FAQ
Answers to the questions we get asked most frequently about our service, programs and approach.
Do the children go on excursions?
All of our Precious Cargo centres do excursions or incursions. The type of excursions vary throughout our centres. We have centres that visit nursing homes, schools in the area, parks, local businesses and then we also may go on excursions that happen because of a childs interest like the zoo, beach, botanic gardens to name a few.
Prior to an excursion families will be asked to complete a permission form and we may also invite parents to assist us on the excursion.
Besides the above excursions we like to take children on neighbourhood walks so they can see what is happening in the area around them for example building, someone watering their garden, postman or it may be a nature walk.
What does Precious Cargo provide throughout the day?
Precious Cargo provide breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner to the children.
We also provide Huggies nappies and wipes, sudocreme, sunscreen and S26 formula.
Do you offer casual bookings?
Yes we do offer casual bookings for current families and new families.
We ask that you contact your nearest centre to ensure they have a place available in your child’s room.
How often will you contact me?
We will contact you as soon as a position becomes available and your name is the next on the list. Please be assured that we try to accommodate all our families as soon as we can. Please feel free to contact us a couple of months from when you require care to check our vacancies.
What is the difference between Kindy and Pre-School?
Preschool is from 8.30 am-4.00 pm whereas Kindy is Long Day Care (LDC) 6.30 am-6.00 pm. Also the Pre-School day is more structured and has a trained Early Childhood Teacher (ECT) present. We are currently advertising for more ECT’s to be able to offer the 15hrs contact in our Kindy rooms. Meals are not supplied in Pre-School but they are in LDC (Kindy).
How do we graduate children from one room to another?
Precious Cargo do graduations several times throughout the year. When looking at which children graduate to the next room we consider age and development. A discussion is then held with the childs focus teacher to check they are ready for the next age group. After we have confirmed which children we think are ready we contact the family for approval to move their child into the next room.
Once we have received approval we organise for the graduating children to visit the new room over the next three weeks and the length of the visits increases on each visit. After the third week the children permanently move into the new room.
Families are invited to visit the new room and meet the educators.
Does Precious Cargo use online apps?
No Precious Cargo don’t use apps as we feel it is more important that our Educators are interacting and supervising your children while in care. Precious Cargo provides every child with an individual learning journal which records your child’s journey while at Precious Cargo.
What are the rooms age groups?
The age groups for our rooms may vary from centre to centre as it takes into consideration the community demands in their area. As a guide children are in the Nursery until around 16 months but we also consider how many sleeps they are having a day and whether they are walking around. From Nursery they will move into Waddlers where they will be until around 2 years but we also consider whether they are still having a bottle at sleep time.
From Waddlers they move into PreKindy and will be in this room until they are around 3, we also look at whether the child is settled in childcare as the next room the ratio between educators and children is larger. Other areas of consideration may be the communication and social skills.
They then move into Kindy or Preschool which are both for children over the age of 3.
Can my child use your Kindy as opposed to a DECS Kindy before they go to school?
Yes they are able to go straight to school from childcare Kindy. Kindy is not compulsory prior to going to school. The choice is yours and not all DECS Kindys will fit into your work schedule.
Do you have any vacancies and how long is your waiting list?
Our centres are in high demand and are generally full, however vacancies can arise at any time. We are not able to give time estimates in regards to wait list times due to the new ‘once a year’ intake policies for schools (meaning we don’t have set dates that children will leave throughout the year).