Centre Learning Programs

“When you keep planting plants you become a gardener” – Olivia

(Belonging, Being & Becoming, The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia)

All Educators in the room are responsible for planning and organising learning experiences and programs. Educators then observe the children using various methods including learning stories, photographs, conversations with parents, group observations and conversations with the children themselves. Each childs learning is documented throughout the year, visible through displays throughout the Centre and our Daily Snapshot. This is viewed on Storypark to ensure it is easily accessible at all times.

The programs are guided by the interests of the children and the educators take the initiative from the children allowing them to “build” their own curriculum. Parents are encouraged to join in with their child’s learning by adding to the plan or providing parent input.

From these valuable observations done in conjunction with the parents, the educators set up valued experiences both indoors and outdoors which maximize the children’s learning.

Programs and Individual records

What is a program and why do we have one?

At Loftus kindy we implement a weekly program which consists of all developmentally diverse experiences we will provide the children for the week. It allows us to extend on all observed skills and abilities shown by the children. Each week the activities are linked and expanded off each other to build on skills previously learnt.

By having our programs displayed for you it gives us the opportunity to show you all the areas of development we look at and plan for so your children are able to grow and develop to reach their potential.

Each room displays different areas of focus for example

  • Wombats: Sensory exploration, social skills and gross motor (walking, crawling).
  • Koalas: Language, independent skills, fine motor, social skills and more.
  • Possums: School readiness, mathematics, English, social skills, science exploration, ICT resources, STEM and more.

What are the outcomes of the program?

You are able to clearly see the outcomes of our program through our visible documentation throughout the room, each room has a ‘Learning wall’ which displays the end results of different explorations or discussions throughout each week. Along with this are different projects being focused on for that week or month including gardening, cultures, sensory and more. These forms of documentation can include photos, quotes, blurbs and relating outcomes of the EYLF (Early years learning framework).

Individual records

What are they and why do we have them?

Each child within the centre will receive an ‘individual record’ at the end of the year (previously known as a portfolio) these records consist of a document which contains all observations and goals of your child written by their corresponding teacher.

These observations are clearly linked to all the 5 learning outcomes for early childhood (Early years learning framework).

  • Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
  • Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
  • Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
  • Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
  • Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

These outcomes are broad and can be interpreted and related to each child specifically, along with observations based on these outcomes other forms of quality interactions, experiences and skills may be documented.

Where can you find your child’s individual records?

At Loftus kindergarten we implement a number of sustainable practices, one of these is the use of our online program Storypark to document learning. This enables learning to be documented and shared throughout the time your family is with Loftus Kindy. Another key reason is that it is easily accessible at all times to you and your family members.