Children First Fairfield opens next to Fairfield Central Shopping Centre
A new Townsville childcare centre will have parents volunteering to do the morning drop off, thanks to its offer of free barista coffee and a freshly baked treat. See where it is.
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There will be no shortage of parents volunteering for the morning drop off at a newly opened Townsville childcare centre, thanks to its compelling offer of free barista coffee and a freshly baked treat.
Located next to Fairfield Central Shopping Centre at 2-30 Lakeside Dr, Children First Fairfield began welcoming excited kids and thirsty parents on Monday.
Construction began on the purpose-built centre in June 2023, providing room for 112 children from six weeks to school age, across seven, modern classrooms designed specifically for each age group, from nursery, tiny tots, toddlers, junior kindy, pre-kindy, to kindergarten.
Children First forms part of Imagine Education Group, which has over 20 years of experience in the successful development, operation, and management of childcare centres across Australia.
After opening their first Townsville childcare centre in Cranbrook in February, Imagine Education Group area manager Kelly Jackson said their new centre was carefully designed to foster and promote early learning development, innovation, and ideas, while putting the needs of the child first.
Servicing the communities of Fairfield, Idalia, Cluden, Oonoonba, Annandale, Murray and Wulguru, she said the centre would also provide a convenient option for the planned influx of 500 Australian Defence Force personnel and their families into Townsville over the next five years.
“All the feedback that we’ve heard has been positive. Families are very impressed with the layout of the service … (that) it’s closer to home, or it’s in a better area for them to get here without driving across town,” Ms Jackson said.
“They think the centre is really quite beautiful and they love the resources that are in the service.”
The centre’s educational resources were hand-picked to complement the curriculum, which was built using the Abecedarian Approach Australia (3a) – a set of evidence-based teaching and learning strategies.
With its numerous interior and exterior windows, parents have appreciated the centre’s natural lighting and ability to be able see through the centre for supervision.
“We’ve got lots of natural elements outside including a beautiful vegetable garden area where the children can engage in caring for the environment and growing vegetables and herbs, which we also use in the kitchen when we do meals as well,” she said.
“We have four yard spaces for the different age groups with each of the younger age groups having a little cubby house at ground level, and our older age group has a fort with a slide.”
A Lancini Group spokeswoman welcomed the addition of the new childcare centre to Fairfield Central, saying that it addressed a significant need in the Idalia area and met the growing demand for high-quality early education and care in the Townsville region.
For more information, visit: children-first.com.au/fairfield-childcare
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Originally published as Children First Fairfield opens next to Fairfield Central Shopping Centre
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