Educational Program
The Mudjimba Kindy provides a learning environment and experiences that will enhance and give meaning to your child’s relationships with the world and its people. A flexible, play based program is implemented for each group embracing both the indoor and outdoor learning environments. We value choice and deliver an indoor/outdoor program. Group sessions occur at varying intervals throughout the day, supporting language development, collaborative learning and experiences with literature, music and movement. We recognise that every child is an individual in terms of skills and experiences. As a result, planning is individualised to enable children to develop at their own pace throughout the year.
“Play is an essential part of early learning. It is the lifeblood of the learning process. As children play, they are developing the cognitive, socio-emotional and physical skills they will need to both understand and participate in life. They are developing their curiosity, problem solving, intentionality, flexibility and their verbal and non-verbal skills. Socio-emotionally they are developing their emotional intelligence, developing confidence, cooperation, negotiation, sharing, empathy and how to communicate appropriately. Physically, their fine and gross motor skills are being practiced and developed. It’s not ‘just play’, it’s the ‘work’ of a child, building skills for life”!
Embracing culture and difference are important elements in our program. We are committed to embedding and promoting greater understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and being. We acknowledge our local Gubbi Gubbi people each day with an acknowledgement and show respect to our first nation’s people.
All current staff have been trained in the emotional resilience program WINGS and embed content and strategies from the program into our daily interactions and curriculum. We guide children to build skills that allow them to better cope with challenges, develop a growth mindset, understand their emotions and brain development, reduce anxiety, build their social/emotional skills, be able to better cope with life challenges and to embrace life, learning and happiness.
Our curriculum is further enriched by the involvement of community, volunteers, families and other professionals. We invite others to come in and share their knowledge and skills with us or we go out to experience the wider world as a group. We value the importance of building relationships and connections with our elderly and local school community.
Inclusive Practice
Our commitment to supporting children as individuals means that we welcome children and families with a diverse range of skills and attributes. We encourage families to share their cultural practices and celebrations with the Kindy community. Each child is valued for their unique strengths and knowledge and supported to grow and learn from others. As individuals we all have areas that may need support and these areas are nurtured and supported by our staff and the other children in the group.
Children with additional needs are supported in our program to participate and develop through positive, supported interactions. In some cases funding can be sought for additional support to help a child engage fully with the kindergarten program. To best support children with additional needs entering our kindergarten programs we work closely with parents and other professionals to gather as much information as possible. Parents are required to meet with the Director(s) to discuss the child’s individual needs and how the child would benefit most from their Kindy experience. Strategies for how best to support all members of the kindergarten group would also be discussed to support the other children in the group with interactions and play.
Environmental Awareness
We actively promote environmental awareness and encourage children and families to protect the environment through being pro-active, modelling behaviour and education based on pro-environmental and sustainability practices. We have a number of animals look in on us at kindy from time to time including bush turkeys, kookaburra’s, kangaroo’s , amongst others… and of course we do have our worms. The children are encouraged to consider ways to live and play alongside them while learning about their habits and needs.
We use a variety of recycled materials in our program such as boxes, lids, cardboard cylinders, wrapping paper and many other treasures and we encourage families to bring useful items to Kindy for our making/collage areas.
We encourage fresh ‘nude’ food in lunch boxes to minimise packaging and rubbish in our environment. Discussions are had with the children about the impact of rubbish on the animals and our Kindy environment. Reusable containers or compartmentalised lunch boxes are encouraged to separate food and minimise packaging whilst supporting sustainable practices.
Our garden is a very important part of our curriculum as the children prepare, plant, nurture, collect our produce and then bake something. We promote ‘earth to plate’ eating.