Our Program
Quality Kids Childcare and Kindergarten supports children to grow a love for learning by providing opportunities for the children to be immersed in the real world. Our emergent curriculums and Inquiries are co-constructed with children to support learning outcomes as outlined in the guiding Australian Framework and inspire curious minds.
Quality Kids believes play-based learning is a powerful tool in developing authentic learning, inspiring self-confidence and forming positive dispositions to support lifelong learning. Our highly skilled and qualified educators design and implement innovative curriculums, holistically nurturing each child’s interest, reflective of early childhood theory and research, and guiding Australian Government documents in particular the Early Years Learning Framework. Each child’s developmental milestones will come into account whilst educators are building their programs for the month. This encourages families to get involved with our Family Voice opportunities within each room and motivates the educators to observe, document and reflect on each child’s development and progress.
Each family will be asked (at the beginning of each term) to participate in coming up with a goal for their child whilst the room leader does the same. Throughout the term, the educators will be given ample opportunities to provide experience and moments to help the child succeed and accomplish these goals. Ongoing documentation will be provided for the family and child, through their individual portfolios as Quality Kids believes that an open and honest relationship between our internal community is paramount. We also encourage reciprocal relationships with both our and the children’s wider community, throughout our educational programs we join with the community to provide joint learning experiences.
Effective Goal assessment requires our educators to:
• work collaboratively with children, families and other professionals
• recognise the importance of analysing evidence of children’s learning so that they can make sense of it for themselves, children, families and other professionals
• use assessment strategies that are ongoing and that match the dynamic and holistic nature of children’s learning and development
• use the evidence gained from assessment to inform teaching and learning.’ (p.25, Practice Principle Guide, Assessment for Learning and Development, DEECD)
‘Assessment for learning’ refers to the process of gathering and analysing information as evidence about what children know, can do and understand. It is part of an ongoing cycle that includes planning, documenting, and evaluating children’s learning. (p.17, EYLF, 2009)
Quality Kids Childcare and Kindergarten ensures reflective practice is an ongoing, dynamic process of thinking honestly, deeply, and critically about all aspects of professional practice with children and families. Reflective Practice is a means of enabling educators to learn from their experience, gaining self-confidence, identifying when we need to improve our practice, learning from our own experiences, looking at other perspectives, and finally improving our future practices by learning from past experiences.
Quality Kids Childcare and Kindergarten curriculums include monthly project/inquiry work with the aim at inspiring children to be research their own learning and gain, research and explore their own perceptions.
Inquiry is an in depth, ongoing investigation of a particular interest among the children, families, educators or community. The extent of the inquiry is determined by the interest level of the children involved and is directed by the children’s wonder, questions, research and curiosities.
When children have the chance to investigate and solve problems with each other and with supportive adults their thinking and learning becomes deeper and more complex. This process of working together is “sustained shared thinking”.
Quality Kids Childcare and Kindergarten try and ensure we are always culturally and morally appropriate. This may be regarding experiences and activities we place out within the child’s spaces, an inquiry we may want to work on, displays up on the walls, information shared with the families and/or wider community ect. At the beginning of each enrolment, we encourage families to tell us a little about their culture and then the rooms work together with the family to ensure we respectfully incorporate that culture within the room or when to celebrate special holidays with the all the children. This is then shared with all the families in the room programming folder and sent via email at the end of every week.
Quality Kids Childcare and Kindergarten runs a session 3 year old Kinder program and a sessional 4 year old program. Each Session is purposely designed to revolve around the room inquiry/project and to incorporate the children’s individual goals. These programs are run by our two ELC’s whom work very close with the educational leader and with health care professionals (such as Allied Health). Quality Kids is supported through the Victorian School Readiness Program which gives us the opportunity to gain funding to help support room or individual child needs.
If you are interested in learning more about Kindergarten 3 & 4, please contact us on 03 90203080