children are now
foundations
years matter
OUR PURPOSE
At First Five Early Learning we join with families and community to establish a secure foundation for young children’s health and wellbeing, learning and development.
QUALITY MATTERS
The First Five years is a critical and sensitive time period for children’s learning and development. High quality education and care matters for children’s early experiences and how they develop foundational skills for learning and life.
For young children, high quality education and care incorporates:
secure and trusting relationships with responsive educators
play-based learning
purposeful learning environments
PLAY, DISCOVER, LEARN
Children's brains acquire a tremendous amount of information during the early years, meaning time and space to play, discover and learn are critical.
PLAY
Young children learn best through play. Play builds healthy bodies and brains as children explore actively to make sense of their world and have fun. Play improves children’s physical, social and emotional wellbeing, and supports language, thinking and problem-solving skills.
DISCOVER
Exploring and making sense of the world independently and with others promotes positive dispositions for learning. Through discovery, children demonstrate curiosity. Discovery drives motivation to learn as children build confidence and resilience to engage in familiar and new experiences and take risks in their learning.
LEARN
Play and discovery lead to learning. Learning occurs when children have repeated opportunity to practise and master new skills, observe, ask questions and problem-solve. Learning can only occur when children feel secure to explore their world. For this reason, relationships are the basis for all learning in First Five Early Learning centres.
LEARNING TOGETHER
Early childhood education settings are group learning environments. Learning together is a collaborative, social activity. As children play, discover and learn, they build connections with other children and adults through shared discoveries and interests.
All young children are connection seekers. Early childhood education and care affords repeated opportunities to connect socially with other children and adults, new and interesting experiences, and environments different to home.
OUR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY
At First Five Early Learning, we recognise families and community are children’s most important and influential teachers. Our centres are an extension of home, where your child’s identity, preferences and interests are reflected in the room environment and daily program to support their sense of belonging and wellbeing.
While our centres are group learning environments, every child is individual. A secure, trusting relationship with your child provides the base from which they become a respected and cherished member of our centre community. We view children as active participants and decision-makers within our centres and respect their diverse experiences and ways of knowing. Children are active community members. We value opportunities for them to explore local environments, develop relationships with people in our community, and spend time in the natural outdoors.
Inclusive education and care ensures all children attending our centres can participate fully in the program. We promote a strengths-based approach to understand your child’s individual capabilities. We draw on your knowledge and expertise of your child and, as necessary, partner with support services and allied health professionals to ensure an inclusive experience for all children and their families.
Our educators accept all children’s feelings and behaviours with openness and curiosity. All behaviour is a form of communication. It is our role as adults to be open and curious about what children are trying to tell us. The quality of our approach to co-regulation in the first five years supports children’s capability for self-regulation as they transition to school.
EMBEDDING ABORIGINAL
AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PERSPECTIVES
At First Five Early Learning, we are responsive to the histories, cultures and languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Australians. All children in Australia have a right to learn about and through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, knowledges and pedagogies. Our commitment to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives occurs at a curriculum, operational and community outreach level, along with our team engaging in identity work to understand self and the influence of their own cultural background on approaches to teaching and learning, and interactions with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and organisations. All First Five Early Learning centres will develop a Reconciliation Action Plan, with a focus on genuine engagement in reconciliation initiatives and critical evaluation of implementation.
We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience racism at an interpersonal, institutional and societal level. Lived experiences of racism are broad and occur in both overt and subtle ways. As a non-Indigenous organisation, we recognise racism has impact even when we are well-intended and aim to be inclusive. We commit to standing up to and challenging racism in our service delivery, changing policy, practice or behaviour, and building the racial literacy of our team.
