About Us

The Sanctuary at Hillside – Early Education for Children provides care and education for children from birth to 6 years of age. 

The 85 place centre, opened on Tuesday 10th June, 2014 providing families with a contemporary, purpose built early learning centre designed to support young children to explore, grow, and learn. 

When you choose The Sanctuary at Hillside for your child, peace of mind is assured.  We aim to provide excellence in the care and education program offered to each child and family.

• A nurturing, enjoyable and challenging care and learning environment providing individualised learning and development plans for each child.
• Highly trained and experienced staff working in this demonstration early learning centre designed to train and support new and existing educators.
• A qualified chef to provide nutritious meals made from fresh seasonal produce
• A children’s nature garden providing children with a wealth of opportunities for exploration, play and learning.
• A centre mindful of the impact it has on the environment and as a result will endeavour to leave the smallest footprint as possible.

• A garden where children can assist with the growing and harvesting simple herbs, fruit and vegetables.
• A purpose built kitchen designed to allow children to participate in the preparation of meals. 
• A dining room designed specifically to allow children to come together for shared meals with siblings, friends and family members. 
• A Bush Kinder program where we spend time outdoors at our local linear park and connect with the natural environment. The children are have great respect for the environment and also enjoy our nature walks around the community.

Philosophy - written to the child

When you attend The Sanctuary at Hillside you will be provided with an enjoyable and challenging early learning program that will ensure you feel safe and supported at all times.  We will plan for you and for all of the children in the group as a whole.  You will always feel valued and important when you attend The Sanctuary at Hillside, your family is important to us also and we want to learn about you all as much as we can to ensure that your home life is reflected in our service. 

We will have lots of educators coming to learn at our centre and you will be able to show them what you are doing and learning when you come here.  We will provide extra staff in our centre to make sure that we can meet your learning and personal needs. 

Nature is very important to us and we will share our knowledge with you about the world and how people can help the world to be healthy.  We will be growing our own vegetables and herbs and will pick what we grow to eat in the garden and to add to the meals that our cook prepares for us.  From time to time you will have the opportunity to help our cook to prepare meals for the other children. 

We have a nature garden and indoor program to ensure you are provided with the opportunity to explore, share with others, learn and develop.  Our educators are tuned into your interests and will ensure we provide experiences that you are excited about.  Our team will also share with you the things that interest them or ideas and techniques to help you to further your current skills and knowledge. 

Being a part of the community is important to us, this starts in our centre with shared communal meal times in our dining room.  We will also provide you with opportunities to visit local parks and gardens in the area and to invite the community to join us for shared events also.  Participating in group experiences and undertaking tasks for the wider group is a start to the social responsibilities we like to provide all children with. 

We hope you enjoy your time with us at The Sanctuary at Hillside. 

CHILDREN’S LEARNING

We expect that children will leave us with the best version of themselves as we have challenged, supported and enriched their minds to explore and master so much.  Our role is not to prepare them for school but to prepare them for life, work and being a successful member of society, having purpose, having a strong self-esteem and self-image. 

SUPPORTING FAMILIES

Without a strong and capable family, the chances of children being healthy and therefore capable of reaching their potential is limited – we are here to gear, support, educate and refer families to other services.  This will ensure the best start for children. 

SUSTAINABILITY

We believe passionately about caring for our environment, the soil, the plants, the animals and the air that we breath.  I feel that if we connect with country as the people of the Kulin Nation – the Wurundjeri people did before us we will be doing justice to our work and the future of the land we live on. 

NATURE & THE ENVIRONMENT

We want to see children being curious and wondering about things in a scientific way.  I would like to see children noticing, questioning, exploring, problem solving, collaborating and therefore = learning through nature. Birds, insects (and other animals) the weather, the earth, plants and plant life. 

TEAM COHESION

Deploy strategic networks with compelling e-business needs.