Our Program and Approach
At our centre childhood is celebrated. When they play and explore, children's imagination and curiosity is sparked - they enjoy learning, and are inspired to continue learning more.
At Tree House, we provide education and care for Stockland employees and the general community. Our play-based program provides a wide range of curriculum experiences across all learning areas. In our centre, children will be guided to explore art, music, dance, movement, science, numeracy, literacy, and social sciences.
One of our primary aims is for children to develop a sense of themselves as effective learners and to develop positive dispositions about learning. We seek to develop each child’s sense of self, social competence and their capacity for social awareness and social justice.
Our program celebrates diversity of culture, language, religion, gender, family structure and ability, and we pay particular attention to the Indigenous culture, heritage and the history of Australia’s first people.
At Tree House, 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.
Our centre is a welcoming and nurturing space where each child is immersed in a rich tapestry of educationally interactive experiences – a space where children are supported to be their own, unique selves, growing and developing a sense of belonging and empowerment.
We greatly value the strong relationships between our staff, children and families, and we look forward to the opportunity of including your family in the life of our centre.
Our Special Interest
In addition to the high quality well rounded programs we offer, all our KU centres are encouraged to develop an area of interest.
At Tree House, our special interest is in developing children’s appreciation for and connection with the natural environment and their understanding of sustainability issues. We strive to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander cultural perspectives to our curriculum and look to these cultures as a model for sustainable practice and environmental respect. We also seek to guide children’s exploration of the sciences involved in caring for the planet.
This focus is threaded through our curriculum as children are encouraged to care for their environment at a centre level, participating in recycling projects, helping to design and care for their play environments and utilising natural play materials for exploration.
We encourage and guide children to undertake research projects based on their own interests, with a focus on the development of environmental awareness and the interconnectedness of life. While engaging in these projects, children may be involved in cooking, gardening, creating, designing and building, reading, researching and learning to record their findings using a variety of media. We encourage development of children’s literacy skills whilst they are involved in this research.
We feel children benefit from our focus on sustainability and environmental awareness, as they develop an understanding of their capacity to make change in the world.
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...
"I genuinely cannot speak highly enough of how warm, professional and accommodating all of the staff have been at Tree House. We were warmly welcomed for orientation visits, which I believe made the settling in process much quicker and easier for my girls. The rooms seem full of creative, fun, colourful and varied learning experiences, which was in stark contrast to some other centres I've seen and clearly shows a lot of thought and planning on the part of the educators. The girls have also formed bonds with the educators and other children even more quickly than I thought they would, which makes the morning farewells so much easier! I feel very lucky that our family found this lovely centre." - The Tree House parent
"I have been very impressed with both the facilities and staff at The Tree House. The staff are extremely friendly and are absolutely brilliant with my baby." - The Tree House parent
Our Environment
Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within the relationships and interactions between children and staff and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting and homelike learning environments for children – whatever our setting.
Our centre is a fully equipped, state of the art facility that has been designed using concepts to create ‘as natural an environment’ as possible. We have a rooftop atrium that provides natural light to our play spaces, which are fitted out with natural timber floors, plants and wet and dry sandpits. Our centre also features a ‘secret forest’ play area for children.
Our playground is a simulated outdoor learning environment, and whilst indoors includes natural elements such as sand, water, bark, stones, rocks and branches. Whenever possible we avoid using lots of fixed and plastic equipment in our playground. Instead we provide an ever-changing array of challenging and interesting activities and equipment, explored by children and educators together.
We actively encourage children to be involved in the design of experiences and selection of materials utilised. These activities help with the development of children’s gross motor skills, enhancing their overall health and wellbeing as they discover their strengths and abilities and feel inspired to create, imagine and play.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At The Tree House, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to present it here.
