Published 10 Sep 2025
Authentically embedding diversity through culture, community and identity – Kids & Co Early Learning Centre Docklands
Engaged with colleagues, learners and the broader community
Emma Toro and Tari Klisaris - Nominated Supervisor and Manager
Kids & Co Early Learning Centre Docklands
Schools and early childhood services across Victoria continue to provide quality learning experiences across all levels. The VIT’s Professional Practice team is privileged to see this work first-hand on visits to workplaces around the state. Here is just one example spotlighting the great work happening in a Docklands-based early learning centre.
Emma Toro and Tari Klisaris manage Kids & Co, a family-owned early learning centre that caters up to 130 children. The centre reflects the diversity of their local community through the programming and children who attend the centre. We spoke to Emma and Tari about how they have implemented an authentic approach through culture, community and identity to empower their staff to integrate cultural diversity into their teaching plans. This has resulted in greater outcomes for the centre’s children.
Can you tell us about your workplace, including your roles and backgrounds?
At Kids & Co, we’re lucky to be surrounded by an amazing team of educators and early childhood teachers (ECTs) from different cultural backgrounds who bring their own knowledge and beliefs to work.
Our roles focus on overseeing the day-to-day operations of the service, whether that’s helping the team, answering enquiries or running centre tours. During the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns, our enrolments dropped dramatically as a result of Melbourne’s CBD experiencing massive drops in foot traffic, businesses being shut down temporarily and work-from-home mandates.
Remote work has persisted beyond the lockdowns, however the centre is growing again and we’re returning to our pre-Covid enrolment numbers. We have held to our principles and continue to offer a high-quality program that not only attracts families to enrol their children, but also university students who want to complete their placements with us.
What was the challenge you were facing that inspired the change in your service?
Firstly, we’re in a competitive sector and secondly, we face challenges due to our location in the CBD. We had to engage with the local community through word-of-mouth to highlight the bespoke way we run our centre and the individualised programs for children. The biggest challenge is that less people now work in the city, so we needed to capture the families that do.
We saw the need to engage deeply with the families coming into the centre and offer their children a bespoke program built on their specific interests and cultural backgrounds. ECTs plan new activities for the children each week and celebrate culture through activities linked to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). The special nature of their planning focuses on welcoming family input and understanding that a collaborative approach to learning leads to the best outcomes for the children.
To support our individualised learning program, we have an excellent ECT to student ratio, more than what other centres can provide. We understand that the more targeted and bespoke our program is, the more resources and staffing we need to deliver something special to our children.
We are also proud of our outdoor space, which is extremely generous for a city service. This space provides opportunities for climbing, navigating and pretend play. We have equipment that improves hand strength and dexterity in an environment that fosters social and cultural inclusion and accessibility.
What did the program change entail? Please provide any relevant background, research and/or evidence that informed you in developing this approach.
We developed a culturally-grounded, learn-through-play approach which incorporates every child’s interest by intentionally embedding local culture, community values and traditions into everyday practice. We collaborated with parents and carers to understand their cultural backgrounds and brought their traditions into the centre through celebrating cultural days, stories and dance, and learning new languages. Families have been a part of our culture days by sharing cooking, crafts or music from their backgrounds.
We implemented rooms which incorporate a First Nations theme, including a reading area with First Nations’ stories, which we’re particularly proud of. Each room has an Acknowledgement of Country space, along with a display of artwork and books. We have cultural objects throughout the centre and storytelling sessions with our children. We have a healthy budget for materials and crafts that support imaginative artworks inspired by the cultural backgrounds of our families and are displayed around the centre.
The EYLF recognises that children’s culture, community and identity are central to learning and wellbeing, which fuels all the work we do. This, combined with a play-based approach, supports deeper learning, stronger identity and better developmental outcomes.
What structural things are in place to ensure the program has its best chance at success?
Continuous training and support for our educators and ECTs is a priority. We encourage our staff to undertake professional development and keep abreast of pedagogical practices.
Providing ongoing cultural-competency training is key to empowering us to intentionally plan for cultural inclusion. At Kids & Co, we’re not just celebrating diversity, but actively embedding it in our daily teaching practice.
Our team planning sessions include critical reflection on each child at our centre, and we create activities to engage all our learners. Weekly meetings to discuss and design our program allows us to build on our offerings. We share what we have done through our parent app , which increases parent and carer engagement.
We also encourage both indoor and outdoor experiences for the children so they have equal opportunity in both areas. We understand the importance of physical activity and the outdoors, and we teach respect for nature and what that means in different cultures.
Ensuring our staff are trained in behaviour management is also an essential piece of the puzzle. Some children have trouble self-regulating, and we need strategies to work through this. If a child has difficulty self-regulating, we have a suite of tools to support them, for example, flash cards that highlight different emotions to help bring calm. We encourage our children to take short, intentional pauses by
- drinking from their drink bottle
- time alone
- taking a short walk outside in the playground.
We also teach self-regulation through our staff leading by example.
How has the program built staff capability or contributed to the learning and development of staff? Please provide some illustrative examples if appropriate.
Our teachers and educators have learned to understand, respect and value diverse cultural perspectives. Most of our staff represent the diversity of our community and can speak more than one language. They reflect on their own cultural lens, and this informs their planning for the children.
Instead of teaching about culture, our staff teach through culture, which is authentic.
Our staff have built reciprocal relationships with families, which has enabled them to co-design learning experiences for our learning program. At times, this has been difficult when families experience language barriers, however, with the help of technology, translator apps and patience, we have been able to work through this. Not only are our staff more skilled in this space, but we have increased the capacity to engage parents and carers in their child’s learning.
Our staff feel valued and empowered with our authentic approach to teaching and learning. They understand this approach isn’t an ‘add-on’ on extra; instead of providing a one-size fits all curriculum, staff are responsive and community-connected professionals who empower every child to thrive.
At Kids & Co, we focus on culture, community and identity, an approach that benefits staff and students alike.