Bolwarra - Tillys Play & Development Centre

Tillys Play and Development Centre at Bolwarra is a purpose built centre which was established in 2016. With an extension made to a traditional house facade, the centre boasts originality and character like no other. Tillys at Bolwarra is a 118 place long day care centre that caters for children aged 0-12 years for 51 weeks of the year from 6:30am-6:30pm.

The centre includes two nursery rooms for children aged 0-2, one toddler room for children aged 2-3, two preschool rooms for children aged 3-6 and an OOSH/Vacation Care room catering for school aged children. The Out of School Hours and Vacation Care (OOSH) facility has 2 mini buses that cater for Bolwarra Public School, Largs Public School and St Johns The Baptist. Our centre features amazing natural and man-made structures to enhance children’s learning and allows them to explore and build on their interests and skills. We are proud to have been assessed by the Early Childhood Education Directorate, NSW Department of Education, and awarded an Exceeding rating across all 7 Quality Areas, and also meet the highest level accreditation in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) Detective Program. Our natural outdoor play space features a dry creek bed, vast established gardens, sandpits, bike tracks, swings, large tree trunks for climbing, chickens and friendly horses in our neighbouring paddocks. Each room presents individually to cater for different developmental levels, interests and focuses. We have a dedicated art room filled with many different fun, messy, creative experiences to enhance creative thinking.

The centre has a strong community connection with the local public schools which aids in the Transition to School program we provide. We work with our local schools to develop our Transition to School program, helping to prepare our pre-schoolers for a smooth transition to kindergarten. Being in close proximity to Bolwarra Public School allows us to make visits and orientations available as part of our Transition to School program. We visit the library, classrooms, canteen, office and playgrounds. These excursions help the children to become familiar with a primary school environment and understand the changes which will be occurring as they begin their journey into primary school. We value our links within the community which allows us to be part of the Maitland show, Steam-Fest, and use local businesses including Head and Heart Mindfulness who provide many ongoing mindfulness classes with the children at our centre.

At our annual awards ceremony on Saturday 3rd February, celebrating our educators for 2023, Tillys Bolwarra and it’s educators were nominated as finalists and won a number of awards for their excellence and dedication to Early Childhood Education and Care. These include:

2-3 Room of the Year Finalist – Platypus

OOSH Room of the Year Finalist – Bolwarra

Pedagogy and Practice Award 0-2 Finalist – Vanessa Lucas

Pedagogy and Practice Award 2-3 Finalist – Tamara Greentree

Pedagogy and Practice Award OOSH Finalist – Joshua Brown

Trainee of the Year Practical Finalist – Rebecca Lawrence

Outstanding Outdoor Environment Finalist – Bolwarra

0-2 Programmer of the Year Finalist – Vanessa Lucas

OOSH Programmer of the Year Finalist – Joshua Brown

15 Years of Service to Tillys – Kristy Sturmer

Educator of the Year Winner – Anna Gehrig

Outstanding Leadership Winner – Hannah Cambourn