Larapinta Child & Family Early Learning Centre

The guiding principle of our service is that ‘the best interests of the child are paramount’.

How do we make that happen? We begin by making the child the centre of our approach by building everything we do on our Centre philosophy:

• Underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, our philosophy is to include all children in our Early Learning Centre and make a positive contribution to their future success by delivering high quality education and care.
• We acknowledge that contemporary research has made explicit the connection between the quality of relationships in children’s early years and their future positive cognitive and social development.

We recognise the importance of quality early childhood education and care practices and settings and acknowledge this is a priority in providing children with stimulating play experiences and learning environments which will positively enable all children to develop to their full potential.

We plan stimulating indoor and outdoor environments based on play, children’s strengths and interests that support all aspects of children’s learning and provoke exploration, intrigue and discovery as this promotes opportunities form sustained and collaborative learning.

We work in partnerships with children, families and the community to develop and plan a curriculum that supports a child’s sense of belonging, being and becoming. We recognise the importance in working in partnership with families and that this
enhances better outcomes for their children.

Families are supported to provide their individual contributions and personal experiences as we recognise that good practice in early childhood education and care incorporates these contributions and experiences to develop inclusive care practices and play environments and build our cultural competence.

We are responsive to children’s needs and initiate positive engagement with their families to develop trust and respect to strengthen collaborative relationships.

Check out our centre philosophy here.

The Larapinta Early Learning Centre’s curriculum plan is a way of documenting what we do in our service to support and promote children’s learning and development.

To ensure that all children reach their full potential at Larapinta, careful thought and consideration needs to go into the experiences offered to them. The EYLF is a key component in helping us to plan, implement and review our curriculum for children (as highlight in NQS QA1).

It is important to reflect on how the EYLF impacts and influences our current curriculum decisions. The EYLF not only offers you crucial thinking points in relation to how children learn but also how you as educators can extend this learning and development further through intentional teaching and you everyday practices.

A good quality curriculum for young children is based on a balance of planned and spontaneous experiences. To develop an effective curriculum for children an on-going cycle of observing, planning,
documenting and reviewing the curriculum is essential. Your documentation and assessment of children’s learning can be used to inform your curriculum plans. All planning starts with observing children in order to understand and consider their current interests, development and learning. (Hodgman, 2011)

Effective Planning for Children’s Play and Learning

Planning is a dynamic and ongoing process that involves working in partnership with children and families. Effective planning begins with the gathering of rick information about children, families, community and contexts. As you make meaning of this information, you can develop your own knowledge and understandings about children. Together with the EYLF, this information can assist you to plan a curriculum that supports children’s wellbeing and learning.

Through active engagement and intentionality you can extend children’s play and learning, and discover new insights about children’s thinking. These new insights combined with ongoing reflection enable you to evaluate the curriculum and use this information to inform future planning.