Who are we?

Hobbit Preschool & Child Care Centre is privately owned by Learning Kids Family Day Care. Our providers are Naresh Kumar and Deepmala Kaushik. Hobbit provides early childhood education and care for children aged 2 years to 5 years, from the hours of 8am until 6pm, Monday to Friday.

Hobbit has been in operation since 1973. It was originally set up under the auspices of the University of New England in response to a submission by parents who needed extended day care close to the University where they were working or studying. A continuous link with the University has developed over the years through the attendance of children whose parents work or study at UNE. However, Hobbit has a long tradition as a community-based Centre for the Armidale community, and we welcome children from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.

Hobbit became affiliated with the Armidale Ex-Services Memorial Club in 2009, and officially changed ownership in 2013. Then in 2018 Naresh and Deepmala introduced Hobbit into the Learning Kids family and to their wonderful desires of continuing to maintain Hobbit’s upstanding reputation of being a community inspired early education and care service.

In 2016 Hobbit was assessed against the National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and was rated as “Exceeding National Quality Standard (E)”. This rating was awarded in accordance with the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 and the Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011.

Our Team

Team

Team

Hobbit Team

Ang Karsten

Ang Karsten

Ang is our Teaching Director/Nominated Supervisor at Hobbit. Ang holds a Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) and is a certified Proficient Teacher with NESA. She also holds current First Aid/Asthma/Anaphylaxis qualifications as well as a Child Protection qualification.