Introducing TG's newest centre at Hervey Bay, Queensland is getting ready for Playing is Learning for Life!
It has been many months of hard work and we are so excited to see how TG's Urangan is coming together beautifully. Every brick, stone and plant has been carefully thought through, chosen and put together with the help of so many amazing local businesses.
We certainly made friends quickly there with our Urangan centre project, and we already feel like we belong! Getting to meet new people and know the community where TG's will be growing in is one of our favourite parts of the entire undertaking.
It took several months of scouting around and exploring before we found The Right Place. It was a simple, beautiful, spacious building and felt just right for a new environment for TG's to grow. Gayle, Trevor and TG's educators had lots of brainstorming sessions to plan and coordinate how to get TG's Urangan's refurbishment process going. A lot of it involved getting deep into the Urangan community and asking for what we needed. Whether it was picking up the phone or walking into a shop, we were so warmly received and supported!
Built Upon Three Foundation Stones
Building relationships with each of our communities is one of the three foundation stones of TG´s. We love getting to know the local businesses. It is always a humbling experience to meet so many experts in their fields who are quick to share their expertise with us to help make our vision of TG's Urangan a reality. Understanding our Gifts is another foundation stone and we can see it in practice in real life where we are receiving the knowledge and experience of so many local businesses sharing their gifts with us. When you go behind the scenes of TG's Urangan's refurbishment process, you can see a microcosm of all the different essential local businesses that are involved. This is Collective Thinking, where all the different areas come together to help make TG´s Urangan a beautiful place. We could not have done this alone. We needed people who knew best about the walls, the flooring, the gardens, the safety installations etc. TG's Urangan is a collective labour of love.
Learning Starts Early
When families and children pass by the building-in-progress, they can see how many hands are involved in different areas and we think it is wonderful they can see how TG's is coming together. This is where the children will be playing and learning for life and what better way than to start early and foster appreciation for how a beautiful learning environment is put together for them. When children walk past, they can see an arborist perched high up, trimming a tree and sometimes they see the big giant orange machines hard at work eating up dirt. There is never a dull moment at TG's Urangan, and we have not even opened our doors yet! There is already lots for children to learn, get curious and ask questions!
Everyone is a Superhero
We celebrated a Superhero Week at all the TG´s centres across Australia this year and we especially want to pay tribute to all the Superheroes we met in Urangan. Everyone who is helping TG´s Urangan come to life is a Superhero! From the Electric Cable Person to the Floor Levelling Person to the Carpet Swatches Person, they are the ones making things happen. At TG´s, we believe in seeing and nurturing the gifts in each and every one of us, be it a child, a family member, an educator, someone in the community. That is why we encourage collective thinking where we can share our gifts and this support we give in seeing one another´s gifts grow is how we build relationships.
Right now, refurbishments at TG's Urangan continue as the exterior and interior spaces get some freshening up.
Our outdoor environment has been carefully redesigned and is receiving a big make-over with new creative playspaces, pathways and transition areas using natural materials and local resources. This is part of TG's philosophy of sustainability and supporting local economies. We are also putting in new storage sheds and shade covers - we need lots of space for seeds and gardening tools and we are thinking about the hot summer months when both plants and children will welcome a respite from the enthusiastic sun!
Our Carpet and Floor Experts have been amazing. They helped us finalise the flooring for our new vinyl, carpet and tiles. They were on the ball and on hand to help us with all the measurements, quantities, colour selections and ordering. It was tip top professional service and high quality workmanship we enjoyed, and we also certainly learnt a thing or two from them about floors and carpets! We saw how self-levelling concrete was applied in the new kindergarten room and how they did a light sanding before rolling out the flooring. Seeing amazing (superhero!) professionals in action allowed us to see the respect and integrity they had for their work and how important it was for them to do things well.
Looking to the Future
January 2021 is not so far off now and we look back to when TG's Urangan was just an empty building sitting alone and waiting to be filled with so much joy, exploring and learning. TG´s Urangan is our sixth TG´s in Australia, and the experience of getting each centre set up and ready brings its own unique experiences. We do not tire of this and each centre is a new boost of energy for us. We know we are doing it right and we are bringing the TG's Way to so many communities across Australia. What is beautiful is how each TG's becomes an integral part of each community and we continue to build loving relationships wherever we go.
Gayle Kee, General Manager of TG's Child Care cannot be a prouder mother of all these centres and she is clear where TG´s is going in the future. Read about Gayle's vision for TG's in Focus Magazine´s Issue 7 here.
Our Gratitude List
We are really thankful to Urangan's local businesses for putting TG´s Urangan on the map. Everyday, we see parts coming together and we know this is a loving space that is being built where children can experience the TG´s Way of Playing is Learning for Life!
TG´s would like to extend a HUGE thank you to the local businesses for supporting TG's Urangan's exciting transformation to a beautiful, safe, loving place where Playing is Learning for Life.
- Noel Williams Plant Hire & Just Kits
- Andersons Carpet & Flooring (thank you Jess, Bernie and your amazing team!)
Come Play with Us
Looking ahead to January 2021, we would like to invite families and their children to register for a Play Date at our new TG's Child Care Urangan.
We are at 61 Miller St, Urangan, Hervey Bay, QLD.
TG's Child Care Urangan is licensed for 75 places for children 6 weeks to 6 years. We are open 52 weeks a year except for public holidays from 6.30 am to 6.30 pm.
Come play with us and enjoy our award-winning TG's gardens! Register for your play date here.
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