Elder Street                                       EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRE

ELDER STREET EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRE PHILOSOPHY

 A Centre Philosophy is a living document that underpins the decisions, interactions, culture, planning and implementation of all that happens at a children’s service. It is a document that belongs to the entire community of the children’s service and therefore requires review by the community regularly.  A Centre Philosophy can be thought of in the same light as a set of family values, guidelines or even “how things are viewed around here”, philosophically speaking! 

We have included below our philosophy a daily cycle explanation to show and  details how we at the centre meet and live this philosophy each and every day.

CENTRE PHILOSOPHY

The beliefs and values of the staff and families at Elder Street Early Childhood Centre have been consolidated to form our philosophy on the care and education of children whilst attending the centre.

Our centre welcomes all families, recognising the diversity of people’s beliefs, cultures, values and abilities within our wider community.

We believe that children’s development is influenced by the social and cultural context in which they live.  We therefore strongly support the development of partnerships with parents based on mutual respect. We value and welcome their input and involvement in the centre.

Management are committed to addressing the needs of its families, staff and the wider community. We aim to consult with these parties involved in the centre on issues of policy and procedure development.

Our professional, caring, informed and committed staff work together to meet the goals of our service.  Staff have access to resources and training within the community that enhance their abilities to provide for the children’s needs.  We aim to develop positive and nurturing relationships with each child at the centre.  Management of the service holds staff abilities, needs and levels of experience in high regard.  They aim to ensure that staff are rewarded both intrinsically and extrinsically often within their work place.

We provide a modern, attractive, secure, hygienic and interactive environment for children to explore whilst stimulating their senses and minds.

Our program pedagogy is based on understanding the value of play. Play is the vehicle through which children learn about themselves and their surrounds. It also importantly encompasses the belief that children are people with potential, curiosity and interest in constructing their own learning as they play.    We implement this belief within our program by using the Emergent Curriculum following the guidelines of the Early Years Learning Framework.

This type of curriculum explores what is “socially relevant, intellectually engaging and personally meaningful to children (Jones & Nemo, 1994, p3) Through the ever changing emergent curriculum our staff are engaged in a process of supporting, facilitating, observing, interpreting and evaluating the children’s needs interests, ideas and activities, as they play.

We aim to assist in developing respectful, confident, happy and capable children, familiar with the wider community who are secure and content in their environment.

HOW OUR CENTRE PHILOSOPHY IS REFLECTED IN OUR DAILY PRACTICES

Our Centre Philosophy can be broken down into 5 main components that we believe can be seen in practice everyday and could easily be used to explain how our philosophy is applied in daily practice.

1.         Partnership with Parents

2.         Nurturing Relationships with Children

3.         Programs and Routines

4.         Value of Play

5.         Emergent Curriculum.

As you read the philosophy these 5 areas are evident and can be used to relate the philosophy to our daily practices.

1.         PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS

From our philosophy:

“We believe that children’s development is influenced by the social and cultural context in which they live.  We therefore strongly support the development of partnerships with parents based on mutual respect.  We value and welcome their input and involvement in the centre”

This paragraph of the philosophy explains that from the time the families arrive at the centre we welcome them all, we look to the parents as the key to unlocking any important information on their children, they walk out the door and our part of the partnership begins.  We then are handed over the privilege to begin the care and education of that child for the day.

2.         NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHILDREN

From our philosophy

“We aim to develop positive and nurturing relationships with each child at the centre”

This important sentence continues on explaining how our philosophy statement reflects our practices.  As the day goes on we look at each child individually and ask ourselves “what does this child need today” and how can we provide that.

3.         PROGRAMS AND ROUTINES

From our philosophy

“Our professional, caring, informed and committed staff work together to meet the goals of our service.  Staff have access to resources and training within the community that enhance their abilities to provide for the children’s needs”

This paragraph explains that through the development of room goals (that can be found in each child’s port folio folder) that have been developed by staff, and the knowledge we have gained via our study and ongoing training, we work to meet these goals and use this knowledge during all interactions and practices throughout the day ie, programming, understanding child development etc.

4.         VALUE OF PLAY

“Our program philosophy is based on understanding the value of play.  Play is the vehicle through which children learn about themselves and their surrounds.  It also importantly encompasses the belief that children are people with potential, curiosity and interest in constructing their own learning as they play.  We implement this through the Emergent Curriculum”

If there is any one paragraph in our philosophy that is the call card of our service, this would be the one.  There is a strong evidence basis when anyone observes the children at our centre that they are in charge of their own learning.  We are not here to “teach” them what we know, we are here to facilitate what they discover through play.  This happens all day every day.

5.         EMERGENT CURRICULUM

From our Philosophy

“This type of curriculum explores what is “socially relevant, intellectually engaging and personally meaningful to children (Jones & Nemo, 1994, pg 3) Through the ever changing emergent curriculum our staff are engaged in a process of supporting, facilitating, observing, interpreting and evaluating the children’s needs, interests, ideas and activities, as they play.”

We make a big deal about the “Emergent Curriculum”, but it really is just a tool with a fancy name.  We use this tool everyday to support our belief in the value of play.  This tool could also be seen as a big net – like one you catch butterflies with.  Just imagine that the big net’s job is to catch the children’s learning in progress every day.  The little components of the net are us armed with our knowledge and observation skills, a camera, a big daily diary and lots of folders for each child.  We wave this net around all day, everyday.

The last part of the cycle leads us back to our partnerships with parents, when they walk in the door and we handover the care and education and impart to them the knowledge and information about their child for that day.  The next day the daily philosophy cycle begins again.

We hope this explanation of our philosophy in action helps our centre community understand how our Centre Philosophy helps us provide quality care and education.