Julie, Tommy and Bhavana attended the Early Childhood Australia National Conference in Brisbane (Sept 18-20) and Julie delivered her presentation, “Don’t play with your food – rethinking food education in the early years”, to a packed room of 200+ conference delegates. Julie shared how Food Education at CCC links to learning in mathematics, language, sustainability, cultural perspectives and much more.
Sally, Zoe & Caro all travelled to Adelaide for three days to attend the 2023 Early Childhood Australia national conference. The 2023 conference theme was Kumarninthi—Becoming one: Old ways, new wisdom and I am very proud to tell you that Caroline gave a presentation about CCC’s Artist in Residence Project – Curiosity, creativity & communication – the language of art. Sally and Zoe tell me that Caro’s presentation (to a room of almost 300 delegates!) was amazing and many people took the time to congratulate Caroline afterwards. It’s great to know that we’re sharing some of our terrific work at CCC with a national audience. 
We won!!
We were very excited to be announced as the winner in Category 7: The Emeritus Professor Collette Tayler Excellence in Educational Leadership Award in the 2021 Victorian Early Years Awards (VEYA). In receiving this award, Clarendon Children’s Centre has been recognised as a service whose leadership, learning and teaching practices have achieved improved outcomes for our children and families. This year, 119 nominations were received with 20 finalists shortlisted across all categories. With this award, we are also delighted to receive $15,000 which will support our ongoing leadership goals, professional development program and opportunities to share our knowledge with others in the sector. Visit the Department of Education and Training website to read more about our award win.
First achieved in 2015 ….
…. then again in 2018 …
… and now, for a third time, in 2021.
Congratulations to Team Clarendon – what an amazing effort!
Read this terrific article able the Nature Play action research project that Sujata has been leading in the Adventure Room this year.
Kathryn showcased the Magic Cafe experience with her poster presentation at the Early Childhood Australia Conference in Hobart last week.
Premier Daniel Andrews, Linda Davison (CCC Co-ordinator) and Minister for Education, James Merlino
May 28th, 2019
Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Education James Merlino came to Clarendon Children’s Centre today to announce Victoria’s plan to provide all three-year-old children with access to subsidised kinder.
Read the Government press release here.
The CCC leadership team are proud to be featured in this article about leadership in early years services.
Clarendon Children’s Centre is featured in this video showing how the City of Port Phillip supports local services to become improve their sustainability practices.
We were so excited to be informed on July 5, 2018 that we have been awarded the Excellent rating – again!! This makes us one of only 16 services in Australia to have achieved this highest possible rating more than once.
Our ACECQA assessor said to me that we had “knocked it out of the park” and that we were assessed as “Excellent” on all five themes in Criteria 1 – we only had to address three of the five themes but we thought that we had a good case to apply for each of them.
Needless to say, I am so proud of our CCC team – this is a sensational achievement and most definitely the result of a whole team effort.
Specifically, ACECQA has determined that:
- CCC exemplifies and promotes exceptional education and care that improves outcomes for children and families, including by:
- demonstrating a commitment to children that respects, reflects and celebrates culture and diversity, including place of origin
- providing practice and environments that enhance children’s learning and growth
- maintaining positive workplace culture, organisational values, support of educators and sustained commitment to professional development
- fostering inclusive partnerships with children and families
- engaging in collaborative partnerships with professional, community and research organisations
- CCC demonstrates leadership that contributes to the development of a community, the local area and the wider education and care sector
- CCC demonstrates a commitment to sustained Excellent practice through continuous improvement and comprehensive forward planning
In the analysis report, ACECQA made specific mention of CCC’s Auslan Bi-lingual Program, support of educators through targeted professional development opportunities, innovative cooking programs and embedded commitment to culture and diversity. In her closing comments, the assessor notes that “CCC has demonstrated visionary leadership through its outstanding efforts to develop the community and the wider sector through advocacy, training and inspiring best practice in early childhood education.” High praise, indeed!