Thank you for enquiring about First Years

We’re a small boutique, truly family owned and operated service. That means our centre owner, Sarah and her family are involved in the day-to-day, know our team, know our families and make decisions based on what is best for the children in each class.

Theres no corporate structure or external management team. What drives us is our philosophy and pedagogy not a regional manager. You will feel the family boutique vibes and see what we mean during your tour!

First Years was born from Sarah’s belief in play based learning. Sarah (is Australian but) lived in Reggio Emilia in Italy for 12 months which is where the Reggio play based pedagogy was founded. Sarah’s passion for early childhood education and play-based learning is what inspired her dream of running a centre so quality, purposeful play is what we are all about!

A Reggio-inspired play-based pedagogy honors each child by meeting them where they are in their development and getting to know their interests and strengths to guide their learning through play and meaningful connection. We believe each child is naturally capable and curious and we are to act as guides using their own individual play to help teach concepts.

Sarah’s mother Sellina is the educational mentor of both services and is also a highly qualified 35-year teacher with University Degrees in Education with majors in Psychology.

Our all-female team of nurturing, experienced educators bring kindness, warmth, and genuine care to each child and family.

We love our team and have a lot of fun together, each one is handpicked intentionally via a thorough recruitment process and receives training above minimum requirements.

We intentionally keep our class sizes small to support strong relationships, individual attention, and a peaceful, unhurried pace for children. Ratios depend on ages, but we aim to have additional educators each day above minimum requirements.

This also means, if your child’s educator goes on holiday, a current member of our team and familiar face will cover them. We don’t use casual relief educators.

Something we are passionate about is trying to reduce screen time, so we don’t have iPad education or virtual technology programs.

Our programs focus on natural real life play with real friends inside the classroom and outside in our large playgrounds!  

Yes! We make fresh, organic meals each day on site, our cooks thoughtfully prepare our menu to nourish our bodies as we grow.

We provide morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and will serve a breakfast/late snack if your child arrives early or leaves late.

Of course! One reason we provide meals is to ensure the safety and inclusion of all children. It means we can work closely with families to ensure every child’s dietary needs are included in an easy way.

With connection before correction and an understanding there is no magic solution, or one size fits all response. Its our job to respond with warmth, patience, and respect, helping children feel safe, understood, and confident as they learn to navigate their emotions and its ourpassion to foster development of those skills aligned with your family’s values.

We use an app called Mana to share meaningful learning via learning stories which are more than just  cute photo updates. They include photos but also detail about your child’s individual curriculum which is curated by your child’s educator based on your values and their observations and understanding of your child.

We chose the Mana app because it’s the only childcare app based onshore in Australia and it’s the only app to have the rigorous SOC 2 security clearance. 

Come in for a tour and Megan or Lani will help you out. You’ll be able to feel the small boutique family operated vibe and meet our team to discuss next steps.