Everton Park Outdoor Education

17/01/2024

At Everton Park Child Care and Development Centre we provide a holistic environment which supports the development of a lifelong passion for learning and a commitment to a sustainable future.

From tending to our gardens, to harvesting crops, caring for our chickens, preparing balanced meals and managing compost systems; we empower children to engage with the full cycle of food production at every stage. In doing this, we aim to foster meaningful and nurturing relationships with our environment and positive dispositions towards nutrition and healthy eating.

Children have the opportunity to investigate the interactions between people and their environments and they experience the interconnectedness of living systems, and develop an understanding about their own place within these relationships.

We are continually looking towards improvement, and the most recent addition to our program and sustainability practices is the implementation of our community seed store!

During the last few months of 2023, the children had been working hard in the garden to harvest, sort and save the seeds from our mature crops. Having completed the next stage of drying and packaging our seeds, they have now been made available for our learning community to enjoy fresh produce and beautiful, pollinator-friendly flowers at home.

Seed saving promotes environmental stewardship and a greater appreciation for where our food comes from, and supports children to develop an understanding of the entire food cycle as well as the lifecycle of plants.

We know that the educational outcomes for children are improved when learning experiences flow freely between centre and home environments, and we are so excited to see what opportunities our community project will bring!!

21/09/2023

THANK YOU to our incredible families who came in over the weekend to assemble our new wicking gardens and support us in our Woolworths Junior Landcare Project!!

Over the week, the children have been hard at work, planting in our very first crops! We planted zucchini, tuscan kale, silverbeet, bok choy, lebanese cucumber, tomato, mixed lettuce, butternut pumpkin, shallots, capsicum, parsley and green beans! We also planted sunflowers, marigolds and native daisies to attract bees to our gardens so that they can pollinate our flowers!

Although this project has come together beautifully, it will never really be complete; we are we are looking forward to spending the next several months nurturing our plants and learning more about lifecycles, healthy eating and sustainable practices and we know our gardens are going to provide our children with many wonderful learning opportunities for many years to come! 🌱

13/09/2023

31/08/2023

Work In Progress: Woolworths Junior Landcare Project Update 🌿

How exciting! Today we were VERY hard at work as we moved on to the next phase of our Woolworths Junior Landcare Project; dismantling our existing wicking garden beds!
These garden beds were installed almost 10 years ago, and whilst they have certainly served their purpose and provided us with many delicious crops and countless rich learning opportunities, they are beginning to deteriorate and fall apart.
The children did a fantastic job in helping us as we pulled apart the existing beds and sorted each component for either trash or salvage.
Involving children in construction and maintenance tasks not only supports children in developing a sense of ownership for the project and their learning environment, but many hands make light work – so we are very grateful for their help today!

07/08/2023

https://www.seek.com.au/job/68943788

Diploma qualified staff member to be in a great team of educators. Be part of the solution for young children in a play based environment.

07/06/2023

We’re thrilled to announce that we have received a 2023 Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant! 🌱

The aim of our project is to replace our deteriorating wicking gardens so that all children can continue to benefit from the exceptional learning outcomes these spaces provide. The children will be involved in designing, planting, and maintaining crops, managing composting systems and harvesting, preparing, and enjoying healthy food! The expected environmental and educational outcomes of the project include reduced water usage, sustainable food production and a deeper understanding of sustainable food practices within our whole learning community.

Everton Park Child Care is one of 1,107 primary schools and early learning centres across Australia to receive a Woolworths Junior Landcare grant to help grow our next generation of environmental champions.

The children and educators are looking forward to getting their hands dirty and learning from this project – we’ll keep you updated!

A big thank you to Woolworths and Landcare Australia for supporting our project! ✨

Click on https://woolworthsgrantsmap.juniorlandcare.org.au/grant-round-5/water-wise-food-production/ to read more about our project and others.

The aim of our project is to replace our deteriorating wicking gardens so that all children can continue to benefit from the exceptional outcomes these

20/04/2023

I am excited to once again be part of delivering the Level 3 forest school training in Brisbane later this year. If you currently deliver a Bush Kindy program or are looking to introduce this to your program, this is the course for you!!
I hope to see you at the training in September!