Philosophy

Western Sydney University Early Learning provides high quality education and care based on best practice principles guided by the National Quality Framework. We provide a platform for children to reach their full potential by delivering stimulating and nurturing environments which foster agency, resilience, a strong sense of self and overall wellbeing and belonging for all children.

Vision

Building foundations for a lifetime of success for every child.

Mission

To advocate and champion excellence in Early Learning and Care

Partnerships with Families and the Community

We believe in:

• Collaborative partnerships as an essential tool in empowering all stake holders, staff, educators, children, families and the community and are based on active communication, consultation and collaboration.
• The active participation of each child and their family in service decisions and the educational program and that families are the primary influence in a child’s life. We acknowledge our families’ invaluable wealth of knowledge.
• The importance of developing ongoing, supportive and respectful relationships between our staff and families. These relationships are seen as fundamental to achieving quality outcomes for children and bring opportunity for learning, sharing, acknowledging and celebrating difference and ability
• The importance of recognising and honouring the histories, cultures, languages and traditions and embracing cultural celebrations
• Enhancing links between home and education services including the celebrating the diversity of families, their religion, culture, language and lifestyles, encourage communication, building on mutual trust, respect and a sense of belonging.
• Developing collaborative partnerships with Elders and community knowledge holders to embed authentic Aboriginal cultural content.

The Service Environment

We believe in:

• Providing aesthetically pleasing environments which promotes the health and wellbeing of all children and supports each child’s growing competence, confidence and independence. An environment which is designed to be respectful of individual learning styles, rich in open ended resources for children to access and supports safe risk taking.
• Creating a warm, friendly, inviting and engaging atmosphere which will provide opportunities for growth of knowledge, skills and dispositions, allowing children to conduct their own enquiries, ask questions, investigate
• Offering natural experiences and environments which provide children with opportunities to make connections, develop skills and deepen their understanding of the world. We aim to provide a service which enables children and adults to connect to the natural world and understand the importance of nature and sustainable practice.
• Providing literacy-rich environments, with opportunities to explore language and literature in all facets of the curriculum, children having access to different writing materials, prints, mediums and to use these in their enquiries and pursuit of more information and answers to their questions.
• Children having opportunities to engage in creative experiences such as: dance, music, art, construction, movement, drama all enriching children’s imaginations.
• Providing environments that encourage children to engage in appropriate and meaningful science, technology, engineering and mathematics experiences through play

The Early Childhood Years

We believe in:

• Every child having the right to a childhood. We value time to develop friendships, share ideas, be listened to, and time to just be in the moment. We believe that children should have periods of uninterrupted time to dig in the sand, paint, daydream, hunt for bugs, travel to imaginary worlds, explore with their hands and quite simply, PLAY!
• Recognising all children as being intelligent, capable and creative, with the power to influence their own learning and others around them, recognising children as constructors of their own learning.
• All children’s capacity to succeed, regardless of diverse circumstances, abilities or learning styles. We are committed to equity and strive to provide a unique, inclusive service to children, families and the community, which challenges stereotypes and bias.
• Children being active participants in curriculum, capable of becoming strong, healthy, empowered and confident individuals who display respect for themselves, each other and the environment.
• Providing opportunities for children to contribute and be involved in the decision-making and evaluation about their own learning, allowing children’s voices to be heard.
• Giving children adequate time, space and support to live in the moment and providing opportunities for children to conduct investigations to build on their knowledge, experiences and interests, pursuing ideas, thoughts and enquiries.

Role of the Educator

We believe in

• Becoming co-learners with children, embarking on a joint discovery, working in collaboration with children, respecting and valuing children as individuals, learning to their own potentials.
• Planning for extended investigations engaging children in inquiries, questioning and thinking as they experiment and hypothesise within their own social context, encouraging collaboration with peers, listening, sharing ideas, negotiating and problem solving.
• Endeavouring to have clear understandings of each individual child’s whole context, recognising that children’s immediate needs will affect and change the way children respond to particular experiences and, in turn will affect children’s learning.
• The need for Early Childhood Educators to have understandings of child development and how individual children learn and the role of the family as well as understand the social contexts in which they work.
• Making children’s learning visible, displaying works in progress, documenting children’s experiments with photos and transcripts of children’s verbal thoughts and enquiries, as an ongoing process, evaluating and reflecting throughout.
• The importance of educators engaging in warm, respectful and responsive interactions considering the individual child, providing a sense of belonging and acceptance for all children and always maintaining the dignity and rights of child.
• Educators working together as a team to deliver high quality education and care for children and families. Maintaining a professional approach to early childhood education as they demonstrate respect in each other’s experiences, knowledge and contributions.
• Educators being advocates for children, promoting the rights of all children and advocating for the early childhood profession.
• Supporting children to develop a passion for learning. We believe that when children’s interests and ideas are respected and their curiosity, imagination and enthusiasm is supported, learning occurs.

Assessment, Evaluation, Research and Reflection

We believe in;

• The importance of Early Childhood Staff continuously engaging in assessment, evaluation and research and critical reflections of practices and through this process, developing knowledge and skills necessary to support, inform and enrich decision making about children’s learning.
• Engaging in critical thinking and self-reflection, identifying action for personal growth and self- directed learning.
• Early childhood curriculums underpinned by the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). That will be continually modified in the light of evaluation, to ensure the needs of children and families are met.
• Offering feedback to children on their learning and development. Allowing children opportunity to express their areas of interest for future learning and the value of including families and children in the assessment and evaluation processes.
• The value of professional development. We support ongoing education, and strive to create a community for educators, staff and children that instills a passion for lifelong learning.
• Having knowledge of historical and current research in development and practices in the early childhood field. Utilising valuable resources from our local and wider communities to broaden the children’s learning environment and understanding of their world