Our Early Learning Centre’s Philosophy
What We Believe
Our Philosophy for Children
We welcome all children and families and actively work on creating and maintaining a culturally safe and inclusive environment where everyone feels connected to the centre.
We value each child equally and believe each child is unique with individual needs, interests and strengths.
We believe in protecting the rights of children and advocating for them.
We place a strong emphasis on emotional and physical wellbeing and understand that each child requires a secure, safe, nurturing and supportive environment. Through secure and nurturing relationships, children develop confidence and feel respected and valued. They become increasingly able to recognise and respect the feelings of others and learn to interact positively with others.
We believe it is essential to enhance each child’s feelings of self-worth and promote confidence and beliefs in one’s own abilities.
Each child also requires a nutritional, well-balanced diet. Meals provided give adequate nutrition and take into account the child’s home and cultural background. Meal times are a fundamental part of the child’s learning experiences.
Program & Practice Philosophy
We believe children are successful, competent and capable learners, as well as active participants in their own learning.
We believe children have the right to be heard, make choices and have input into the direction of their own learning.
We recognise and value play as an essential part of the learning process. Play provides opportunities for children to learn as they discover, create, improvise and imagine.
Children’s interests form a basis for learning. They learn when they are able to share and follow the interests and passions they hold within and outside the centre.
It is vital that educators professionally document, collect information, plan and respond to each individual child’s learning.
Educators use strategies such as scaffolding, modelling, demonstrating, questioning, explaining and engaging in shared decision making and problem solving.
Educators provide vibrant, organised, welcoming, homelike, flexible indoor and outdoor spaces that are responsive to the children’s interests, ideas and abilities.
Children learn within and through the relationships that they form with others at the centre.
We recognise that we all contribute to the wellbeing of the environments we live in and we want the children to join us as we continue to explore our awareness of the environment, sustainability and the need to conserve our resources.
Community & Family Philosophy
We acknowledge and value our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and that of the wider community. We thank and acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Wadi Wadi people of the Dharawal Nation for sharing their land, waters and sky with us.
We believe that families are children’s first and most influential educators. It is important to have empathy and be responsive to family needs and provide support when required.
We believe in honouring the diversity of culture, values and beliefs in other people. This is reflected in our environments as we create awareness and integrate these into our everyday learning.
We believe that parent involvement in decision making about the centre, policy development and programming, along with family participation, is an important part of collaboration.
We believe in building a strong relationship with our local community and we understand that we are a central link to information and support services within the wider community.
We view children as valued members of the community. We highlight the worth of building a community that enables children to develop a readiness for the transition to school.
Our Philosophy for Staff
We believe in employing staff who are committed to working for the best interests of the children and families.
We aim to promote training and professional enrichment to all staff so they can develop and refine their professional practices and keep abreast with and effectively address evolving issues within our service.
We believe staff require opportunities to share in decision making and obtain feedback..
We believe that the diversity of skills, strengths, talents and experience of staff is a key aspect that enriches our service.
We aim to provide a positive, healthy work environment and culture where all members of the learning community feel supported and have the opportunity to flourish.
