Woothoo-woothoong thoon Ninggoowoong Dawang Children’s Service

One Tree Woothoo-woothoong thoon Ninggoowoong Dawang Children’s Service provides a play-based, child-lead curriculum that encourages exploration and learning through nature. A supportive, nurturing environment empowers children to be champions of their own learning.

We are based in Kununurra, the largest town in Western Australia, north of Broome. The town is situated amongst the scenic hills and ranges of the far north-east Kimberley region and is irrigated by the Ord River dam.

We recognise the traditional custodians of the land on which we live, work and learn – the Miriwoong Gajerrong people. We pay respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that engage with our service.

Our Service has connections with community groups around Kununurra; the Mirima Dawang Woorlab-Gerring Language Centre group visits weekly on a Friday, providing Miriwoong language lessons to the children and different community organisations visit the centre to provide learning opportunities for staff, children and families.

Our site hosts a bush kinder located in the grounds behind our service: vegetation, trees and centre pets (chickens, rabbits and ducks) provide valuable opportunities for learning through the natural environment and extending the educational program.

Vital skills gained include:

• communication skills;
• cooperation;
• problem solving;
• listening skills;
• risk taking skills;
• emotional resilience; and
• wellbeing.

Our approach

We follow a play-based approach within our daily practice and a child-lead approach to our curriculum. We believe the environment is the “third teacher” encouraging exploration and imagination, reflecting the natural world.

We embed sustainable practice through a variety of ways;

• a vegetable garden;
• a compost bin;
• reduced power and paper usage;
• half flush toilet systems; and
• through the 5 R principle: reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose and refuse.

Cultural influences are embedded in our practice. Staff within our service come from several different cultures and children are given the opportunity to explore these cultural differences through language, music and art.

Our services

We are a 40-place service.

• Our Galaminang room caters for infants from 0 to 24 months.
• Our Gamarang room caters for children from 2 years to 3 years.
• Our Joowinyin room caters for children from 3 years to 5 years.

One Tree would like to thank the National Indigenous Australians Agency for their continued support of our services.

Enrolments

Click here to enrol online

If you would like any further information, please contact our Enrolments Team:

• Call 1800 919 995
• Email enrolments@onetree.org.au