For the Kids – St Bernards Village Child Care Centre

Tara Saltwell is the director of the St Bernards Village Child Care Centre, a family owned business that has taken care of the mountain’s children since 2011. Today she shares with us just how they look after the next generation of Mount Tamborine.

by Kyle Hitchmough

You offer quite a few activities here, including music. How do you incorporate that and what are the benefits?

We offer heaps of extracurriculars. Music is just one of them. We do music daily with the kids but every Tuesday a specialist teacher comes in. They’ll use musical instruments, lots of dancing, lots of actions—using their whole body. There are heaps of benefits, from calming the kids, teaching rhythm, there’s math in music… there’s so many concepts that they learn through songs, and the joy of music, of course.

You also offer ‘Ginger Sports”. Can you explain what that is?

It’s basic soccer skills and movement. It’s like a sporting class that we do every Wednesday, and a specialist coach teaches the kids soccer skills, ball skills, whole body movement, all through games.

You teach the children other languages, too?

At the moment we’re learning Spanish every Thursday with a wonderful lady who’s Spanish herself. She’s great with them, she does lots of different songs and games and some of the kids are already speaking a few sentences to me that I don’t know what they mean! They love Spanish, it’s super fun.

What other extracurricular activities you offer?

About once a month there’s a different show that comes in. Tomorrow we have Ocean Life booked: they bring in everything from a baby shark to different fish and turtles, all types of ocean life so the kids learn about them and about our oceans. We also book things like a science show called Professor Jellybean where the kids do a science experiment and take it home, there’s a magic show, a safety show… We call them ‘incursions’ rather than ‘excursions’, and they come in to us and show the kids different areas of the world. There’s some multicultural ones, too.

So you are more education-based than play-based as a facility?

Absolutely. It’s all play-based, but we focus on early years education. Our main hope for children who leave here and go off to school is that they’re confident and involved learners, and that they enjoy learning and love to be at school.

All your staff are qualified in education, correct?

Yes. We have a main registered teacher who teaches our preschool program. She has been teaching that for the last few years and has done a really great job getting the kids ready for school, and excited about it, it’s not a scary thing, it’s fun. They’ve already visited some of the letters and numbers and phonics that they’ll see in prep, so that when they get there they’ll be confident. It’s just about exposure.

What do you think are the benefits of childcare facilities are over regular home care?

I think that kids being social in any aspect is fantastic. Here we’ve managed to create a really wonderful community. It’s almost a second home where they can come and learn with their peers, and from their peers as well, where learning is accessible to them, we can get messy, we can learn about lots of different things that they wouldn’t learn at home on their own. I think the more people that children can learn from the better. There’s very clear long-term benefits into adulthood of early years education, that’s why we love it.

Do you have any ties to the local schools?

We’re definitely in communication with all the schools in the area, because we want to know where the kids are going and that we’re giving them the right start. Anything that the schools recommend, then we work on that. For instance, Bec, our preschool teacher will have meetings with some of the prep teachers in the area, and find out what they’re wanting the kids to be ready with, and then she’ll work on that. The teachers come down and visit sometimes, too.

Are you a local to the area? What’s your opinion on the community here?

No, I come up from the coast. We have a bit of a mix in our staff, which I like. We have a few who drive up from the coast and a few who live really close. It’s a good mix in terms of being able to teach the kids about where you live and what’s around your area that’s not the same as theirs, and they like that. I feel like a local though, since I’ve been working here so long! I love it. I think it’s a very tight-knit community which is awesome, especially when young kids are involved. Our motto is ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ It’s so true. You shouldn’t have to do it on your own. We aim to be an extension of people’s families, especially people who don’t have family around. We’re those other hands, those extra people in their lives who teach and raise the children. Because it’s tough! Under-fives are busy.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The kids. They’re the best. They tell me the best things, they keep it so fun and they are forever levelling you down to reality. They remind you why life is great.

Do you have any standout experiences from your time here?

One thing that is hilarious, I find, is that when I first got here I had no idea about the scarecrow festival. I was like “what is this? This is crazy, I don’t get it,” and now it’s such a highlight of our year, everyone gets involved.

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