EDUCATION

 

The East Willoughby Preschool educational program is based on “Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Framework for Australia” (EYLF) and “Early Childhood Literacy and Numeracy: Building good practice” through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments.

 

The EYLF program aims to extend and enrich children’s learning from their early years through the transition to school whilst experiencing the concepts of belonging, being and becoming.

The teachers developed this rich educational program to promote the children’s learning through:

 

-       Adapting holistic approaches in teaching (valuing the children’s physical, personal, social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing as well as the cognitive aspect of learning)

 

-       Being responsive to children’s strengths, abilities and interests

 

-       Planning and implementing learning through play

 

-       Teaching through challenging experiences and interactions

 

-       Creating positive physical and social learning environments

 

-       Valuing the cultural and social contexts of all the children and their families

 

-       Providing educational experiences and monitoring learning in order to enable the children to experience successful transitions to school

 

Through the School Readiness Program the teachers support the children’s concept formation and learning aspects of literacy and numeracy. Some important numeracy concepts include: shapes, positions and directions, grouping things together, concepts of same and different, sorting (classification), number patterns, sharing and measurements.

 

Development of literacy skills is interrelated through the development of language. Therefore children’s language and literacy development is stimulated through carefully planned everyday activities. Some important literacy concepts include: sharing books and learning how to read them, playing with rhymes and letter sounds, telling stories and news, re-enacting and re-telling stories, looking at ‘signs’ and ‘logos’, reading advertisements and thinking critically about print, drawing and marking as leading to writing.

 

The preschool program is flexible and dynamic. It includes free and guided activities utilising indoor and outdoor spaces, construction, music provided by a professional music teacher, rhythm, games and drama. Weekly or fortnightly learning themes and activities are communicated to parents and carers so that you may be involved in your child’s preschool learning.

Children bring along a bag with a nutritious morning tea, lunch, a drink and a hat. The preschool currently has a nut and egg free policy. There is a rest/relaxation period after lunch.