Our Learning Program.

We aim to deliver a program that is based on current best practice in early childhood and is underpinned by the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) which emphasises the importance of children Belonging, Being and Becoming and the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines (QKLG), a curriculum based directly upon the national EYLF curriculum.

At Labrador Kindergarten our Learning Program

• takes a holistic approach to learning, recognising the connectedness of mind, body and spirit and endeavours to develop children’s cognitive, physical, personal, social, emotional, creative, and spiritual wellbeing.

• provides opportunities for children to recognise their agency, their capacity to initiate and lead learning, their rights to participate in decisions that affect them and to actively construct their own understandings and contribute to others’ learning.

• values and builds on children’s strengths, skills and knowledge to ensure their motivation and engagement in learning. In response to children’s evolving ideas and interests, our Educators assess, anticipate and extend children’s learning via open ended questioning, providing feedback, challenging children’s thinking and guiding their learning. They make use of spontaneous ‘teachable moments’ to scaffold children’s learning, stimulate their thinking and enrich their learning.

• is based on the belief that children’s play is the means by which they learn and develop. “Play provides opportunities for children to learn as they discover, create, improvise and imagine. When children play with other children they create social groups, test out ideas, challenge each other’s thinking and build new understandings. Play provides a supportive environment where children can ask questions, solve problems and engage in critical thinking. Play can expand children’s thinking and enhance their desire to know and to learn. In these ways play can promote positive dispositions towards learning. Children’s immersion in their play illustrates how play enables them to simply enjoy being.” (Being, Belonging and Becoming). Children’s ideas and play form an important basis for our curriculum decision-making.

Nature Play

We are a Nature Play accredited education provider.

Labrador Kindergarten is in a fortunate position. We border Dux Oval and are adjacent to the Broadwater and Pioneer Park. We strive to facilitate regular (weekly from term 2) opportunities for our children to venture outside our gates to access, explore and play in these spaces. These environments provide infinite and rich provocations that are unpredictable, fluid and open-ended. This promotes authentic and organic learning opportunities. By exploring our local community, we learn about our local area, connect with nature and learn how to care for our environment.

Our service has an inviting outdoor learning space, with mud pit, sand pit, loose parts, vegetable garden, worm farm, composting and native bees. We have a climbing tree that was one of the first trees planted when the kindergarten opened in the early 1960s. It has grown into a place of shade and climbing adventures. Our Nature Play program is supported by providing an indoor/outdoor program.

Environmental Responsibility

As educators of young people, we understand the importance of informing children about living sustainably and leading by example. This includes embedding sustainable practices into the everyday program and service operations. We encourage families and children to embrace concepts such as Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Children are involved in planting and harvesting our vegetable garden, caring for our worm farm, limiting lunch box rubbish and using recyclables in our craft making area. Children will be encouraged to explore the beauty of the natural environment and develop an understanding of their role in protecting the environment.

Inclusiveness

Labrador Kindergarten fosters an inclusive environment for all families and provides programs which meet the individual and diverse needs of all children and families accessing our service. We recognise and embrace the multicultural nature of our community and aim to create an environment and curriculum that celebrates diversity.

When working with children with additional needs, our Educators collaborate with the child’s family to establish an individual education plan and identify modifications (including additional staffing hours where possible) to the program if necessary. The sharing of information between the teaching team and the child’s medical and support services is encouraged in order to support the child’s total inclusion.