Our centre offers the NSW Government-approved "Start Strong" Preschool Program, providing 600 hours of quality preschool education annually for children aged 3–5 years. This program includes fee relief funding to make early childhood education more affordable for families.

Our Enhanced Learning Program for Preschool children focuses on:

• Numeracy & Literacy: Developing key skills for lifelong learning.
• Self-Regulation: Fostering emotional control and resilience.
• Social & Emotional Development: Supporting independence and building healthy relationships.
• Creativity & Problem-Solving: Encouraging curiosity and critical thinking.

With extended hours and a year-round program (excluding public holidays), our Preschool program is delivered by qualified Early Childhood Teachers committed to supporting your child’s individual development.

Additional Benefits Include:

• Government subsidy: Further reduces out-of-pocket Preschool fees in addition to your eligible Childcare Subsidy (CCS).
• Personalised Learning Plans: Tailored to your child’s unique needs.
• Rhythm and Resilience Program: Music and movement to improve emotional regulation.
• School Readiness: Preparing your child for a smooth transition to school.

We also engage with local schools and provide transition statements, ensuring your child feels confident and prepared for the next steps in their education journey. Stay connected with your child’s progress via our Xplor platform, which offers regular updates on their learning and development.

“Let the child be the scriptwriter, director and the actor in their own play” - Magda Gerber

Nursery Space: 6 weeks – 2 years

Learning starts from before birth, and our Educators have created a welcoming and nurturing nursery environment where each baby feels safe to explore and discover new things - through their senses, their communication and cues (body language, facial expression and sounds) and through experimentation. On any given day you can see the nursery children engaging in all types of play including sensory play, music time, story time and more. Every day provides a brand new, exciting adventure for our babies to support their development, learning and wellbeing.

Toddler Space: 2 - 3 years

Our teachers and educators encourage the children to learn through play to help enhance their sensory-motor development. This happens through carefully planned music, dance, games, role playing and reading experiences.

On any given day the Toddlers can be seen developing their numeracy by building a tower, sorting objects, pointing and identifying shapes and patterns and participating in counting songs and games.

Children in our toddler space are encouraged to participate in group play. Group play is important as it helps our toddlers develop important social skills such as, turn-taking, developing self-confidence and emotional self-regulation. Our skilled team helps children through talking, planning and role modelling.

Preschool Space: 3 – 6 years

Preschool is a unique time for learning with peers and developing skills for later learning including confidence and curiosity, important skills for starting school. Our play-based program has school readiness at its core, encouraging active engagement in learning and supporting a range of positive developmental outcomes including resilience, independence, critical thinking and creativity.

The oral language supports literacy learning and a child’s oral language ability is the best predictor for later success in learning to read and write. Hearing the sounds within a language is the first critical step for all literacy learning. Our team supports our Preschool children's literacy development by engaging in rich discussions, reading, storytelling, dramatic play and experimentation all of which introduce new vocabulary as part of everyday conversations.

Throughout the Preschool year, children use their language to share ideas, ask questions, express themselves, and connect with peers and adults in social settings.

Social-emotional skills, including the ability to self-regulate emotions, are supported through group learning experiences. Our team supports each child’s social and emotional development by labelling and talking about emotions and supporting appropriate responses as together, they engage in new and challenging situations. Our goal in the Preschool year is to prepare children and families for a smooth transition to primary school.

Our centre chef prepares and cooks nutritious meals daily, catering to the unique dietary requirements of every child. We believe that by encouraging active participation (such as growing their own fruit and vegetables, preparing, and finally cooking!) children learn to appreciate and understand the importance of healthy eating across a wide variety of food.

Our centre offers seasonal whole food-based menus – created to delight the fussiest eaters.

Hi my name is Jean and I am the Centre Manager here at First Grammar Castle Hill. Children are independent curious little humans and they wonder what/why/how things works a certain way. I like to enhance their ability to feel completely equipped to respond to life.

My approach to helping children on their learning and life journey is to actively listen and observe what our children require on an individual capacity and in group situations developing a simple, practical, user friendly and life changing program to approach each child and met their needs.

The extra curriculum activities enhance our learning with swimming lessons, incursions & excursions (to the theatre, nature walks, Library visit, PLS (Positive living Skills) which is a social impact program which is focused on developing a child’s secure sense of self, building awareness and skills to understand emotions and behaviours, and to form healthy and secure relationships while interacting appropriately with others. This program is throughout the whole centre in each room. Sustainability program with a visiting sustainability officer weekly, music lessons and key research into child interest-based learning.

The best part of my job is the team – they are so committed and positive about their role as educators. The whole team sees their role as incredibly important, helping children establish the building blocks for a successful lifetime of learning. We feel confident to sometimes need to bring an observation to a family’s attention in a positive supportive way. We are not afraid to have the tough communication as representatives for each child.

We provide afternoon snacks made fresh on site a few times a week for the families on their way home. We have a special fruit box that each family receive once or twice a year as a thank you for trusting us with their most previous gift their child. We provide yearly a dinner on us evening where the families have dinner prepared for them and they don’t have to worry about preparing at home. The local Hills Men Shed have upcycled old furniture and redesign and recreate something for the children and their play. We invite our neighbours to visit and have set up a R U OK cookie stall to share with our community. We have collected home items to share with charities and those less fortunate than ourselves.