Relationships and belonging
Learning happens in relationship.
Children need to feel safe, known, valued and that they belong before they can confidently explore the world around them.
Our educators invest deeply in relationships with children and recognise families as children's first and most influential educators. The knowledge families bring about their child helps us understand and support them.
Children also build relationships with one another — learning how to join play, communicate ideas, navigate disagreement, care for others and experience what it means to belong to a community.
These relationships are not separate from the curriculum.
They are the curriculum.
The role of our educators
A child-led program doesn't mean educators stand back and simply watch children play.
Our teachers and educators are highly intentional.
They observe. They listen. They notice patterns in children's thinking. They document learning, ask questions, introduce resources, offer another perspective, help children revisit ideas and consider where an investigation might travel next.
Sometimes educators lead. Sometimes they work alongside children. Sometimes they know when to step back.
Their professional knowledge allows them to recognise the significant learning occurring within seemingly ordinary moments of childhood.
Our program is guided by the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline (QKLG) and the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), while remaining responsive to the individual children, families and community who make up Norman Park Kindy.
Philosophy in action
Our philosophy isn't something that sits separately from our kindergarten program.
You can see it when a child is trusted with a real tool.
When children spend an entire morning pursuing an idea because nobody tells them it is time to move to the next activity.
When an educator changes a plan because a child's question has opened a much more interesting possibility.
When children have a say in something that affects them.
When muddy clothes are evidence of a day spent investigating rather than something to avoid.
When families bring their knowledge, skills and perspectives into our community.
And when children experience the powerful feeling that this is their place too.
That is what learning at Norman Park Kindy looks like.