Uniting Cooke Court
What is Specialist Early Education and Development (SEED)?
The Specialist Early Education and Development (SEED) program at Cooke Court is an intensive early childhood education and care model trial operating in partnership between Uniting and the Australian and Victorian Departments of Education, Parkville Institute and the University of Melbourne.
Eligibility criteria
To attend the program, children must be:
- under three years old
- eligible for Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) child wellbeing funding
- in a family that agrees that participation in an Early Child Education and Care (ECEC) program is part of their case plan
- living with significant family stress and social disadvantage.
Once referred, Uniting Vic.Tas or the University of Melbourne researcher will contact the referrer to provide information about processes and respond to any questions.
About the program
Our program offers intensive early childhood education and care to babies and toddlers who are experiencing complex trauma, significant family stress or social disadvantage, for five days per week, 9:30am – 2:30pm, for up to three years at no cost to families.
The program is based on key learnings from trauma and attachment theory and offers educational and relational interventions to reduce the impacts on children of living with toxic stress, as particularised in the third report authored by Dr Anne Kennedy and Associate Professor Brigid Jordan published in May 2019 by the University of Melbourne titled, ‘Changing the Life Trajectories of Australia’s Most Vulnerable Children – Report No. 3 – The Early Years Education Program (EYEP) Model’.
Key details
- Children living with significant adversity are eligible to attend
- Children must be enrolled before their third birthday
- The program runs for five hours per day, five days per week, for 50 weeks of the year for three years
- After 3 years in the program, children transition to universal settings – kindergarten or school depending on their age
- The program is fully funded with no cost to families
- The program has high educator to child ratios
- Children receive 75% of their daily nutritional requirements each day
- The program acknowledges and respects parents as children’s first teachers.
The research
We’re working with Parkville Institute to conduct a replication of the Early Years Education Program (EYEP). EYEP was initiated by Kids First, previously the Children’s Protection Society (CPS), an independent not-for-profit child and family services organisation based in the north-east of Melbourne which was founded in 1896. The program was designed and implemented by CPS in collaboration with Associate Professor Brigid Jordan and Dr Anne Kennedy.
The Victorian government’s Safe Haven initiative is supporting the implementation of the EYEP model at SEED, Cooke Court Richmond.
The evaluation of the outcomes for the children and families who participate in the replication research project is being conducted by Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne.
To be eligible to attend SEED Cooke Court, children must be referred into the program by a support services agency working with the child and family.
About the team
Alongside Early Childhood Teachers and Diploma Qualified Educators in each room, SEED Cooke Court is led by a multidisciplinary senior leadership team, including:
- Infant Mental Health Consultant
- Family Services practitioner
- Centre Director
- Pedagogical Leader.
Contact us
For program information or questions about referrals, eligibility and the research process, please email [email protected].
In partnership with
