TG´s Child Care and Preschool is 20 years old and still going strong with fresh, new adventures in the pipeline!
At TG´s we have been having so much fun at every stage of our growth that we are still charged with gallons of energy to drive on to play, learn and live with our children, families, educators and our communities!
We were given a real boost in 2017 when we won awards in Excellence in Business and Employer of Choice at the Armidale Regional and Greater Port Macquarie Business Awards. Looking ahead to the next 20 years, business sustainability is an important element we are incorporating into the TG´s Way of Playing, Learning and Living. We are looking to the future where we are nurturing the next generation of loving, confident, compassionate and caring children now.
The beautiful thing at TG´s is how interconnected we all are, from the children through to the community. Each person matters at TG´s, in their own unique way with their special gifts they contribute to the community. This is why TG´s has been going strong for two decades and many of our long-standing educators are still here with unwavering motivation to continue with us on our next lap into the future.
This makes TG´s stand out – each child is recognised in their own right, each educator is well taken care of in their career development paths, each family is listened to and is actively involved in their children´s educational path and everything feeds into the communities TG´s is in and the community gives back so much love, trust, joy, respect and pride tenfold!
Why the need for business sustainability in a child care and preschool?
Our centre’s geographical context reflects one of a ‘tight-knit community’ with secure and respectful relationships between our service and community members. Our dedicated and friendly educators warmly welcome all families each time they enter our service, establishing and promoting a sense of ‘belonging’ for all.
Our extensive and inclusive play environments create the foundations for the next generation of caring, creative, loving, compassionate and responsible leaders. TG’s Child Care’s values of ‘love, trust, respect, compassion and fun’ enable children to develop a strong sense of wellbeing and actively contribute respectfully to the world around them.
We believe that the TG’s Way will influence and inspire a positive future for all children, educators and community members. TG’s Child Care educators advocate for everyone to reach their fullest potential in a dignified and respectful way. Our educators model excellence through team play, along with our foundation stones, values, standards and expectations, ultimately shaping the future for all children
At TG´s we lay the foundation of our children´s education based on three foundation stones: Building Relationships, Understanding our Gifts and Encouraging Collective Thinking. With this, we are building our children´s lifelong learning and development and it is at this early stage in their lives that there is great potential in nurturing values, attitudes and skills in our children that will enable our planet to heal and thrive in the future.
At TG´s we lay the foundation of our children´s education based on three foundation stones: Building Relationships, Understanding our Gifts and Encouraging Collective Thinking. With this, we are building our children´s lifelong learning and development and it is at this early stage in their lives that there is great potential in nurturing values, attitudes and skills in our children that will enable our planet to heal and thrive in the future.
Environment sustainability: TG´s children are little experts at being Protectors of the Environment.
Spending so much time outdoors in our award-winning outdoor playscapes is a natural and healthy way for children to learn to appreciate the environment. We are so proud of our beautiful gardens that are recognised Australia-wide.
These natural playgrounds and learning grounds are the masterpieces of Trevor Kee, who designs the playscapes for Outdoor Learning. This is where children develop their social, emotional, cognitive, creative and communicative skills.
Eco-intelligence
Everything around them is alive and must be loved the right way to grow beautifully, be they plants or little people.
They are taught the importance of water and where it comes from and how precious it is. TG´s children know where the food they eat come from and they were even the farmers that helped grow these vegetables! They understand the amount of time and care one must dedicate to these living things before they become yummy food on our plates. TG´s children know carrots and potatoes were born in the ground, not on a styrofoam dish sucked tightly in cling wrap in a garish supermarket.
Children are naturally creative inventors and once we teach them the idea of recycling they are off on a spree back home teaching everyone from granny to aunty about why they need to recycle and how to do it. As part of our business sustainability model, we want TG´s children to grow to become Wise Guardians of the Environment, thereby minimising waste, promoting sustainable use of resources and reducing energy and water consumption. Children learn best by example and doing it for real.
There are many things they can do in spite of being little people and giving them this responsibility and control really boosts their self-esteem and makes them want to do more to help. Little habits such as using scrap paper, using a rain water tank for water play and gardening, switching off machines when not in use or collecting food scraps for the worm farm are an important start to taking care of the environment. As children know how to have fun, these habits are not seen as a chore or a nagging duty. It is a way of playing, learning and living at TG´s and as everyone is doing it, it is only natural for a child to take on these values.
Perhaps one of the most powerful messages we want to pass on to TG´s children is how each and every single one of them can make an impact on the environment by their actions.
Social sustainability: TG´s children are always up for some good fun and play with their friends, educators, families and communities!
Very often TG´s children are the ones running the show when it comes to their own educational development. They are the world´s top specialists at having fun and learning at the same time. We are big on listening to our children and getting families communicating with us so we can design and customise each child´s learning path based on their unique development pathway, interests, experiences and gifts.
This means their learning at TG´s is always relevant to them. This naturally makes them eager to come to TG´s every day. They are here to play to learn for life. Their job is to be little inventors, explorers and amazing problem-solvers.
Through their interaction every day with their friends, the educators, their families and the community, TG´s children become confident social creatures who are wonderfully inquisitive about people and things around them. They learn to love, care and appreciate every individual they encounter on their learning journey.
TG´s celebrates cultural diversity and we want our children to learn openness, respect and inclusiveness. TG´s children forge meaningful relationships with the people around them as they understand and appreciate the gifts each person brings to the community.
At TG´s each child is made to feel safe, valued, respected, cared for and encouraged. It is in a child´s nature to be loving, compassionate and respectful when they are treated in the same way. This is what they give back to their families and different members of the community. We have been watering our children with kindness, love, happiness, real listening and a good dose of sunshine and fun all these years.
Being in such a rich environment allows TG´s children to blossom into beautiful members of a community. They are always excited to be involved in activities with different groups of people in their communities. Each community´s member from the local policeman to the greengrocer has been part of TG´s myriad of activities.
Economic sustainability: Giving back to the community forms an important part of our business sustainability model.
By making changes to how we use our resources, we can rechannel our savings to professional development for our educators. We need them to grow well and feel taken care of. We are also very self-driven to keep going further and we want to exceed ratings in our industry. We are going beyond child care and the work we do with and for our children and families is not only to meet a set target.
With the amazing appreciation we are getting from our families and communities we are constantly spurred on to do more. We are always exploring what we can do better for the different members of our communities. We support local suppliers whenever possible and as we grow, local communities also benefit, from bus drivers to food suppliers. Our goal is to not just grow TG´s as a business but to use TG´s growth to boost the growth of the communities.
There is much to be done and even more in the future for our world. When done in the name of love and fun, we can go very far and in good spirits! We are looking forward to the next lap with children, educators, families and communities adopting the TG´s Way of Playing, Learning and Living for a sustainable future for everyone.
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