Chisholm - Tillys Play & Development Centre

Tillys Play and Education Centre, Chisholm is a 120-place Early Education Childcare Centre and Out of School Hours Care Service. We are a purpose-built centre, that opened in March 2022 and cares for children aged 0-12 years. Our operating hours are 6:30 am-6:30 pm, 51 weeks of the year. We provide all meals including breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and supper, catering for any intolerances, dietary or allergy requirements, prepared fresh daily in our centre kitchen by our dedicated cook, Kirsty. Upon enrolment, the centre also provides a hat, Tillys shirt and drink bottle for your child. If your child requires a sleep whilst in our care, you are also given a Tillys sheet bag to pack these for your child.

Our service is split into two buildings with our long daycare playground in the middle. Our entry building contains the Front Office, Kitchen, staff room and our OOSH/VAC room. Our Long Day Care rooms are situated across our yard and are made up of six individual rooms.

With the long daycare rooms on one side of the playground, the children have the opportunity to access both indoor and outdoor environments throughout the day. The generous undercover outdoor area allows children to utilise the space in all weather conditions while engaging in play with a range of ages from 0-6 years. Our outdoor play spaces include a small and large sandpit, bike track, large grass area, purpose-built play forte, mud kitchen and obstacle courses. This space is shared between our six long daycare rooms with up to 90 children within the space. We value the benefits of implementing an indoor/outdoor program with the children throughout the day. This gives the children the autonomy to access both play spaces and the opportunity to flow through wherever they need, finding a quieter area inside or exploring our outdoor areas. Our long daycare rooms are split into two rooms per age. Our dedicated 0-2 nursery rooms cater for 20 children per day. Our 2-3 year-old rooms have 15 children in each of these spaces. The 3-6 years children are split into two rooms with 20 children in each.

Our Tillys OOSH service drops and collects children from the two local schools in our area using our centre buses. This includes Thornton PS and St Aloysius. We also have an amazing Vacation Care program available to all members of the community during school holidays with planned experiences, including incursions and excursions for the children to local attractions. Our OOSH caters for 30 children each day. They have their own purpose-built area offering indoor/outdoor play.

Within all age groups, we believe that trusting, genuine, authentic, and respectful relationships enable our children to feel safe, secure, and supported within their environment. By providing responsive and meaningful interactions and environments, our children can gain a sense of belonging within the setting. We see our children as unique, confident, and competent individuals and show each child respect, care, and love in our actions and words.

Our centre uses OWNA as our platform to communicate with families each day about the learning experiences their children have engaged in, to share photos, and to plan goals to support children’s individual development. Our families are central to providing positive outcomes for our children. We believe that collaborative partnerships with families are vital to enhancing a child’s well-being. We recognise our families as their children’s first teachers and work with our families to ensure they feel comfortable trusting us with their most precious asset.

Throughout the year, we host a variety of centre events for the children and families to engage in including dress-up weeks, incursions, family picnic days, grandparent visits, morning and afternoon teas, discos, learning programs and so much more! We plan these experiences in collaboration with the children’s voices and ideas, as well as family input and contribution.

Our Rooms:

Gumnut: The Gumnut Room caters for 12 children aged 0-2 years

Wattle: The Wattle Room caters for 8 children aged 0-2 years

Bluebell: The Bluebell Room caters for 15 children aged 2-3 years

Lilly Pilly: The Lilly Pilly Room caters for 15 children aged 2-3 years

Bottlebrush: The Bottlebrush Room caters for 20 children aged 3-6 years

Grevillea: The Grevillea Room caters for 20 children aged 3-6 years

Gumtree: The Gumtree Room caters for 30 children aged 5-12 years / OOSH and Vacation Care

At our 2025 Annual Awards Ceremony on Saturday 8th February, celebrating our educators for 2024, Tillys Chisholm 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:

0-2 Room of the Year Finalist – Gumnut Room
2-3 Room of the Year Finalist – Bluebell Room
2-3 Room of the Year Winner – Wattle Room
3-6 Rooms of the Year Winners – Bottlebrush and Grivella Rooms
OOSH Room of the Year Winner
Pedagogy and Practice Award 0-2 Finalist – Jasmine Saunders
Pedagogy and Practice Award 2-3 Finalists – Isabella Dunlop & Caitlyn Brooker
Pedagogy and Practice Award 3-6 Finalists – Margo Lee & Elizabeth Burg
Pedagogy and Practice Award OOSH Finalist – Makayla Roney
Trainee of the Year Theory Finalists – Rebecca Harrison & Keisha Connors-Burns
Trainee of the Year Practical Finalists – Kierra Griffiths & Keisha Connors-Burns
Support Person of the Year Finalist – Alloriah Lee
Outstanding Outdoor Environment Finalist
0-2 Programmer of the Year Finalist – Elizabeth Leonard
2-3 Programmer of the Year Finalist – Stephanie Patti
3-6 Programmer of the Year Winners – Ashley Haley & Chelsea Coe
OOSH Programmer of the Year Winner – Eliesha Ekin
Overall Programmer of the Year Finalist – Eliesha Ekin
Overall Programmer of the Year Winners – Ashley Haley & Chelsea Coe
10 Years of Service to Tillys – Kylie Murray
15 Years of Service to Tillys – Margo Lee
Educator of the Year Winner – Natasha Hayes
Outstanding Leadership Finalist – Jaime-Lee Sidoti
Educational Leader of the Year Finalist – Jaime-Lee Sidoti
Nominated Supervisor of the Year Finalist – Brynna Macpherson
Operations Manager Award Finalist
Commitment to Critically Reflective Practice Award Finalist
Whole Service Commitment to Excellence Award Finalist
Commitment to Team Culture Finalist
Overall Service Presentation Finalist