Overview

Centre Philosophy

Alexandra Avenue Children’s Centre and Kindergarten have a strong commitment to providing high quality care and education for all children attending the centre. We are committed to the rights of all children to feel safe, and be safe at all times. We accomplish this through establishing trusting relationships with all children and their families.

Our service is diverse and excepting of ALL regardless of gender, cultural background, ethnicity or abilities.

We see ourselves as a ‘family’ and have a strong belief that a family consists of attributes such as love, safety, support, trust and respect. We strive to achieve this daily in our service through….

Identity

Being inclusive and respectful of cultural diversity; we provide cultural safety for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, a safe environment for children with additional needs and believe in promoting the cultural safety of Aboriginal families. We acknowledge that our community is built on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people.

We provide a safe, stimulating, inclusive environment for all children in our care, where they can learn and grow physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially at their own pace in order for them to gain the confidence of self-importance. The Educators ensure that environments are nurturing, engaging, meaningful and also promote opportunities for all children to explore their creativity, imaginations and explore learning through play.

Education

By offering a play based program we are able to further extend on children’s learning through providing choices, time and space for play.

We believe that by enabling children with opportunities to make decisions and choices surrounding their own learning, they will be empowered to grow and extend on their own skills and strengths.

We place a strong emphasis on extending our indoor play spaces into the outdoors, giving the children opportunities to surround themselves in a comfortable and natural space.

We guide our practices around children’s learning following guidelines from the National Quality Framework (NQF), Early Years Learning Frameworks (EYLF), Victorian Early Years Learning Frameworks (VEYLF) and Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACEQA).

Community

We believe that it is vital to have strong partnerships with our families in and around their child’s learning and care, and we invite families and friends to share their culture, language and unique skills regularly. We strive to engage our families in events and celebrations to provide opportunities for families to meet and come together.

We form relationships with our local community through parent participation, local fundraising efforts and our value on participating in incursions and excursions in the community.

We have ongoing partnerships with inclusion support agencies, allied health professionals and maternal and child health services.

We value our community partnerships and continue to grow them through our centre initiatives.

Sustainability

We guide our practices in educating children in sustainability and promote awareness of the environment, as we believe that a positive environmental attitude develops at an early age. We provide a hands on approach as children are involved in maintaining our gardens with seasonal planting of vegetables and herbs, using worm farms and compost bins, recycling, healthy eating, using recycled/natural materials in play and saving water. We invite families to utilise and contribute to our recycling station, book library and donation racks throughout the year.