Our Program 

The foundations of our program are built on the relationships we form with the children, their families and the wider community. We have built a community preschool where children and families gain a strong sense of belonging and feel they are a part of a larger extended family. Their thoughts, ideas, culture, beliefs and participation are welcomed, supported, respected and celebrated.

Our learning program is guided by the national Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and its principles, practices and outcomes, in conjunction with our emergent curriculum and intentional teaching. During your child’s time with us, educators will observe their learning through play, taking note of their interests, strengths and areas to support in the preschool environment.

Our Educators thoughtfully plan the program from their knowledge of the individual child obtained through their interactions and observations, and information provided to us by the families. Our emergent curriculum is play based, child-led, meaningful, authentic and embraces our environment as the ‘third teacher’. It is planned around each child as an individual, as a part of a family and as a member of our community. We include educator interests, family activities, special celebrations, cultural aspects, our environment and events in the community to extend our learning program.

Our daily program implements and reflects the national “Early Years Learning Framework—Being, Belonging & Becoming” and encompasses the practices, principles and the five learning outcomes:

Children have a strong sense of identity

• Children feel safe, secure, and supported.
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
• Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities.
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect.

Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation.
• Children respond to diversity with respect.
• Children become aware of fairness.
• Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.

Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

• Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing.
• Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing.

Children are confident & involved learners

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.
• Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another.
• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.

Children are effective communicators

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
• Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts.
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media.
• Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work.
• Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.

 

We know children are unique individuals and that they are powerful contributors to their own learning. We agree with Plutarch that

“the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” 

For this reason, purposeful learning experiences that touch the child’s interest, curiosity or motivation to learn are pursued and the five learning outcomes weaved into these through spontaneous, planned and intentional teaching opportunities. In a sense, the children become the leader and creator of their own emergent curriculum and we, essentially, become the co-learner. Our role is to intrinsically observe, reflect and evaluate when to facilitate, guide, scaffold and resource each child’s ability.

The activities we plan, the environments we create, the toys and play materials we select, the daily routine we follow and the way we talk with the children, are all designed to support the EYLF and provide your child with a successful transition to school, but more importantly, to life!