Goodbye Jaye!

We are sorry to say goodbye to one of our originals this week. Jaye has her last day on Friday and we will be very sorry to see her go. Jaye has been a permanent fixture in the Outback since we opened. Best of luck for the future, Jaye. We’ll miss you!

NAIDOC Day

The NAIDOC Day Celebrations were a great success in conjunction with Trudy Tronc and Len Lawton – Some of the children got to sample some great foods – such as crocodile and emu sausages.

They listened to Dreamtime stories and did aboriginal paintings and learned how to build a ‘Gunya’.

A great time was had by all and we are grateful for the opportunity to learn so much about indigenous culture first-hand.

Stop, Drop & Roll!

We had an extra-special fire drill this morning, with a visit from the Chinchilla Rural Fire Brigade and Blazer the Koala to teach us all how what to do in case of a fire.
Everybody got to see inside the fire truck and we all heard the siren!
Thanks very much to Chinchilla Rural Fire Brigade for giving the children an experience they'll remember for a long time to come.

Happy Birthday Charley!!!

Charley's Place Early Childhood Centre is one year old today!
We have had a huge party with a big green cake to celebrate an awesome year. We've come a long way from first opening our doors, incorporating family day care and vacation care into our centre, now employing 17 staff and associating with 8 independent carers in the Chinchilla community.
We love watching the children grow as they progress through the different rooms and develop into interesting little people, with a sense of pride that we have contributed.
So happy birthday to everybody at Charley's Place! Here's to many more years.

Happy Easter!

March has been an exciting month at Charley’s Place with loads to do, see and keep up with.
We have had a couple of fundraisers this month with the Pie Drive raising over $900 and Book Club earning the centre a swathe of new books for the children to enjoy. Great work, everybody!
Congratulations to Christine for completing her Certificate III in Children’s Services – Well done, Christine! Best of luck for your Diploma.
Staff and carers have attended a special workshop on SIDS prevention this month. This is especially important for those staff working with younger children and babies, and we all learned something.
Welcome to our new staff member, Charis Cameron. Charis comes to us from the child care centre in Miles and we look forward to working with her very much.
Just a reminder, please don’t alter or add your child’s name to the Sign In/Out sheets at reception without speaking to admin or myself first. We are subject to strictly regulated staff:child ratios and the room rolls are arranged to adhere to these. There have been times in the past where it wasn’t a problem to fit an extra child in, but as we are fast reaching capacity, there is less leeway. Thank you for your assistance with this.

Congratulations Theresa!

Huge congratulations to Theresa Boniface who was awarded a regional scholarship to do her Diploma for her excellent work during her Certificate III in Children’s Services.
She was presented with the scholarship at the awards night in Toowoomba last fortnight.
We’re so proud of you, Theresa! Best of luck with your diploma.

Adopt-A-Grandparent

Our adopt-a-grandparent program is now under way -
We would like to invite grandparents and grandparents-at-heart to adopt one of our rooms as their very own and contribute to the programming in whatever way you wish.
You could read a book to the children, or help with painting and craft, sing, build sandcastles, baking.. Everybody has 'children skills'! If you play a musical instrument we would love to hear from you. Even if you are unable to attend the centre, you are still welcome to join our Adopt-A-Grandparent program and perhaps prepare craft items at home for the children to use, or to knit or crochet blankets for naptime.

You will be required to obtain a volunteer blue card if you wish to attend the centre, for safety's sake. A simple matter of filling out a form - with no cost involved. Simply click the 'contact us' link on the left to find out more about how you can join.
Charley's Place has an open inclusion policy and welcomes people of all multicultural and socio-economic backgrounds and of all ages and all abilities.