City of Kingston Early Years Services
Our Mission
The City of Kingston Child Care Centers provide opportunities for children to be:
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Successful learners for life
Confident, capable and creative individuals,
Active and informed citizens of the community.
Values and Beliefs
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We acknowledge each child as an individual with unique needs, interests and
strengths by maintaining an environment that nurtures all children to be successful
learners, confident and creative individuals; and active and informed citizens.
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We strive to instill a sense of excitement, curiosity, and wonder in the children we
work with recognising teachable moments and opportunities for intentional
learning.
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We strive to be intentional teachers who seek to develop strategies that develop
intentional learning skills within children; we consciously move from being the
provider of knowledge to one that promotes the child’s innate drive for
independent learning.
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We give children opportunities to be held, cuddled, loved, listened to in a safe and
secure environment with peers and Educators who care and understand them.
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We encourage and celebrate children’s connection to the natural world and the
outdoor environment
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We offer play that is freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated,
valued, fun and provides opportunities for challenges.
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We support children to take risks, challenge their thinking, investigate and
hypothesise
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We create spaces and places that are maintained in a safe and healthy way to
enhance children’s learning, development, engagement, initiative, self-worth,
dignity which shows respect for their contributions.
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We partner in learning and encourage children to find their own answers instead
of providing the answers for them. By being a partner, we, their teachers learn
with the children and share in their experiences.
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We employ strategies such as guiding, facilitating, scaffolding, supporting and coconstructing in order to direct children toward outcomes for learning. Being
intentional with what, how and why we teach requires careful consideration on
how content for learning is shaped between adult-guided and child-initiated
learning experiences.
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We will promote recycled, reusable, natural and environmentally sustainable
resources.
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We will explore effective ways of building knowledge and skills to promote mental
health and wellbeing of children in care.
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We work in partnership with families, other professionals and the wider community
to ensure every child has an opportunity to explore, negotiate, play, experiment,
ponder form friendships and dream.
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We strive to create a welcoming environment where all children and families are
respected and actively encouraged to collaborate with educators about curriculum
decisions in order to ensure that learning experiences are meaningful.
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We acknowledge, celebrate and respect our indigenous community and believe in
providing an environment which reflects the cultural richness of its members to
develop strong feelings and understanding of belonging.
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We practise critical reflection, inviting comment from children, families, colleagues
and the community to ensure a holistic approach to the wellbeing of all children.
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We have an ongoing commitment to professional development, involvement with
contemporary research and investigation of innovative teaching and leadership
approaches.
Our Understandings
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We acknowledge and respect our nation’s first people. Respect comes from
understanding, and it is our aim to ensure our practices acknowledge the unique
cultures of all peoples and ensure that no one is disadvantaged while accessing
our service. It is our aim to reflect each person and families unique culture within
our day to day program.
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We understand that a child’s early years determine much of their future
development. Research has shown that the first eight years of a child’s life are the
formative years and the opportunities they experience during this time will have
lasting and far reaching effects.
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We aim to allow each child in our care to achieve their potential and to find ways
to achieve this creatively. We endeavour to create an environment where children
can be enthusiastic, inquiring and challenged. Children are encouraged to follow
their own interests, to take risks and to be a catalyst for their own curriculum.
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We base our curriculum around a number of key concepts and focus points
reflecting the National Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) Belonging; Being
and Becoming and the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development
Framework. Our learning frameworks signal the maintenance of a curriculum that
has children’s interests at its centre, while at the same time introducing outcomes
to frame teaching practice.
This philosophy has been developed in consultation with children, families, Educators,
the Pedagogical Reflection Group and the Children’s Services Management Team.
Acknowledgements:
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United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989
Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics 2006
Being, Belonging, Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia 2009
National Quality Framework 2012
Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework 2009
Leggett, N. & Ford, M. (2013) A fine balance: Understanding the roles educators and children play
as intentional teachers and intentional learners within the Early Years Learning Framework
University of Newcastle in AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD AJEC INDEX AND
ABSTRACTS AJEC VOL. 38 NO. 4 DECEMBER 2013
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