ELC Belconnen

At YMCA Belconnen we acknowledge that we live and play on Ngunnawal land. We pay our respects to the elders past, present and future and seek to learn about the traditions and ways of Australia’s first people.

At YMCA Belconnen, the culture is built upon the YMCA Canberra’s values of honesty, caring, respect and responsibility.  We celebrate our strengths and unique differences and welcome everyone into our centre with open arms.

Our children are seen as citizens of the world with their own rights and responsibilities. We strongly advocate for children’s rights guided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and we strongly support children to learn and grow in their own way and in their own time.

Our respectful approaches to our families are based on strong partnerships built with kindness, involvement and trust. These partnerships are paramount in children’s development and we recognise and acknowledge how important these relationships are with our families.

We highly value our community which includes children, families, educators and the wider local neighborhood. Our community is built on respect, respect for the land, places and people within the community. Our community plays a big role within our curriculum as the children are exposed to different places and people through community walks, visitors and other excursions.

We pride ourselves on sustainable practices including and this can be seen in our environments, the third teacher of the children. We aim to nurture a passion for the environment and encourage children to become caretakers of the earth that we were so blessed with (“When our plants are dry, that’s when they need some water and that’s our job” B- 4 years old).  We reuse, recycle and up- cycle to minimise waste, recreate and relove. We bring the outdoors inside to beautify spaces and we thoughtfully create learning environments that provoke interest, investigation, delight and sense of belonging.

Our professional knowledge is supported by The Early Years Framework, Code of Ethics and inspired by the Reggio Emilia and RIE Approach in our infants. We are reflective in our practices and seek continuous development as individuals and as a team so we are constantly learning and evolving to be the best educators we can be.

We are proud to be an inclusive centre and believe in the power of inspired children, families and educators. We grow and develop as a whole person in ‘Mind, Body and Spirit’ a strong value for YMCA Canberra. Each day at our centre we embrace the chance to laugh, learn and grow as a community, together as one.

The centre is licensed for 90 children by the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support .

Opening Hours: 7 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday (closed on Public Holidays)

Location: 1 Joy Cummings Place Belconnen ACT, 2617 (Corner of Aikman Drive and Joy Cummings Place)

The YMCA firmly believes that high educator: child ratios provides the best learning environment for our children and the best teaching environment for our educators. For this reason, we keep our room ratios as follows:

Waiting List
If you would like to go on our waiting list for a place in a YMCA Early Learning Centre please visit our Enrolments Process page.