Kindergarten is one of the first steps that a child will take outside their home and family. It can be their first experience in the education system, and the beginning of their education with a large group of children.
We offer educational programs based on the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF). The play-based programs are designed to foster the children’s sense of agency by giving them choices and options to guide their learning.
The objectives and implementation of our kinder programs reflect the goals we set for the children. We plan to provide the children with a diverse range of learning experiences through which they can develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that help prepare them for future educational and life experiences.
Our programs are based around the 5 VEYLDF learning outcomes:
- Identity: The children feel safe, secure and supported. They develop their emerging autonomy, interdependence, resilience and sense of self-agency. They develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities whilst learning to interact with others and demonstrate care, empathy and respect.
- Community: The children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the rights and responsibilities required for active participation. They respond to diversity with respect, become aware of fairness, become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.
- Wellbeing: Children become strong in their social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, and take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing.
- Learning: Children develop enthusiasm for learning and demonstrate curiosity, co-operation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, and imagination. They develop a range of skills and processes for problem solving, inquiry, hypothesising, and experimentation, researching and investigating. They develop the ability to transfer and adapt what they have learnt from one context to another, learning through connecting with people, places, technologies, and a range of natural and processed materials.
- Communication: Children learn to interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes. They are encouraged to express ideas and take meaning from a range of texts and mediums and begin to understand how symbols and patterns work. They are encouraged to use technologies to access information to investigate ideas and represent their thinking.
Of all the activities that the children do at kindergarten, it is not the final product that is important but the effort and care that has been put in, as well as the increase in skill level and growth that has taken place within the child.
In the beginning of the learning process, it is especially important that the children see themselves as people who can succeed. Our role, as educators, is to provide an environment where the children will gain confidence and respect, not only for themselves but for others around them.
Give your child the best start | Victorian Government (www.vic.gov.au)
