In it’s more than 21 years in operation, Tatura Children’s Centre has undergone major changes and developments. These have been in response to changing child care needs of children and families in Victoria and in line with government priorities and issues within the early childhood profession. However, it has always had children and families as its focus and has endeavored to lead and support the delivery of high quality services.
In 1987, representatives of committees of management from a number of Tatura – based services along with the Council, recognised the limitation of a number of existing facilities. They foresaw that the existing facilities would not be adequately able to meet future need without major expansion and expenditure. It was decided at the time that the concept of a multi-use community facility would be the preferred direction.
In 1996, the City of Greater Shepparton provided funding and made available the former Shire of Rodney Office site in Casey Street. Together with a major grant from the State and Federal Governments of $496,000, a 45 place child care facility was established.
The following services and programs were to operate from the complex:
- The Children’s Centre offering Childcare, Pre-School Program and Toy Library
- Maternal and Child Health
- Community House
- Tatura Toy Library
- Municipal Service Centre (since moved to Shepparton)
The complex replaced the:
- Maternal & Child Health and Tatura & District Preschool facility in Francis Street
- Tatura Toy Library in Casey Street
- Current Care & Share Community House in Kerferd Street
- Tatura Library at the Mechanics Institute in Hogan Street
The Tatura Children’s Centre Incorporated was established as a community – based committee responsible for managing the Children’s Centre in the complex.
Over the years the Centre has facilitated changes to the current care structure by including a Preschool room, making refurbishments to the 3 year old room which involved an increase in room capacity, a Vacation Care program (which was in operation from 2000-2009) and of course refurbishments to the outdoor yard child care environments.
During the 2000s the Centre started working with families and government organizations to improve the educational curriculum’s available at TCC as early childhood positions were now high in demand. This in turn challenged TCC practice and allowed TCC to develop and widely promote high quality practice in this area.
Today, Tatura Childcare Centre delivers a wide range of early childhood care and education, training opportunities for existing studying educators and inclusion and support services for families. Strategic planning and ongoing review of all financial and operational systems and policies is high on the Committees and educators agenda in accordance with giving every child in attendance the best start to their Early childhood education. We will continue to reflect upon our strengths and areas of improvement in our QIP (Quality Improvement plan)and will continue to work in collaboration with all stakeholders of TCC for the Tatura and wider community.
In visiting TCC you will see a newly refurbished Kitchen, freshly painted Early childhood rooms, child and natural murals expressed throughout our outdoor environments, a Chicken Shed as well as a mural along our entrance facial and Toddler yard Outdoor environment. We believe by providing a Community where children can have a sense of belonging it will “strengthen our attending children’s sense of identity and well being” (VEYLF)
Our vision and goals for 2021 were to continue to update our outdoor physical environments and resources across all rooms. We take pride in the facilities we have to offer to our Community and will continue to collaborate and ensure we maintain our ‘Exceeding’ rating across the National Quality Standards. In late 2021 we executed TCC’s Strategic Plan 2021-2024. We built a Preschool Art store room which is connected to our Preschool room and extended our Nursery, created another store room and extended our foyer area to create a warm area for Breast feeding mums
We have always had a pedagogical approach to continuous improvement. As a team we collaborate and plan with our Committee of Management to ensure we are continually evolving and improving. In 2022, we have built a purpose built Outdoor shed with a Verandah connected in our Preschool yard, a storage Shed in our Toddler yard, and replaced our existing bench tops and cupboards in our rooms with new and improved finishes.
In 2023, we were again rated Exceeding in our Assessment and Rating visit by the Department of Education across the 7 National Quality Standards. This concludes, we are the highest ranking Early Childhood Service in the Goulburn Valley, which we are very proud of to achieve for our Tatura Community.