Why Greythorn?

As a community managed centre, we focus on building an active partnership between parents and staff to support our children. We consider ourselves an innovative provider and aim to set benchmarks for other children’s services in the area.

We pride ourselves on our ability to listen to the families and staff and genuinely consider what changes are needed in order to meet those needs.

Our Difference

We offer a unique set of differences that foster a strong sense of community within our centre.

Parent Participation Program – established since 2004

This is a compulsory program to encourage and reward parents for contributing to the running of the center and of the education of the children.

Parents are required to contribute 100 points to the Centre every six months where they can choose to donate items, contribute time or offer special skills or knowledge. This has had an inclusive impact on the centre families, as every parent is vital to the ongoing success of the centre.

No charge on public holidays or when the centre is closed: unlike other centres, we don’t charge our parents on public holidays or when the centre is closed during Christmas and New Year period. This means you can focus on choosing the right days for your child rather than worrying about wasted fees on those days.

Buy/Sell days to meet your family’s need

Family life can be unpredictable at times. You may need extra days of care due to unforeseen circumstances or less days of care when you take families on holiday. We introduced a system where parents can buy and sell their days to other families within the Centre for a minimal administration fee.

This means that if a family knows they will be absent, we can advertise the available days and other families buy them as required. For example, when a family has an unwell child, they volunteer to keep their child at home, and can sell their day to someone else.

The buying family pays for the day. Where a family is desperate for care on a particular day, the Centre emails all the families in that age group to ask if anyone is willing to sell their day (in this case the requesting family will pay the administration fee).

Occasional care program

A unique service that supports families by providing quality care for children from 12 months to school age. The flexible hours allow parents the opportunity to introduce their children to care by enrolling them for short periods of time.

Our Occasional Care Service caters for children aged 12 months to 5 years. We are open from 9.00am to 3.00pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays during the school terms and closed on Victorian school holidays and public holidays.

The daily, weekly and term booking systems allow many local families to utilise the service when they require care. Please note that as Occasional Care is a casual care service, care for any one child cannot be guaranteed every week.

We also provide meals from January 2021.

Dedicated and talented staff

With our parent run committee, we have a strong focus on retaining, developing and attracting the best staff available. Around 25% of staff have been with the centre for longer than 10 years – a sign of strong staff retention.

They actively engage the parents to ensure the children have highest quality experience consistent with the parent’s expectation and the children’s own developing interests.

Over the years, we change the structure of our staff in order to provide maximum continuity of the staff caring for the children within the Centre – this is about placing children’s needs first.

Regular parent information evening

Parent information evenings are held regularly on topics such as challenging behaviour, food allergies, and school readiness. Staff are also encouraged to be present and sometimes present alongside the specialist presenter.

These evenings are used as an opportunity for staff development, providing training for staff, as well as the change for staff members to represent the Centre in front of consultants and parents.

From a parent’s point of view, the relationships fostered are extremely successfully, as it feels like the care of the children is a genuine partnership between parents and carers.

Parents feel confident to consult staff when needed, to monitor developmental milestones, or to ask advice on new or challenging behaviours.

Kindergarten program

We offer a 4 year kinder program as part of our childcare program. This allows the family to have the benefits of kindergarten and the extended daycare hours so no dreaded mid afternoon pick up or double pick ups.