Our Philosophy
At Veronica Street Children’s Centre, we embrace the VEYLDF and EYLF (Version 2.0) framework. We aim to ensure that all children, families, educators, and visitors feel a sense of belonging, feel safe and secure for who they are and supported to become all they can be. We believe each child is a unique individual and that their special abilities, interests and cultural backgrounds should be the basis of our curriculum. We will work with families to provide high quality education and care within a warm, secure environment that promotes diversity and inclusion.
We promote supportive and friendly relationships with families which encourages them to communicate openly, make suggestions and actively involve themselves in the programs that we offer. Our partnership with families is based on honesty, open communication, and mutual respect. This enables children’s needs to be met more effectively, through the exchange of information about the child. Family involvement allows for family identity, culture, and heritage backgrounds to be implemented within our Centre’s environment that shapes our community. This empowers the process of being, becoming and belonging.
We believe each child’s health, security and well-being underpins all learning experiences. We will promote exercise, good nutrition, sleep and rest periods. We will ensure each child feels love, security and a sense of belonging. Our outdoor and indoor areas engage every child in experiences which promotes play and learning through stimulation of the senses in built and the natural environments.
At Veronica Street Children’s Centre, we will built upon the child’s self-image, independence, belief in oneself and confidence in their wellbeing by fostering in each child a positive approach to their identity, with a sense of responsibility, self-discipline and self-esteem. We will scaffold the education of development of each child as an individual who can grow his/her separate identity and qualities yet still work and contribute constructively within a large group.
We respect and value the diverse contributions and perspectives of our colleagues and this is evident in their interactions with each other. Collaboration involves working together cooperatively towards common goals. We will engage in ongoing reflection about our practices and procedures to drive continuous improvement and to ensure each child can maximise his or her learning opportunities, and as educators we value opportunities for professional development.
We value cultural diversity and respect the multiple cultural ways of knowing, seeing, living and celebrate the benefits of diversity. We provide opportunities to instill the values of respect and acceptance. By promoting the principles of cultural safety in our Centre children have opportunities to interact with peers from different races and cultures in a safe and secure environment and in an acceptable manner. We make sure that diverse needs of children are respected in the decision-making process and the fundamental right of equality is upheld. We acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the many lands across Australia. We acknowledge our shared histories and the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples, who we recognize as being the first national people of Australia.
Our Langwarrin Child Care Centre is equipped with 4 age appropriate rooms, 2 separate yards each incorporating natural play spaces, free standing play equipment, soft fall areas, grass and footpaths. We also have 2 sand pits and veggie patches.
Bandicoots
In our Bandicoots room we provide your child with all the love and care that they need. We work together with families to promote consistency between the home environment and our centre, to ensure that the children feel secure and happy. We offer a wide range of activities and experiences that further your child’s development. Many of these experiences are accessible for the children so that they may explore their interest and expand on their world in their own time.
We like to keep the Nursery as calm as possible and get to know each baby and family. With this age group each child has their own routine and as they develop and progress this changes throughout the year. We work closely with each child and family to provide something unique and personal.
Echidnas
The Echidna room is the next stage for the babies leaving Bandicoots. The children become slightly more independent in the Echidnahs room as we provide an environment that allows our children to discover new and exciting experiences.
We have lots of fun and learning. We have special story, singing and group times. We enjoy art and craft and lots of new and exciting learning activities indoors and out. Again, we have our own routine for sleeping, eating and bottles but we start to eat together when we are ready, and meal times are times for learning.
We try to feed ourselves, and often even though this can be a messy experience we enjoy the challenge and learning new skills. Echidnas has their own natural outdoor environment where they can release their energy through age appropriate gross motor activities, and enjoy the fresh air in a protected environment.
Koalas
This Room focuses on encouraging a love of learning that will prepare children for life. The Koalas room is programmed to meet the ever expanding interest and abilities of the children. Using the Early Years Framework (EYLF) we focus on a number of areas of interest throughout the year, these are based on child’s interests, and ways of extending their development.
We also prepare children for school through a variety of experiences including name recognition, number and alphabet recognition and social skills development. All staff support and encourage the children developing independence and communication skills at every opportunity.
We have a great natural outdoor environment that we use to expand and develop our gross motor skills and hand/ eye coordination. We also enjoy finding out about the weather, growing plants and seeds and caring for the environment.
Wallabies (Kinder)
Our Wallabies room provides kindergarten for children who turn four prior to the 30th of April. The kindergarten program runs between 9:30am – 2:30pm each day and is implemented by a qualified kindergarten teacher. The kindergarten program incorporates a variety of curriculum areas such as social sciences, art, maths, music, science, movement and language. Each curriculum area focuses on developing and fostering specific concepts. Each area is incorporated into the program through relevant activities with specific objectives which relate to a child’s development. The program also facilitates children’s interests through a project approach, emergent curriculum and program inclusion.