Facilities
Nightcliff Community ELC is located on the school grounds of Nightcliff Primary School. We have a modern, purpose built, 55 place service built in 2012.
We have three specific play studio’s which cater for the approximate age groups below:
Play Studio 1 – this room is for infants aged 6 weeks to around 2 years old.
Play Studio 2 – this room is for children aged 2 -3 years old
Play Studio 3/4 – this room is for children aged 3-5 years old
Our age groups are based on the development of each child not necessarily the age of the child. When we transition children we do so under the guidance and consultation of our educators and our families. We provide extensive time to build relationships and familiarity with the room and educators the children will transition to and often a familiar educator will spend some time with the child during this process to ensure the child is feeling safe and secure.
Our outdoor spaces are grassy and natural, with plenty of trees and gardens to explore. The 0-3’s share a yard and the Kindy children have their own outdoor space which backs onto Nightcliff preschool. This enables us to visit the preschool yard and take care of their chickens and collect eggs in the school holidays.
Our partnership with the school allows for a very smooth transition to the preschool or to when children start school in Transition. Our Kindy children attend school assemblies, and have regular visits within the school grounds as part of their 4-5 years program.
Our teams operate under ratio for most of the day and this allows us to meet the needs of individual children while providing quality education and care.
We have a large, fully grassed and shady communal courtyard that we call our ‘backyard’. This is a natural space where we come together to learn, play and discover. There are wooden benches where we encourage you to spend time with your children, or with us!
Philosophy
Our connections with families are honoured and we understand the importance of community.
Our educators are caring and innovative.
Our environments are purposeful places of exploration and discovery.
Our curriculum is intentional, holistic and responsive. We provide respectful, age appropriate learning and care for your child.
Our learning is visible.
Our service is a place of belonging, learning, and play.
We respect the land that we are part of.
Curriculum
Our curriculum encompasses the entire learning and development that happens with your children.
It documents the children’s learning, wellbeing and development. It gives us purpose for all that we do – from the program documents and individual child portfolios you see displayed in each learning room, our environments inside and out, our menus, our routines, our equipment, our own professional development, goals and outcomes for the service, summative assessments, interactions and relationships between children, educators, families and the community. All of this is Curriculum, and we take it very seriously.
Our philosophy is included here and helps us explains our beliefs, our aims, and guides our curriculum decisions.
At Nightcliff Community ELC our curriculum is linked to the Early Years Learning Framework, (often referred to as the EYLF). This identifies 5 broad learning outcomes designed to capture learning styles and development of dispositions of children aged 0-5 years. These outcomes are:
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
Outcome 5 : Children are effective communicators
Our team is passionate and excited about our curriculum, and constantly challenge ourselves to do things better. We participate in regular professional development to keep informed and up to date on current best practise.
Our learning experiences include both planned (intentional) and spontaneous teaching moments. We document learning and magical moments of play using observations and learning stories and other purposeful documentation that helps to make our program work as a full cycle – observation, evaluation, future planning, repeat. Experiences are based around our children’s needs and interests. Our curriculum is always flexible and we try our hardest to get input and suggestion from families. We have a special family input area in each room which we want you to write on or give us ideas.
Our learning documentation is purposeful and displayed so that learning is visible to children and families. It’s also displayed to children can see and reflect on what they learnt. You can see these displayed around the rooms.
Families are always encouraged to contribute to our curriculum and planning. This can be as simple as telling us what’s happening at home, anything like what you done on the weekend or if your child is really interested in something – to teaching us about your family’s histories and cultures, or being an active part of our program by sharing your skills with us.
Our environments are purposeful and used as the “third teacher” – this means the children’s environments are designed to encourage the children to explore and learn from the areas and materials in them at their own pace.
Planning for Individual Children
Children’s individual portfolios are located at the front of the room, for both children and families to look through.
This is where we keep your child’s learning journey documented – and they will include individual and group observations, jottings and notes, monthly Learning Stories, and samples of any meaningful conversations or art pieces they might create. There is also a EYLF learning outcomes sheet and our Philosophy. We also put in your child’s “About me & My Family” form. From this form we can find out about your child and your family. We want to know as much as we can about your home traditions and cultures. This is how you can document what goals you might have for your children during their time with us as well.
We use communication from you and your child as the basis of our planning – education and care are seen as equally important at our service. We aim to support you and your family and recognise our partnerships are integral to our planning cycle. Please take the time to read your child portfolio and take home their learning stories.
Preschool Program & School Preparedness
We offer a holistic preschool program in our Kindy room which utilises both the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum, and implemented by our Early Years Teacher, the same as you would get at a school based preschool. What makes our program different are our overarching goals which are serviced on the children and their needs, and shared individual goals for each child which are developed collaboratively between the Kindy educators and the children & families. We respect that to support children to be confident and capable at school, we need to consider the whole child as individuals, their home life and different cultures. We offer a variety of play based and intentional experiences, including excursions throughout the school and attendance at school assemblies.
We want our children to be resilient and socially & emotionally prepared for school life and that is our focus.
Routines & Transition Times
Our routines are entirely flexible, but consistent enough to provide children with a sense of security and familiarity each day. We encourage parent suggestion and input into our routines to keep children’s home routines our routines with the children. Infant routines from home will be followed here at Nightcliff Community ELC as closely as possible and this includes supporting breast feeding and parental choices and preferences, such as child rearing practices and traditions from home.
