The spacious outdoor area provides our infants with opportunities to further develop their mobility and coordination, as well as their sensory perceptions, while increasingly engaging is social scenarios, which in turn build on children’s sense of wellbeing.
This is a stimulating and vibrant learning space for our busy and curious toddlers. A variety of natural and open-ended resources are meaningfully placed in a range of learning spaces, fostering learning dispositions such as cooperation, confidence and enthusiasm. The indoor environment also includes construction, creative arts, music, yoga and dramatic play, all designed for active busy minds and bodies.
Our experienced and qualified educators develop a flexible and responsive curriculum attuned to the children’s interests and abilities, with a strong focus on emerging independence and the development of self-help skills. During this busy stage of development, we also place special emphasis on enriching children’s emergent language skills by incorporating a range of small and large group activities and fostering their socio-emotional skills through collaborative work and emotional awareness.
Transitions are an intrinsic part of toddlerhood and as such, we strive to holistically support families in this key stage, while promoting children’s self-esteem and autonomy.
Our welcoming and stimulating Junior Preschool offers a variety of learning spaces which promote children’s creativity and imagination, whilst catering for a myriad learning styles, interests and inquisitive minds.
In the Junior Preschool, we believe in children taking considered risks in their decision-making and being open to new challenges and discoveries to foster their emerging resilience and become confident and involved learners.
With the support of our experienced and qualified educators, children continue to build on their sense of belonging and connectedness with others, while building the foundations that will ensure a lifelong love for learning.
Our Senior Preschoolers are immersed in a vibrant and flexible environment, where they are encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning, personal regulation and contribution to the social environment. With the support and encouragement of our trusted educators, children use a range of processes such as exploration, questioning and problem solving across all aspects of the curriculum.
Our Transition to School Program encompasses a holistic approach, where children not only build on emergent Literacy and Numeracy concepts, but also focus on equity, inclusion, fairness and social justice. Children’s physical and mental wellbeing are promoted daily through a range of well-planned games and experiences. Taking care of belongings, conflict resolution skills, personal hygiene are also an integral part of our program.
In collaboration with Newcastle Grammar, our Senior Preschoolers are offered Mandarin and Literacy lessons on a weekly basis, delivered in a playful and fun way, adding to the already vast learning curriculum in preparation for learning beyond Explore & Develop.
In 2023, Explore & Develop – Newcastle East formed a relationship with Newcastle Grammar School in order to help connect our families to a quality local school community.
Spanning two campuses, Newcastle Grammar is an independent K-12 school in the Anglican tradition, offering an innovative co-curricular program, strong academic results and a commitment to student wellbeing.
As part of the partnership, our preschool children will enjoy ongoing visits from specialist NGS teachers – including Mandarin, sports and science lessons– all held onsite in our preschool.
To learn more about the school, click here or call 4925 2121.
50 Bolton Street
Newcastle NSW
2300
Monday – Friday
7.30am – 6.00pm
