St Cecilia’s new playground, where friendships flourish
Catholic Early EdCare services provide children with plenty of opportunities to explore, discover and connect outdoors.
6:00am - 6:00pm
6:00am - 6:00pm
6:00am - 8:45am
2:45pm - 6:00pm
6:00am - 6:00pm
Opened in 2017 Good Shepherd offers long day care, kindergarten and outside school hours care in a purpose built centre that provides children with a unique learning environment designed to encourage creativity and exploration and reward curiosity.
In our long day care and kindergarten your child will enjoy our natural outdoor play spaces, our dedicated music and art rooms and restaurant with alfresco dining. In our music room the children experiment, making different sounds and working together with their educators. During outdoor play children enjoy running freely on real grass, perfecting mud cake recipes in our mud kitchen, watering and caring for our pineapples and tending to our native bees. In our restaurant and alfresco dining area the children will learn to serve themselves, clear their plates and to separate out their green waste for our worm farm.
In our long day care we care for children from six weeks and offer a Queensland Government approved kindergarten program for children in the year before prep. We supply all meals, wipes, sunscreen and cot linen. All you need to bring is nappies, a hat and a spare change of clothes. We offer nutritious, age-specific meals for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. All meals are prepared on site daily by our cook and approved by nutrition Australia. We are supportive of special dietary requirements including food allergies and welcome families to discuss their child’s needs with us.
Our outside school hours care offers before school care, after school care and vacation care for children from prep to grade seven. We offer a flexible and child initiated program with educators incorporating children’s ideas, cultures and interests when planning each day’s experiences. Our team will drop off and collect children from Good Shepherd Primary School and Springfield Central State School each day. Children are offered a healthy breakfast and after school snacks, which they help prepare.
Our centre strives to foster an environment that celebrates diversity, we encourage children to value and respect the individual uniqueness, spirituality and contribution of others.
Many of our families were preparing to celebrate Diwali in November. The children couldn’t help but bring their excitement for the Hindu new year into the service. So, our educators helped them share this important ritual with their friends by having the children watch videos and talk about what Diwali means to our families who were celebrating it. Each of the children also made their own lantern and Diya to light up our centre for the new year.
For many children the opportunity to mix with older members of their community is rare, but these relationships are a special way for children to understand differences and develop their social skills. The children at Good Shepherd couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces at our Intergenerational Day and spent the following days talking about the 'grandparents' they made friends with.
The kindergarten children received a special visit from the Ipswich City Council to teach them about native bees and provide us with our very own hive. The children prepared for the visit by investigating the life cycle of bees and discussed bee hives with their teacher. When the hive arrived the children were very eager to observe it up close, realising they couldn’t see the bees they all wanted their chance to hear them buzzing. The bees now have a home on our upstairs verandah and the children continue to visit them regularly to see how they are going and hear them buzz. We hope the bees will soon produce honey for the children to taste and cook with.
Our centre has been designed as a flexible, child centred space where we give children a ‘voice’ in the daily program by following their interests. When one of our educators noticed one the kindergarten children had a keen interest in the Super Moon, our teacher suggested he share information with the class about the Supermoon and solar space during show and share. This was a great opportunity for him to be the expert for a day, sharing his passion and new found knowledge with his teacher and friends while developing his confidence presenting in front of a group.
Each day at OSHC the children explore their interests and enjoy new experiences.
Each day at OSHC the children explore their interests and enjoy new experiences, including cultivating a herb garden.
Each day at OSHC the children explore their interests and enjoy new experiences, including art.
Current Fee Schedule
Fees are reviewed annually and may be increased each year. Quality care for children, affordability for families and financial viability of the service are the key elements in determining fees.
