Community:

Our community is warm, welcoming and inclusive where there is a strong sense of belonging for all. We place great importance on building relationships that are caring, open, collaborative, respectful and supportive.

We manage our kindergarten with an ongoing cycle of planning and review, engage parents, and the community, to create a climate for continuous improvement and promote a positive organisational culture.

We the staff will welcome and encourage all of our parents to be actively involved in our community, by contributing ideas and sharing information about their skills and experiences.

The staff will facilitate learning about the community and surroundings through incursions and discussions. Staff will provide a service which best meet the needs of the parents and children and provide support systems for families.

 

Environment:

We aim to create an environment that is inclusive, promotes competence, independent exploration and learning through play and where outdoor and indoor spaces are designed and organised to engage every child in quality experiences in both the built and natural environments.

 

 Program:

We want our children to have a strong sense of identity. We are passionate about the importance and power of play and through play children will extend their understanding of language and engage with texts, symbols and numeracy concepts discover and connect with and act responsibly in the natural and built environments.

We want children to grow in confidence, resilience and independence, taking increasing responsibility for their own and others health and wellbeing, develop empathy and form trusting relationships with adults and other children. We will offer children new learning experiences and these experiences will be represented and reflected in the kindergarten program daily.

Children will also be encouraged to understand and recognise social justice and fairness, embrace diversity using their own ways of expressing themselves that will be celebrated within the group.

We aim for each child to feel empowered to play, work, think, and learn independently of adults. Children are the focus of the program and the teachers are seen as the facilitators available to provide support, guidance, encouragement and a stimulating variety of resources. In the time spent with us, children will be free to observe, to question, to experiment, to explore without fear of consequence.

We aim for each child to have the freedom to interact within the environment; a child-centred program will enable children to make decisions and self-select materials, equipment, and resources from a well-planned stimulating environment. A child comes to their own conclusions if they have been allowed to work things out for themselves.

We aim for the children to feel empowered with self-protection skills, including independence and self-respect, and to respect the rights and feelings of others.

There are two simple rules…

(1) Sharing, and (2) Caring.

A limited number of rules mean that they are easily remembered and the children encourage their peers to comply. The children are encouraged to develop skills necessary to solve their problems independently where developmentally appropriate. They shall be encouraged to verbalise their needs and feelings and think through positive solutions to their problems.

We aim for each child to have the time to initiate and develop their play, placing them in control of the program. With a flexible program to accommodate each child’s needs, moods and unplanned experiences and the teacher to recognise and appreciate the need to build upon the “teachable moments”.

By facilitating safe play guidelines, educators/teachers empower children to confidently make decisions on the level of risk they are prepared to take, as well as the level of risk that is acceptable in the learning environment.

 

C&K Affiliation:

The development and delivery of a high quality early learning curriculum which considers and responds to the social context, interests, experiences and individuality of each child corresponds to C&K’s philosophy that every child deserves access to quality early education and care within a supportive, local community. This is evident in C&K’s approach to learning, which is based on:

• Rich and responsive relationships
• Competent and capable children
• Equitable and inclusive learning opportunities
• Collaborative and lifelong learning
• Partnerships with families and communities and
• Listening, dialogue and critically reflective teaching practices.

Legislation, contractual and funding conditions, obligations on C&K are reflected in this approach. This approach, upon which C&K Building Waterfalls teaching and learning guidelines is based on, contributes to and ties in with, the five key learning outcomes of Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.