Learning is an active process and must involve children’s engagement
Discover the Early Years
Find our more about our wonderful Early Years (3 Year Old and 4 Year old) program below.
Belonging - the importance of connection for all children
Being a happy and fulfilled person is important and essential to a child’s engagement in learning. Each child is first and foremost a member of a family and parents and other significant family members are a child’s first and most important teachers.
We all learn best when we feel valued and connected to those around us. Research supports this theory and we know that children who develop warm, positive relationships with their teachers in the early years of education are more excited and positive about learning, have greater self-confidence, and achieve more at school. In our 3 and 4 Year Old Programs we engage children in ways that help them define who they are, what they can become and how and why they are important to other people.
All children begin with their own learning styles, culture, passions and interests. Every child is competent and curious, capable and motivated to learn about their world through active exploration and inquiry.
Children develop confidence and a sense of self as they gain independence, competence and feel heard and accepted for who they are right now. We guide every child towards developing the resilience needed to effectively deal with life’s little bumps. We focus on children’s holistic development and strengths. Encouragement of persistence and a positive mindset is vital for success.
We support children to value differences and the richness that a diverse community and other perspectives can bring to us. We value participation, inclusion and equity for all children and their families and this is incorporated into our policies and practices.
Curriculum
We follow the Early Years Learning Framework and are inspired by current research. We work to enhance children’s intrinsic motivation, encourage them to welcome challenge and develop thinking and lifelong learning skills. We seek to provide a strong foundation of dispositions, values and skills across a range of areas including numeracy and literacy which will allow for a seamless transition into the first years of school.
We believe in best practice and evidence-based research. Our teaching team communicates with each child in purposeful and intentional ways. We embrace explicit instruction as an approach to the teaching and learning of fundamental skills and knowledge.
The quality of their daily interactions enables each child to learn and develop effective language, problem solving, creativity and self-regulation skills across key learning areas.
Our teaching team forms part of a professional learning community which is engaged in research and committed to best practise. Planning and assessment is a team effort that follows a cycle of data collection, analysis and goal setting for each child.
We monitor and track each child’s progress across a variety of developmental areas including:
- Early numeracy
- Early literacy skills
- Physical development
- Personal development
We use a variety of assessment screens and tools to ensure each child is developing to be their very best. The principal purposes of assessing are to:
- Determine what each child knows, understands and can do
- Inform and differentiate teaching and learning
- Provide feedback to teachers, students and parents
- Monitor the effectiveness of our programs
Specialist areas in our 3 and 4 Year Old Programs include Music, Library, and Physical Education
Cocurricular activities include Suzuki violin, French and Gymnastics
National Quality Standard
Our 3 and 4 Year Old Programs have been rated as Exceeding National Quality Standard under the National Quality Framework.
We are delighted that the quality of these programs, the care and professionalism of our staff and the strong commitment of the school in supporting these programs, has been recognised in this way.
