What does Australia Day celebrate?

Australia Day is the national day of Australia celebrating the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. It is a day to celebrate all the things that people love about the country of Australia.

When is Australia Day celebrated?

Thursday, January 26th 

What do people do to celebrate?

Since Australia Day takes place in the summer "down under", many people celebrate the day with outdoor events. There are plenty of large public events to attend such as music festivals, sports competitions, fireworks shows, and community awards ceremonies. Many people attend these events or just have a gathering of their own family and friends where they may have a barbecue or picnic to celebrate the day.

A lot of people fly the Australian National Flag on this day. They may also fly the Aboriginal Flag or the Torres Strait Islander Flag.

The single largest event held this day is the City of Perth Skyworks. Around half a million people attend this annual fireworks show that is held over the Swan River in Perth. It is a huge fireworks show where fireworks have been launched from bridges, moving boats, and even skyscrapers.

History of Australia Day

On January 26, 1788 the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove in Australia and claimed the land for Great Britain. The First Fleet was made up mostly of prisoners who established a penal colony in Australia.

The 26th was celebrated early on as the anniversary of the landing date of the First Fleet. For the first 100 years the day was celebrated mostly by people in New South Wales. Other colonies had their own foundation days that they celebrated.

In 1888, one hundred years after the First Fleet landed, all of the colony capitals but Adelaide celebrated the day as Anniversary Day. By 1935 all the states celebrated the 26th as Anniversary Day.

In 1946 the day was renamed to Australia Day.

Fun Facts About Australia Day

• It is estimated that over half of Australia's 21 million citizens participate in celebrating this day.
• During the 1988 Bicentennial Celebration (200 years) over 2.5 million people attended the celebration in Sydney.
• Boat races such as the ferry race and the tall ships race are held in Sydney Harbor on this day.
• Citizenship ceremonies are a big part of the day. In 2011 around 13,000 people became citizens on this day.
• There has been criticism of the day by the Indigenous Peoples of Australia. There are also a number of alternative dates that some people would like to use for the national day.
• Out of the 1000 people who arrived on the First Fleet, around 700 were prisoners.
• Since 1960 the Australian of the Year has been awarded on this day. Past winners include actor Geoffrey Rush, cricket player Steve Waugh, and painter Arthur Boyd.

Australia Day Activities:

• Australian flag collage
• Australia Day cooking experiences; Anzac Biscuits, Damper,Lamingtons
• Australia Day Sun Visor - made out of cardboard
• Learning the Australian Athem

Founder of JDS Childcare Sales Jason Stephenson, specialises in the sale of childcare leaseholds, freeholds, childcare investments, and portfolio assets.

Jason has been a practicing Business broker- Principal Licensed Agent for two years and  has deep connections within and a thorough understanding of the childcare sector, and this  is why he’s chosen to specialise in this area

JDS Childcare Sales is a boutique “smaller agency” however, for this reason you receive a  professional and personalised service. We’re also nimble, responsive and importantly, our fees are competitive. It’s also worth mentioning that, as sales specialists, we have an extensive database of buyers including many of the large corporate childcare groups, both local and international. Notably, we’re not aligned with any of the corporate childcare groups and only work for you, the vendor to achieve the very best outcome. Finally, confidentiality is important to you and it’s important to us. You can be assured that when working with JDS Childcare Sales we treat information discretely which is all part of our professional service.

Yowie Bay Preschool is a boutique privately owned preschool that has been operating under the current Owner/ Director/Approved Provider for 28 years.

The service is well established with quality educators who are dedicated to their role of caring, nurturing and developing a respectful, equitable relationship with the children to further each child’s learning and development and promote a sense of security and belonging. Our qualified Educators provide a high quality program in accordance with the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards. Yowie Bay preschool caters for many local families as well as families within the wider community. We provide a school readiness program, yoga and meditation and the ELLA language program.

What is Human Rights Day?

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually. The day commemorates the signing of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations in 1948. Thirty declarations were written to protect the rights of all people, everywhere across the world regardless of race, colour, religion, gender, language and much more.

When is Human Rights Day?

Sunday, 10 December

Activities:

• Class project - Creaing a A Human Rights Tree - Invite the children  to assist in creating an image that helps to define human rights and human needs.
• Class discussion: Human Beings/Human Rights: " What Does It Mean to Be Human?" This allows the children to voice their opinions and thoughts.
• Creating class rules to ensure human rights are equal drafted by the children
• Discuss human rights and how they want to be treated and how other should be treated; with care, compassion, consideration, kindness, politeness, impartiality and sincerity.

Little Nippers Early Learning and Childcare is a locally owned and operated long day care service on the far south coast of NSW in the idyllic seaside town of Merimbula. The centre backs on to a beautiful bellbird filled bushland which has inspired the centre’s natural, home away from home style environment. Our centre is warm and inviting from our pot plant filled foyer, to our large tree filled backyard. We are strong advocates for learning through nature and play.

We have a team of around twenty educators who are extremely dedicated to their vocation. They were all super excited and so proud to achieve an Exceeding rating for all seven National Quality Standards. The rating acknowledges their hard work and commitment to children and families, the early childhood profession, and our community.  The assessor commended them for their work in “…striving to achieve quality outcomes for children. In particular, the educational program and practice and collaborative partnerships with families…”

For us, respect is the foundation of everything we do. We nurture children. We accept every child for who they are. We nourish their souls, foster their interests and promote their abilities each day. We believe that when children are encouraged to be themselves, to think and act independently they learn to love living and love learning – they flourish.