Philosophy

To achieve best outcomes with little people
We believe in providing a safe, inclusive, stimulating, nurturing, nutritionally balanced and environmentally responsible environment that respects and protects the rights of children and employs a play-based approach to develop and instill a love of learning. We believe in the need to organise our environments to foster a sense of security, predictability and flexibility which allows for our children to feel secure while they play and learn at their own pace. We strive to provide children with the opportunity to make decisions and problem solve to foster self-esteem and confidence.

Educators/Teachers fostering high level of expectations and implementing age-appropriate pedagogies
Our learning approach is built upon consistent implementation of age-appropriate pedagogies. The learning outcomes defined by approved frameworks and guidelines underpin our professional practice, teaching and curriculum decision making. We ensure our environments foster play-based learning, which encourages children to organise and rationalise their social standings as they actively engage with peers, educators, objects, and representations. We employ an emergent curriculum approach and focus on interest-based learning, wherein learning experiences are based on the interests of an individual child or groups of children. Different theories about early childhood inform approaches to children’s learning and development. We draw upon a range of perspectives and theorists and incorporate in learning environment and use for curriculum decision making.

Each child is unique, and rights of each child is paramount
Our philosophy is the foundation of our services. We consistently create open-ended environments for each child to learn, grow and flow within their own space and time. We believe it is the right of every child to have access to high quality care and education in an Early Childhood setting. We passionately view each child holistically and proudly work in collaboration with our families to celebrate, value and document the achievements of their children throughout their time in our services. We also ensure the standards and obligations defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child inform curriculum design.

Families play a role of primary educators for their children
We acknowledge the role of each family within our services and advocate the role each family plays as being a child’s first and most influential educator. We actively seek to draw on each family’s dynamic to enhance the practices and experiences offered to our children. We believe that each family in our services is unique and work collaboratively in partnership by gaining and sharing information about their child and embracing their active engagement in our services.

An inclusive, diverse, and culturally equipped environment
We have great appreciation for the values, customs and backgrounds that our families and our educators bring to our services and take pride in incorporating this diversity into our daily practice and curriculum. We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal people as the first people and custodians of this land that we share and the first teachers of the next generations. Our service-level Reconciliation Action Plans articulate how we engage in reconciliation action and contribute to greater unity in the community we serve. Our services welcome all children, including those with additional needs, and work closely with professionals, support agencies, and families, pooling available resources, knowledge and support to meet the needs of each individual child.

Nutritionally balanced meals and family style dining
We believe that nutritionally balanced meals are essential for children’s growth and physical development, healthy brain function, prevention of illness, repair of cells / recovery from illness, good concentration, maintaining energy and overall wellbeing. We are dedicated to providing delicious nutrient-dense foods that children and the wider community can enjoy. We believe serving food ‘family style’ is a great strategy for engaging children in effective communication, developing self-help skills and independence, and for supporting picky eaters.

Embedding the natural environment and risk-taking in learning
We believe that children can derive tremendous benefit from taking part in regular nature play and learning outside of the classroom. This can help to bring many school subjects/areas of development alive as they focus on real results and consequences. Nature play also provides experimental opportunities allowing children to respond positively to challenges and responsibilities, to manage risk and to cope with change. Active outdoor learning and frequent nature play readily develops several learning skills, including inquiry, experiment, feedback, reflection, review, communication, problem solving, an enterprising attitude and cooperative learning.

It takes a village to raise a child
We believe in incorporating strong community and parent links as well as providing opportunities for intentional teaching and extensions on emerging interests. Underpinning our learning approach are genuine connections with families and the community. In pursuing these connections, we are committed to developing a shared set of values and priorities with our families and community. This engagement has defined a set of shared values that serve as a guiding beacon for our services. Our pedagogical philosophy embraces six guiding principles of the National Quality Framework and is directed by our local community’s performance on the early childhood development domains defined by the Australian Early Development Census.