By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
DOVETON College’s early learning centre (ELC) is one of the best and most cost effective centres in the state.
Five early learning centres in Victoria have an excellence rating with the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, and Doveton College is one of them.
The centre’s Assistant Principal Lisa Dawes said they offered a very well-rounded developmental approach to early learning.
“You have to choose criteria to apply for the excellence rating which is something you believe you are doing over and above – we applied for the excellence rating last year for our engagement with families in the community and were thrilled to be accepted,” Ms Dawes said.
Now a part of Victoria’s elite group, ELC access co-ordinator at the college Rachel Nicholson, who sources ELC centres for families, said she noticed Doveton was one of the cheapest in the area.
“In comparison to a lot of other services in Casey and Dandenong, Doveton is around $10 to $20 cheaper,” Ms Nicholson explained.
She said out of the 10 centres she worked with in Dandenong and Casey, there were only three others in the same price range.
“What you’re getting at Doveton for the price is exceptional – here we can be chatting over lunch and that conversation can lead to helping a family and upskilling staff with more knowledge to help more people,” she said.
Ms Dawes and Ms Nicholson both agreed having Monash Health on-site two days a week gave Doveton College an upper hand.
“We provide maternal child health and a mental health program as well as the provision to refer children to speech pathology, occupational therapists and physio because it’s all here and on the spot to direct families,” Ms Dawes said.
Self-regulation and oral language is the centre’s key learning areas and children are allowed to serve themselves lunch using cutlery and crockery and can decide when to eat and sleep.
“The whole program allows the children to make their own choices and the staff support them to do so,” Ms Dawes said.
All the food is made across the hallway and is sourced from the Dandenong Market, Myuna Farm and a local butcher.
“We make sure the children get 60 to 70 per cent of their daily nutrition here, so that it doesn’t matter what they might be offered at home – we know that they’ve had good healthy meals here throughout the day,” Ms Dawes said.
Opened in early 2012, the centre took less than four years to reach its excellence rating and Ms Nicholson said the highly qualified teachers meant learning disabilities and alike could be picked up in children much earlier.
“You don’t see bachelor-trained teachers in every room at other places, most other services just have diploma-trained carers and you don’t have all the healthcare services on site at other centres,” she said.
