Sky Tree Kids Early Learning Centre

The creation of our philosophy has been a collaborative process between educators, families and children of Sky Tree. We have developed our philosophy after considering the numerous aspects of early childhood education and care and the desired outcomes families are wishing to achieve for their child.

Our Relationships with Children

We believe that secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships provide children with a crucial foundation for early exploration and learning. Positive relationships support children in learning about their responsibility to others, their connectedness to the people and world around them and supports a positive and healthy environment for children to explore and learn. Our small classes allow educators to build secure relationships with children in a positive all-inclusive environment, where children educators and families recognise that learning occurs in a social context and that interactions and conversations are of vital importance to children’s learning, promoting fairness and equality.

Children’s Sense of Wellbeing

We believe that a sense of wellbeing in children includes both physical and psychological aspects and is central to belonging, being and becoming. Being health, well rested and free of illness assists children to be able to participate happily and successfully in the environment. Our educators support children’s wellbeing by providing safe and secure environments, affirmations and respect for all aspects of their physical, emotional, social, cognitive. linguistic, creative and spiritual wellbeing.

Learning Environments

We pride ourselves in creating challenging indoor and outdoor learning environments to support all aspects of children’s learning and which spark conversations between child/ren, educators, families and the broader community. Our learning environments promote opportunities for sustainable shared thinking and collaborative learning. Our learning spaces invite open ended interactions, conversations, spontaneity, risk taking, exploration and discovery, all within an environment which has a very close connection with nature. Our environments are inclusive, promote competence, independence and learning through play. We provide learning spaces which allow children to engage in free play and which support spontaneity as well as provide learning spaces which allow children to focus on intentional teaching aspects but provide them with the freedom of exploration and discovery during those experiences.

Pedagogical Documentation

We enjoy and believe in working in collaboration with educators, families and children for the planning of our learning programs. We use children’s interests and the EYLF and QKLG learning outcomes to guide children’s learning, together with input from educators and families, to develop quarterly and weekly learning programs. We use the framework to guide our educators in their curriculum decision making as part of an ongoing cycle to assist in planning, implementation and in the assessment and evaluation of children’s learning and development. Educators intentionally scaffold children’s understanding and learning by making use of spontaneous and intentional teachable moments to extend on children’s learning. Educators also use reflective practices as a form of ongoing learning, which involves engaging with questions of philosophy, ethics and practices. Reflective practices conducted daily and weekly allow educators to analyse and make changes to the program and their practices as well as allow educators further opportunities to track children’s interests and their development.

Partnerships with families

We strongly believe that families are children’s first and most influential educators. Partnerships are based on the foundation of understanding each other’s expectations and attitudes and build on strength of each other’s knowledge. We trust each other by communicating freely and respectfully with each other to engage in shared decision making.

Community

We understand that community engagement is important as it can have an immense impact on children’s wellbeing and learning. Experiences of relationships and participation in the community, contribute to children’s ‘belonging, being and becoming’. Engaging with the community builds on children’s interests and expertise in being and becoming contributors to their world.

Inclusion & Cultural competence

We believe that supporting inclusion and being culturally competent is about building respectful relationships to support, promote and embrace difference. It occurs over time through our connection with others and through our daily experiences with children and families in our local communities. We can equip all children to live well with diversity and become active citizens now and into the future. It is through our commitment and our daily actions that we will truly value difference and become a community in which all can belong and flourish.

Sustainability

Young children represent future generations which makes it important for us as educators to help children realise the significance of caring for and protecting their environment. We incorporate and promote sustainable practices in everyday learning to support children and their families in developing a respect, care and appreciation for the natural environment.