Our QA1 Strengths
We are a friendly centre that welcomes and farewells each parent and child individually at drop off and pick up times. This face to face time gives us the opportunity to chat with families about their Small Friendās day and how they are progressing within our program and learning space. On enrolment our Your House To Our House profile is sent home asking families to give us some insight into what their Small Friend loves about life, and what their interests are.
We choose to set fortnightly themes as part of our program so that our team can plan age appropriate content and experiences to give our week structure not only for us at a centre level when weāre working alongside the children, but for our families too, who love to know Whatās On In Our World. This level of planning allows us to feel a sense of organisation at the beginning of each fortnight, and gives us all guidance for intentional and spontaneous teaching opportunities. Within the theme timeframe the learning areas we create and related activities we run provide many opportunities for our Small Friends to lead their own activities, to role play, chat and of course create spontaneous moments in time throughout their day. Theme based planning also allows our families to be in the know with regard to what is going on in our world, and gives them the opportunity to give us suggestions and ideas for activities or incursions we may be planning.
We encourage our Small Friends to engage in all of our learning spaces and the activities we offer, so as to support them in developing their individual interests. They are given opportunities throughout their day to offer their opinions and suggestions for changes in learning areas, activities and games we can play together.
We evaluate how our day has gone with regard to learning experiences for our Small Friends and what did or did not work for all of us using our Daily Evaluation Form. Child led and spontaneous activities are noted along with child observations and notes about things we have focused on during mat times and activities, and throughout the day. Each Friday we complete a full week overview, highlighting any areas that may need improving; aspects of our program that will continue into the next week and planning that needs to be done for our program, learning areas and/or upcoming events.
Families receive a link via email to Our News each term, which includes house and community news plus our term program. By way of emails, Xplor messages and postings to our Facebook and Instagram pages we keep our families and the community up to date with regard to incursions, outings, events, and our program and the latest edition of Our News can be accessed online by anyone in the community wishing to have a read.
Our Small Friends are observed regularly using our Evidence For Learning app, which enables our Team to observe development in relation to our Small Friends Framework and how they have engaged and responded to all of the learning experiences related to our program themes. At any time a family can request for their Small Friends Learning Adventure to be emailed to them, and/or have a chat about their childās progress and/or concerns. We pride ourselves on the fact that our Small Friends moments comes first and the majority of our day is spent with our children and not sitting in front of a screen recording moments we chat to families about at pick up, or observing every moment on a digital piece of paper which we believe stops us from getting to know our Small Friends and having a knowledge of all the things each of them Can Do. We constantly receive feedback from families moving from centres whose time spent recording is more than ours, and yet our way of sharing and communicating with our village works for our families, Small Friends and our Team as a village.
Practice Is Embedded In Service Operations
Our Planning The Early Years Learning Framework guides our programming and planning and we observe, under the guide of our own skills based Small Friends Framework, the childrenās social and communicative responses and skill development within our program. Programming decisions and planning are based on the childrenās interests, cognitive development and physical skills, and reflect our philosophy and values at all times.
Our Small Friends are encouraged to participate in a wide variety of learning opportunities enabling them to develop interests, identities and understanding of the world around them. The programming and assessment for our learning cycle is clear, well documented and implemented. Our extensive play based free flow indoor and outdoor environments promote choice and encourage children to initiate and contribute to play experiences that emerge from their own ideas or further develop from Educator initiated ideas.
Intentional and spontaneous planning occurs on a daily basis in our world, revolving around the knowledge of the our Small Friends needs and interests across all 5 areas of the EYLF. Learning intent is always visible to our families as it is displayed within every learning area found inside and outside of our house, plus we share the learning content in our term newsletter, for which at time contributions from our families and those that are part of our community are encouraged.
Our Program All aspects of our program including routines, are organised in ways that maximise opportunities for each of our Small Friends social, communicative, physical and cognitive development to be supported. Our programming documentation is broken down into term and fortnightly detail so as to ensure continuity of ideas and motivation amongst our Team to create new experiences in our house is at the forefront of what we do.
Routines are developed to ensure a range of inside and outside experiences are available each day. Our routines maximise our Teams strengths and reflect the needs of each Small Friend in our care.āØThere is always flexibility within our routines to allow for responsive change according to the needs of children. Our daily routine is well established and reinforced daily with scaffolded support and modelling from all staff but there is always an expectation that should we need to be flexible that we all accept that āchange is a good thingā.
Our Small Friends are secure and confident with our daily routines and transitions, and donāt take long to notice and predict patterns with the passing of time. Within these parts of our day each child is fully supported to participate in our program at their level of physical skill and cognitive understanding to feel confident moving through a transition or participating in a routine within our program.
Our morning and afternoon timetables offer a different daily program. Our mornings start inside our house with children engaging in our learning spaces and then by no later than 8.30am our day is about being active and creative in our outside spaces as much as we can, weather permitting. In the afternoon our STAR session - Share Think Ask Questions Respect Everyone session allows the children to be part of activities that engage their creativity and problem solving skills in a variety of activities in our MasterChef, Thinking Caps On, Move and Groove and Arty Craft sessions. One STAR session each week on our rotating weekly roster is about spending time together as a house of Small Friends and Educators, engaging in the learning areas inside our house in what we call our House Hang session. Sometimes our STAR session may mean weāre going to have a visitor in for an incursion.
Our Small Friends
Early Intervention Strategies are in place to promote inclusion with clear expectations to our Small Friends with regard to social and behavioural expectations. Our Team respond to each childās ideas and their manner of play, and work together to be ready to extend their learning through open-ended questions, reciprocal conversations, interactions and feedback. Our priority as a Team of Educators is to develop warm and supportive relationships with all of our Small Friends and their families, and respecting and valuing backgrounds, ages, genders and abilities at all times.
Observations Each child has an Evidence For Learning profile which is utilised to record individual and group observations, and includes anecdotal notes and photos. When a child āgraduatesā their families can request their Awesome Small Friends Learning Adventure to be printed or emailed.
We pride ourselves on the way in which our observational procedures work for our space and ensure that the priority for everyone on our Team is to spend time with our Small Friends so as to learn where theyāre at with regard to developmental milestones. Our goal when it comes to our Small Friends and what they learn within our house, is that at any time we should be able to speak about a childās progress with a colleague, therapist or a parent, and be confident in what we relay to others because we truly know what that that Small Friend Can Do and what they need help with.
Additional Support Small Friends with additional needs are supported within their day by an Inclusion Support Plan if we feel that they need support with their communicative, social, physical and cognitive development. We work with the WANSLEA team to apply for IS funding to ensure we have Educator support on the floor to assist Small Friends with higher needs with anything they may need help with through the day.
Our philosophy for Inclusion Support is to make sure that it never becomes a situation of exclusion. To do this we ensure that not one Educator is assigned as the Inclusion Support Educator on our roster, but several Team members work in the role and the hours of IS are shared. We find this beneficial not only for us as a Team to ensure we all get to know our Small Friend with higher needs, but it also helps our Small Friend to learn to rely on more than just one person in their educational environment, because we are very aware that once they attend formal schooling, this ideology is reversed and often causes exclusion when they are a assigned an Educational Assistant.
From the time of enrolment through to our 3 monthly progress reports with WANSLEA, and then when our Small Friend moves on to full time schooling, we ensure that we are on the āsame pageā as our Small Friendās family, Therapists and potentially their Kindy/Pre-Primary Teacher regarding what they need to support them at all times, and within all areas of development.
As a Team we are always open to working alongside therapy teams when applicable, allowing them to work in our house within the routine of our day to ensure that our Small Friends needing support are working on their skill development in a space that is both real world and practical for them and their Therapists. Their presence in our space allows our Team to learn the skills and strategies we need to engage to support our Small Friend.
Our Team We work together to give each other time off the floor to work on their studies; complete observations; commit to collaborative planning, assessment and reviewing of our program in pairs, small groups or as a whole Team. During planning meetings our Team intentionally engage in future planning, considering our Small Friends interest and our reflective practice notes and/or discussions, and we record our ideas and knowledge for future planning purposes.
Feedback is encouraged with regard to how our Small Friends Framework is working for their observational records, and whether the program content they are given to observe is giving them the guidance they need to complete a term of theme based anecdotal notes and comments.
Practice Is Informed By Critical Reflection
Our Small Friends We work with our families to gather information about their Small Friendās skills, interest and knowledge of life by sending home our Your House To Our House profile on their first day in our world. We encourage families to fill in this profile in an open and honest manner so that we have a good insight into what they believe their Small Friend can do, and how we might be able to support them in aspects of their life in our house.
We are fortunate to have the opportunity to have face to face daily contact with our families when they drop off and pick up their child/children, and we use this time in our day to check in with parents/guardians regarding their childās interest and how theyāre keeping busy away from Small Friends.
Our Small Friends are given opportunities to make independent play choices that follow their interests and times of reflection such as our Chat Times are included to allow children to share their ideas and requests in a routine manner. Their requests for resources and our scaffolding of ideas through questioning and discussions empower our children to make decisions about what they would like to do in our house and backyard, and we always encourage everyone in our house from the youngest or the oldest to help us out should we decide to change a learning space in our house.
We believe we create an environment where our Small Friends feel comfortable, and within the first few days of enrolment many feel confident when it comes to being part of through our program whether it be engaging inside our house and out in the backyard, working collaboratively with others, expressing their opinions, making choices, considering others, investigating, imagining and exploring. And at all times our Team are on hand to support and guide, and in turn observe and reflect on how each child is responding to learning areas, activities and our space.
Our Planning Our weekly program includes a balance of intentional teaching and the flexibility to adapt and modify to the needs and interests of the children, and to what is going on in the outside world. We take pride in ensuring our activities are flexible, open ended and modified to meet the constantly changing needs and interests of our Small Friends, which at times can mean changing learning areas daily. The resources and learning spaces we provide aim to promote creativity and imaginationā¦and if they donāt then our Small Friends will always let us know that we need something new!
Our Team reflect regularly on childrenās learning, interests and development to inform future planning. Decisions about intentional teaching are made though our Teams knowledge of our Small Friends through observations, anecdotal evidence, and when applicable from formal assessments from support providers such as Therapists. We respond to childrenās ideas and play and are continually observing their individual needs.
Our Team complete a daily reflection sheet to record general interest in our theme and the related planned activities, spontaneous learning, and future planning ideas. Jottings are made across the day by all Team members, and these reflections are referred to during planning meetings where we intentionally engage in future planning, childrenās interest and reflective practice discussion and record our ideas/knowledge for future planning purposes.
Our Program As mentioned already our planned activities are flexible, open ended and can always be modified in the moment. The resources and learning spaces we provide aim to encourage and support our Small Friends to use their creativity, imagination and to apply their problem solving skills. We are continually appraising what works and what doesnāt and adapting as we go, and as a Team we learn not to take offense if our ideas donāt quite engage the children as we thought they would, a STAR activity isnāt successful, or a new routine doesnāt quite workā¦reflecting on what doesnāt work means we can work towards what will as a Team.
Our Team Our free flow work space allows up to 7 Educators to work and take breaks with each other for the entirety of their shift. Our unique working environment means that at any time during the day we can reflect on all aspects of our day including how our program theme is being received; whether the children are showing interest in activities and learning spaces and maybe whether they need support to engage, and of course the chance to discuss how individual Small Friends are going.
Ongoing and real time reflection by our Team means we are often on the same page daily, which results in adaptations to our learning program to occur regularly, rather than waiting for a meeting to make changes even if considerable decisions regarding activities and learning areas need to be made.
Practice Is Shaped By Meaningful Engagement With Families, And/Or Community
Our front door is the first point of contact and we welcome our families at drop off and pick up every day. This face-to-face contact gives us the opportunity to discuss all aspects of our world including any questions and/or suggestions families may have about our program, incursions and/or activities we may have planned. Our families are encouraged to contribute to the learning program and discuss their childās progress.
Our families and valued members of our community contribute and help to enhance our program regularly. Parents and professionals such as Your Mobile Vet, Falcon Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Mandurah Cruises and Registered Nurse Bev Ramsay help us to run incursions, and families often donate items that we can recycle, reuse or repurpose for art and technology activities, or pass on toys, resources and equipment for us to use in the house.