Explore & Develop

Welcome to Explore & Develop Newcastle East

Scroll down to learn more about our service.

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Monday – Friday 7.30am – 6.00pm
50 Bolton Street Newcastle NSW 2300
(02) 4925 3349

0–6 years

We are a child-safe organisation

MEET THE OWNER

Cherie Cash

As owner of Explore & Develop Newcastle East, Cherie supports a skilled team of educators to deliver the best outcomes for your children.

She believes in open, authentic and honest relationships and providing a safe space for your child and family to flourish.

Features

In-house cook
Nutritious varied menu
Family events
Nappies and wipes supplied
Early intervention support
Parent communication app
Local primary school connections
School readiness curriculum

Our approach

Our location in a historical building binds us to Newcastle’s history and provides a platform for our service, children, and families to learn about the city we live in and connect with our community. Images of local Newcastle landmarks — including Lake Macquarie — are positioned in our play areas, which assist children and families to foster their sense of belonging to the local community.

Building on this sense of belonging, our curriculum is child-led and centred — it follows rather than leads children, responding to and expanding on their expressed interests.

Learning Environments

Stockton Room

Our warm and calm nursery room provides a home-like space for children to build their sense of security and belonging. Your baby’s developmental and emotional needs are a priority to us, thus we focus on providing high-quality care, following children’s individual routines and ensuring consistency between your home and our service.

The indoor curriculum offers stimulating experiences and age-appropriate resources, which allow for own pace exploration and discovery, whilst achieving key developmental milestones.

Our warm and calm nursery room provides a home-like space for children to build their sense of security and belonging. Your baby’s developmental and…

Merewether Room

Our focus in the infant room is to provide a calm, nurturing and safe environment for children to continue developing their sense of belonging and identity, while still following their individual sleep and feeding routines.

Our indoor curriculum, linked to the Early Years Learning Framework, is rich with meaningful, age-appropriate experiences and natural materials, fostering open-ended play and discovery whilst building children’s connections with others and their emergent independence.

Our focus in the infant room is to provide a calm, nurturing and safe environment for children to continue developing their sense of belonging…

Newcastle Room

This is a stimulating and vibrant learning space for our busy and curious toddlers. A variety of natural and open-ended resources are meaningfully placed in a range of learning spaces, fostering learning dispositions such as cooperation, confidence and enthusiasm. The indoor environment also includes construction, creative arts, music, yoga and dramatic play, all designed for active busy minds and bodies.

This is a stimulating and vibrant learning space for our busy and curious toddlers. A variety of natural and open-ended resources are meaningfully placed…

Junior Preschool

Our welcoming and stimulating Junior Preschool offers a variety of learning spaces which promote children’s creativity and imagination, whilst catering for a myriad learning styles, interests and inquisitive minds.

In the Junior Preschool, we believe in children taking considered risks in their decision-making and being open to new challenges and discoveries to foster their emerging resilience and become confident and involved learners.

Our welcoming and stimulating Junior Preschool offers a variety of learning spaces which promote children’s creativity and imagination, whilst catering for a myriad learning…

Senior Preschool

Our Senior Preschoolers are immersed in a vibrant and flexible environment, where they are encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning, personal regulation and contribution to the social environment. With the support and encouragement of our trusted educators, children use a range of processes such as exploration, questioning and problem solving across all aspects of the curriculum.

Our Senior Preschoolers are immersed in a vibrant and flexible environment, where they are encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning, personal…

Rated 5 stars on Google

  • Kyle and Emily Kelton

    4 months ago

    Google

    Would highly recommend Explore and Develop Newcastle East for families wanting to send their children to a daycare that care about their children and provide the best care. The staff have been fantastic with our baby and has been a very easy transition from being at home to being at daycare. All of the ladies have been so loving and caring including Joy who our baby absolutely adores and makes drop offs extremely smooth! I’ll also note that the food provided by the daycare is prepared daily by a chef and smells fantastic when we walk through the daycare! Complements to the chef! We love the care and compassion provided by all staff to our child and know she is safe when we leave her for the day.

  • Lauren Eltom

    a year ago

    Google

    Moving our son to explore and develope was the best decision we have made. We came from a big chain daycare where our child was just a number and the care was inadequate. Walking into Explore and delvlope is like a breath of fresh air. The educators are so caring and every single one knows every child and their needs. In the 5 months we have been with the centre we have seen so much growth in our son. He is so happy to be attending the centre, he wakes up every day asking to go to school. It is such a good feeling as a parent that I can trust every single educator and know my son is happy, safe and learning. I could not reccomend highly enough.

  • Shane Doolan

    a year ago

    Google

    Explore & Develop Newcastle East is without a doubt the best daycare and early learning centre in Newcastle. We're more than happy to drive 20 minutes from home because our kids are so happy there. The educators are always warm and friendly, and their enthusiasm for early childhood development is inspiring. The centre's approach sparks our children’s imagination, curiosity, creativity, and thirst for learning while fostering a nurturing and stimulating environment. I highly recommend this centre to any parent looking for an exceptional early learning experience.

  • Rebecca – Design Bug

    2 years ago

    Google

    This is a wonderful centre with all of the educators so caring of the children. The communication between staff and parents is fantastic and I know our son is learning valuable skills in happy and safe environment.

  • Yolande Willis

    2 years ago

    Google

    I have spent time at E & D Newcastle East over the last 12 months, and am most impressed with the care and nurture shown by the staff. Children's needs and individuality are understood and catered for. The staff are experienced and work hard as a team to provide a program that ensures children feel safe, cared for and enriched. Providers are welcomed and their recommendations are implemented by educators.

Fees & Inclusions

The daily fees for 2026

We are an approved Child Care Subsidy (CCS) service, which means eligible families will receive three days per week of subsidised care.

Use our CCS calculator for an estimate of your individual fees, or contact us and we’ll help you with it.

Our 2026 fees are outlined below. Note these fees are before CCS, which will significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs.

Our service is also eligible for Start Strong Fee Relief, providing a further saving for families of 3- and 4-year-old children, in addition to CCS.

AGE GROUPDAILY FEE (BEFORE CCS and Start Strong)
Nursery (0-2 years)$160/day
Early learning (2-3 years)$160/day
Preschool (3-5 years)$154/day

Our daily fee is all-inclusive, covering nutritious meals, snacks and drinks, nappies, wipes, sunscreen, bedding, educational programs and learning materials.

Gallery

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Local partnerships

In 2024, Explore & Develop Newcastle – King Street formed a relationship with Newcastle Grammar School in order to help connect our families to a quality local school community.

Spanning two campuses, Newcastle Grammar is an independent K-12 school in the Anglican tradition, offering an innovative co-curricular program, strong academic results and a commitment to student wellbeing.

As part of the partnership, our preschool children will enjoy ongoing visits from specialist NGS teachers – including Mandarin, sports and science lessons – held onsite in our preschool.

To learn more about the school, click here or call 4925 2121.

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Contact us

Monday – Friday 7.30am – 6.00pm
50 Bolton Street
Newcastle NSW
2300
(02) 4925 3349

0–6 years

We are a child-safe organisation