PHILOSOPHY

Our philosophy is based on

play based learning

Sunshine Kindy, Early Years Learning & Care Centre (SK) believes in providing a service that is accessible to all members of our community which is safe, supportive, nurturing, respectful, loving and anti bias. Our service offers a home like environment that is welcoming, warm and reflective of our diverse community. We strive to be socially responsible, reducing our carbon footprint where we can in an attempt to leave the planet in a better state than we inherited from our parents.

We believe in supporting children build and maintain sensitive and responsive relationships by embracing and celebrating their cultural and linguistic diversity by creating an equitable and inclusive environment.

Our desire is to partner our families and the greater community by

building supportive and respectful relationships so we can collectively contribute to our children’s education and care experiences, the review of

our practices and our guiding documentation. Only with this inclusive approach can we continue to expand on our exceptional care and education service delivering rich and meaningful experiences to our children. Hence we encourage family participation and welcome any contribution made.

Our aim is to deliver excellence, reliability, flexibility, love and affection in all that we do, which is core to our collective values.

Our education and care program is inclusive of all children and our planned experiences will reflect the individual child's needs, strengths, capabilities, culture, interests and experiences. Through ongoing observations and assessments, we aim to provide enriching experiences to encourage and promote learning and development. Our program covers the areas of language, cognitive, creative, sustainability, social/emotional, physical and life skills development, focusing on the holistic child.

We will provide the children with a balance of active and passive activities in both our indoor and outdoor program. Our routine will also provide an opportunity for rest time each day. Meals and menus are provided that are fresh, nutritional and well balanced taking into consideration each child’s individual requirements. All meals served are prepared on premises. Safe food handling and hygiene practices are observed and adhered to at all times following industry guidelines and best practice as the health and wellbeing of children is paramount in all we do.

The development of children's age appropriate life skills will be encouraged. Their self help skills and independence will be developed through the supportive guidance of our nurturing educators throughout the day, in particular during meal times, dressing, sleeping and toileting. We use positive encouragement and reinforcement as tools to direct and promote behaviours. Through positive encouragement and experiences we aim

to build high self-esteem and self-worth.

Educators are encouraged to establish respectful and caring relationships with children and families, so they are able to work together to construct curriculum and learning experiences relevant to children. These experiences are intended to gradually expand the children’s knowledge and understanding of the world through exploration, hypothesising and experimentation. Educators recognise families are the first and most influential educators in children’s lives hence will actively engage families to develop a foundation for children which will:

enable their strong sense of identity
enable their connection with and contribution to the world
enable a strong sense of wellbeing
equip them to be confident and involved learners
equip them to be effective communicators

Children having fun is an essential component of our play-based learning strategy. Children are presented with opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills and competence through play and having fun in a loving, caring and nurturing environment.

SK encourages educators to pursue ongoing professional development in the Early Childhood Education and Care field to ensure the children in our care benefit form the latest teachings and industry practice. They meet on a regular basis to share their experiences, knowledge, discuss issues and opportunities for improvement.

SK strives to pursue excellence and to be recognized as industry leaders. We will continue to do this by being a learned organization, who embraces diversity and welcomes the contribution of all….as we understand our strength comes from the sum of all our parts…….our children, their families, our educators, our managers and our industry bodies.