Canley Vale Public Preschool Philosophy

Canley Vale Public School Preschool was built in 1978 with a vision to strengthen early childhood learning opportunities for the children and families in the Canley Vale area.

Since 1978, the walls of our preschool have witnessed generations of families and children belonging, learning, and growing into individuals who are active members of the community.

As our preschool is an extension of the school, most of our families live locally. This provides convenient access to our quality early childhood service and to the primary school. We work in partnership with the school to support our children and their families to experience a smooth transition into kindergarten.

Our Beliefs

The Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia: Belonging, Being and Becoming, and the National Quality Framework, are the foundations of our teaching and learning.

We acknowledge the uniqueness of each child and their family. We understand that they may come from various family units and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and with varying abilities, diverse learning needs, interests, strengths, and experiences. Strong partnerships are formed by working closely with the school community (including but not limited to the community liaison officers, community language teachers, Schools as Community Centres, the Kindergarten staff and executive team), other professionals (including the school counsellor and the Learning and Support Team) and outside agencies. We value the importance of forming strong and positive relationships with our families and the children. We understand that by working together with all stakeholders, we create a positive, safe, caring and welcoming environment where everyone feels they belong and where children are provided with the best early learning opportunities.

Our teaching and learning programs are based on collective professional expertise and knowledge of early childhood pedagogies. We are continually engaging in professional development based on current early childhood education research and best practice.

Our daily routines are centred on intentional teaching, spontaneous moments and the children’s individual goals, interests, strengths, abilities, and experiences. These routines include child-led and educator-led practices. Educators hold high expectations for each child and promote these in programs, through teaching and learning practices and sustained shared conversations.

All our educators are qualified and experienced, and strive to provide a safe, caring, open-ended, play-based learning environment.

We develop our knowledge of each individual child through conversations with their family, our interactions and observations of the child, professional collegial conversations, reflections, and information from professionals.

The Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics and the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child are the backbone of our understanding and practice. We recognise and reflect on our ethical responsibilities and decision making towards the children and their families. We provide teaching and learning programs that enable all children from all cultures and communities to identify as Australians within a democratic, multicultural society.

We are committed to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in our program and practices. We believe this creates culturally responsive citizens who have the knowledge and understanding of our First Nations Peoples ways of being, knowing and doing.

Our Commitment

We strive to build a foundation for lifelong learning.

We achieve this by supporting children’s agency. We teach and support our children to be resilient, independent and to learn skills in self-regulating their emotions and behaviours. We teach our children that they have a right to their own body, to have a voice and that they will be listened to. Our teaching practices motivate and encourage our children to be social, confident, curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

We value and listen to each child’s voice, opinion, and ideas, and include these in aspects of our preschool.

We are committed to embracing social, economic, and environmental sustainability. We will do this by role modelling what it is to be active and informed citizens to improve ourselves and the world.

We believe it is important to develop trusting relationships with our families and the children that are based on equity, inclusivity, and safety, and we model this as a team. Together, we share the nurturing, care, and education of every child.

We are dedicated to our own professional learning journey. We continuously identify our own areas of interest, strength, and further development. We work diligently to remain current in our practice and to improve and further our knowledge and skills.

Our Intentions for Action

Our Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and our local procedures are working documents that encourage us to critically reflect on, identify and implement on-going improvements.

These areas include:

·         educational program and practice

·         children’s health and safety

·         physical environment

·         staffing arrangements

·         relationships with children

·         collaborative partnerships with families and communities

·         governance and leadership

·         NSW Department of Education policies

·         Canley Vale Public School Preschool local procedures

·         Canley Vale Public School local procedures

All stakeholders work together to reflect on and make the identified improvements needed to make Canley Vale Public School Preschool the high-quality early childhood service that it is.

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