Early in the year, we establish routines that provide opportunities to practise being independent, responsible, and caring individuals.

Our morning usually starts with a Morning Meeting where we see who is at Kinder or PrePrep, learn about the days’ classes, special events or projects we are working on in our classes. We are also beginning to learn about doing an Acknowledgement of Country each day. Addie explains why this is important;

Throughout the day, we are very fortunate to participate in Specialist Classes. Some of these occur in the ELC and others involve walking to other areas of the School. This is part of our routine that provides many opportunities for learning. We build familiarity with the school and develop a sense of belonging and community. We are also learning about road safety.

The girls bring morning tea and lunch from home which provides them with the opportunity to practise important self-help and independence skills. These times are full of lovely conversations between children and educators. This routine provides opportunities to learn about eating a healthy, varied diet, about the environment and how to manage our rubbish.

When we are not at specialist classes, the girls are playing indoors or outdoors. The environment is thoughtfully set up to invite playful enquiry, curiosity, creativity and thinking skills. Our programs are very intentional. The conversations, routines, group experiences and areas we set up have specific goals or specific children in mind. These goals support and extend the girls learning whilst being flexible enough to respond to spontaneous interests that might emerge throughout the day. We know that we all learn best when we are engaged and motivated so we aim to capitalise on those exciting spontaneous moments as much as we can. 

Quite often the richest learning can emerge from the most unexpected experiences. A recent example was when some of the Kinder girls discovered lots of rubbish in our yard after a particularly windy weekend. They were worried about this and as a group walked around collecting different kinds of rubbish. They picked up all the rubbish before sorting them into different categories. 

One of our educational influences comes from the Reggio Emilia Approach that reminds us of the competence of young children and the power in authentically listening to their ideas and inviting them to contribute to matters that affect them. These important discussions about waste, recycling and looking after the environment seamlessly led into discussions about Indigenous perspectives and what we can learn from Australia’s First Nations’ peoples.

Our day is full of so much activity and learning. An opportunity to rest and recharge is offered to the girls and they are encouraged to think about what their body needs on that day.

Sometimes we even have some peppermint tea using mint from our ELC garden before we rest. This calms our bodies and makes us ready to rest. Each class has their own routine to end the day. We come together to say goodbye before welcoming parents, grandparents or special people into the room.

Ms Bernadette Gioia
Director of the Early Learning Centre and PrePrep Teacher

Ms Emily Franceschi
Kinder Teacher

and the Students of the ELC