Mill Park Heights Child Care Centre

🧧✨ Chinese New Year celebrations at MPHCC ✨🧧

This week, our four-year-old kinder children at Mill Park Heights Child Care Centre (MPHCC) have been joyfully celebrating Chinese New Year as part of our Mandarin program.

At MPHCC, children carefully folded, cut and assembled their own lanterns, strengthening fine motor skills while demonstrating wonderful focus and teamwork. They proudly decorated their learning space hanging lanterns in the trees and adding festive touches to the windows, creating a vibrant environment filled with belonging and community spirit.

Mandarin learning continues to be naturally embedded throughout the day.

Children practised counting in Mandarin, explored fruit names during morning tea and confidently used the phrase “我在这里” (wǒ zài zhè lǐ – I’m here) during group time.

Through art, language and cultural exploration, our children are building confidence, curiosity and respect for diverse traditions in meaningful ways. ️

From 5 January 2026, all CCS eligible families can get at least 72 hours of subsidised care per fortnight. These changes are known as the 3 Day Guarantee.

✅Families can access at least 72 hours of subsidised care every fortnight.
✅You may get up to 100 hours if you have more than 48 hours of recognised participation per fortnight or have a valid exemption.
✅Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children can get 100 hours.

Families must still pay a gap fee, except in certain circumstances.

Read more about the changes here: https://childrensprograms.whittlesea.ymca.org.au/understanding-the-3-day-guarantee-and-how-it-works-with-ccs-and-free-kinder-in-victoria/

From 2 March 2026, our current Early Learning Facebook and Instagram pages will be closed as we move to one shared platform:

👉 Y Whittlesea Early Learning on Facebook
👉 .earlylearning on Instagram

This change supports:
✔️ Child safety and privacy
✔️ Consistent, high-quality content
✔️ A clearer, more connected way to share what’s happening across Early Learning

Our new pages will share updates, stories and information from all seven of our Early Learning services, including:
• Diggers Rest Early Learning Centre
• Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten
• Galada Kindergarten
• Kirrip Kindergarten
• Mill Park Heights Child Care & Kindergarten
• Orchard Road Community & Early Learning Centre
• The Heights Kindergarten

👉 What’s not changing:
You will continue to receive centre-specific updates, communication and information directly from your child’s educators via Storypark and Xplor.

We encourage all families to follow our new pages to stay connected and keep up to date with everything happening across Y Whittlesea Early Learning.

💛 Thank you for being part of our community. We look forward to connecting with you in our new space.

☀️ Hot Weather Safety Reminder for Families ☀️

With Victoria experiencing unprecedented temperatures, there has sadly been a renewed increase in children being left alone in cars. Even on mild days, temperatures inside a parked car can rise dangerously fast with devastating consequences.

We encourage all families to please:

🚗 Never leave children unattended in cars, even for a short time
⏰ Follow centre collection and drop-off policies, especially during busy pick-up times
🧴 Be SunSmart and mindful of heat exposure throughout the day

🔥 Outdoor safety reminder:
On warmer days, please also remember that playground equipment, artificial grass and other outdoor surfaces can become extremely hot and may cause serious burns. These surfaces should always be checked before children play.

🐾 And a reminder — the same applies to pets. Never leave animals in cars or on hot surfaces.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and families, from all the children and educators at MPHCCC 🎄✨

🌟 Celebrating the impact of Early Learning in 2025 🌟

As the year comes to an end, we’d love to acknowledge the incredible impact our Early Learning sector has had throughout 2025.

This year, together we achieved:
👶 130,766 early learning visits
🏡 1,679 early learning families supported
📚 14,600 hours of kindergarten delivered

These numbers represent so much more than statistics, they reflect relationships built, learning moments shared, and children supported to grow, explore and thrive every day.

We are deeply grateful to our families, our dedicated educators, and our wider community, and most importantly, to our children, who make everything we do so meaningful. Thank you for making 2025 such an amazing year.

💛 Celebrating 20 Years of Beck at the Y! 💛

This year, we proudly celebrate an incredible milestone, 20 years of 'Boss Beck' as she is known, for being part of the Y community 🎉

Beck began her journey with the Y in 2005 as a casual educator at Mill Park Heights Child Care, and over the years also shared her skills as a swim teacher and within our school holiday programs, supporting children in many different ways. From there, her passion and leadership saw her grow into the 3-year-old kindergarten teacher and later Centre Coordinator, where she made a meaningful impact on children, families and fellow educators.

In 2017, Beck stepped into the role of Centre Manager at Orchard Road Community & Early Learning Centre, playing a pivotal role in setting up and opening the brand-new site and shaping it into the thriving centre it is today.

In 2023, Beck took on her current role as General Manager of Early Years, now overseeing seven early learning centres and kindergartens and leading a team of around 200 dedicated educators across our community.

Across two decades, Beck’s commitment, leadership and passion for early learning have left a lasting mark on the Y and the many lives she has touched.

👏 Thank you, Beck, for 20 incredible years with the Y, we are so grateful for everything you do!

Christmas at MPHCCC 🎁🎅🎄

This month at MPHCCC, we have explored Christmas through play.

The children engaged in a range of experiences, from sensory play and creative activities to decorating our Christmas tree with decorations they proudly made themselves.
We enjoyed singing festive songs and sharing a variety of Christmas stories together.
Throughout the month, children also shared their own stories and traditions from home, talking about how they celebrate Christmas with their families.
These conversations supported a sense of belonging, connection, and appreciation for the different ways families celebrate during this special time of year.

🌟 Empowering every child to thrive 🌟
As the year comes to an end, we’d love to share with our families and community the incredible impact our Early Years Engagement Support (EYES) Program has had across 2024–2025.

Now in its fourth year, the EYES Program continues to make a meaningful difference for children, families and educators across our early learning services. This year alone, EYES provided targeted early intervention and inclusion support to 133 children across our kindergartens and early learning centres.

Alongside direct support for children, the program has strengthened educator confidence, improved early identification and built strong partnerships with families—ensuring every child is recognised, supported and empowered to reach their full potential. 💛

We are incredibly proud of the EYES team and extend a heartfelt thank you to Funda and Maxim for their dedication, passion and the amazing impact they have made over the years.

🔗 Want to learn more about the EYES Program?
Follow the link below to read more about how we support every child’s unique journey:

https://childrensprograms.whittlesea.ymca.org.au/tailored-support-for-every-childs-unique-journey-the-eyes-program-at-the-y-whittlesea/

💛 Celebrating Cheryl for 20 Years at the Y 💛

We’re incredibly proud to celebrate Cheryl’s 20 years with the Y, a journey filled with passion, care and community spirit.

Cheryl began her Y journey back in 2005, starting in crèche as a student on placement. From there, she took on a role at Playorama, our playgroup at Mill Park Leisure where she spent over 10 years making a meaningful impact. Along the way, she also worked in the School Holiday Program, a role she truly loved, before being offered permanent work at Mill Park Heights Childcare and Kindergarten.

Beyond her roles, Cheryl has always embodied the heart of the Y, taking part in swimming fundraisers, marathon fun runs, sleep-outs for the homeless, and many other community events over the years.

Cheryl describes her career as one she feels truly blessed to have and we feel just as lucky to have her as part of the Y family.

Thank you, Cheryl, for your dedication, kindness and incredible contribution to our community and the many young children you have cared for and supported over the years. 👏💛