Our Philosophy
We support positive learning and play experiences, in an environment which will foster each child’s sense of self-worth, nurture positive group relationships, allow children to develop autonomy and encourage cooperative and collaborative behaviour.
Our curriculum reflects the Early Learning Years Framework; Being, Belonging, and Becoming. This framework focuses on play providing the foundation for learning. We encourage play based learning which is recognised as the natural method of learning and is integral to a child’s growth and development. Through play, children make discoveries, construct knowledge and express themselves providing the foundations of learning for the future.
As educators we believe in, practice and advocate for the principles outlined in the ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’, the ‘Early Childhood Code of Ethics’, ‘Education and Care Services National Regulations’, ‘National Quality Framework’ including the ‘National Quality Standards’ and the ‘Early Years Learning Framework’.
Gymea Pre-Kindergarten promotes an OPEN DOORS POLICY. We welcome and encourage all family members to participate and observe how we provide care for their child. We will always make time to listen, provide help and advice for each individual family. We are proud of the quality care we provide.
- Is continuously evolving, reflecting the children’s interests.
- Provides structured and spontaneous activities using natural and man-made materials from the surrounding environment.
- Provides opportunities for children to participate in a variety of physically active experiences incorporating the Munch and Move initiative, educating children about the importance of healthy choices.
Continuously includes concepts of diversity, inclusion and equity. Helping young people develop respect for others and themselves in terms of understanding differences and diversity within the community.
- Be viewed as competent and capable learners who are given opportunities to construct their own understandings of the world around them.
- Have the opportunity to contribute to their own learning journey and establish a sense of being.
- Have their needs met, including, sleep, rest, nutrition, health and hygiene.
- Have a sense of belonging. Children are given time to adjust and adapt in accordance with their own interests and abilities.
Learn to interact in relation to others with care empathy and respect.
- Partnerships with families provides invaluable information and insights into a variety of cultures.
- Quality communication and interactions between educators and families is an essential tool for maintaining positive relationships.
- Families should feel that their child is receiving the highest quality of care when left at Gymea Pre-Kindergarten, and feel a positive and trusting relationship with the educators at the service.
- Our educators support positive learning experiences and nurture positive group relationships, encouraging collaborative behaviour.
- It is essential to have consistency in our educator team and minimise educator turn over wherever possible. Maintaining consistent care practices.
- In promoting children’s self -expression, exploration, experimentation and trial and error in a safe and emotional secure setting.
In respecting the privacy of all families.
- There should be a positive rapport and reputation for providing a welcoming and inclusive environment in the local community in relation to the Gymea Pre-Kindergarten and its educators.
- Community resources and information should be made available to all families.
- In having professional relationships with experts outside of the centre as it is important to utilise the knowledge and expertise, to ensure we provide children and families with the best care and education possible.
- Community involvement is encouraged.
- Children will be supported and encouraged to respect the natural environment and begin to understand the importance of caring for it, through maintaining gardens, caring for animals, actively participating in recycling and water saving.
- Programs and daily experiences should engage children to participate in sustainable practices.
- It is important to invite community groups to the service to encourage children in a variety of ways to explore their environment and contribute to our community gardens.
INCLUSIVE PRACTICE
At Gymea Pre-Kindergarten we recognise that every child has
the right to high quality Early Childhood Education, and this should not be
affected by disability.
Our centre policies and practices seek to recognise and
respond to diversity, and to not only help children
with special needs take part in the regular activities, but also challenge
negative attitudes toward disability.
We are continually improving our Inclusion Policies and
welcome feedback from parents and the community.
Gymea Pre-Kindergarten is accessibility compliant with
Disability (Access to Premises – Buildings) Standards 2010 and Building Code of
Australia.
THEORISTS THAT INFLUENCE OUR EDUCATORS
At Gymea Pre-Kindergarten we draw aspects of our approach from a variety of educational theorists such as Frobels notions that children need to be given the opportunity to experience, learn and develop on their own terms and in their own timeframe.
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.1 Piaget’s stages are:
- Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
- Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
- Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
- Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.
Up until this point in history, children were largely treated simply as smaller versions of adults. Piaget was one of the first to identify that the way that children think is different from the way adults think.
The Sensorimotor Stage
Ages: Birth to 2 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
- The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations
- Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening
- Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen (object permanence)
- They are separate beings from the people and objects around them
- They realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them
The Preoperational Stage
Ages: 2 to 7 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
- Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.
- Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.
- While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very concrete terms.
Erik Eriksons Theory of psychological development
Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.
For Erikson (1958, 1963), these crises are of a psychosocial nature because they involve psychological needs of the individual (i.e., psycho) conflicting with the needs of society (i.e., social).
According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Basic virtues are characteristic strengths which the ego can use to resolve subsequent crises.
| Stage | Psychosocial Crisis | Basic Virtue | Age |
| 1. | Trust vs. Mistrust | Hope | 0 – 1½ |
| 2. | Autonomy vs. Shame | Will | 1½ – 3 |
| 3. | Initiative vs. Guilt | Purpose | 3 – 5 |
1. Trust vs. Mistrust
Trust vs. mistrust is the first stage in Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. This stage begins at birth continues to approximately 18 months of age. During this stage, the infant is uncertain about the world in which they live, and looks towards their primary caregiver for stability and consistency of care.
If the care the infant receives is consistent, predictable and reliable, they will develop a sense of trust which will carry with them to other relationships, and they will be able to feel secure even when threatened.
If these needs are not consistently met, mistrust, suspicion, and anxiety may develop.
If the care has been inconsistent, unpredictable and unreliable, then the infant may develop a sense of mistrust, suspicion, and anxiety. In this situation the infant will not have confidence in the world around them or in their abilities to influence events.
Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of hope. By developing a sense of trust, the infant can have hope that as new crises arise, there is a real possibility that other people will be there as a source of support. Failing to acquire the virtue of hope will lead to the development of fear.
This infant will carry the basic sense of mistrust with them to other relationships. It may result in anxiety, heightened insecurities, and an over feeling of mistrust in the world around them.
Consistent with Erikson’s views on the importance of trust, research by Bowlby and Ainsworth has outlined how the quality of the early experience of attachment can affect relationships with others in later life.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Autonomy versus shame and doubt is the second stage of Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. This stage occurs between the ages of 18 months to approximately 3 years. According to Erikson, children at this stage are focused on developing a sense of personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence.
Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of will. If children in this stage are encouraged and supported in their increased independence, they become more confident and secure in their own ability to survive in the world.
If children are criticized, overly controlled, or not given the opportunity to assert themselves, they begin to feel inadequate in their ability to survive, and may then become overly dependent upon others, lack self-esteem, and feel a sense of shame or doubt in their abilities.
What Happens During This Stage?
The child is developing physically and becoming more mobile, and discovering that he or she has many skills and abilities, such as putting on clothes and shoes, playing with toys, etc. Such skills illustrate the child’s growing sense of independence and autonomy.
For example, during this stage children begin to assert their independence, by walking away from their mother, picking which toy to play with, and making choices about what they like to wear, to eat, etc.
What Can Parents Do to Encourage a Sense of Control?
Erikson states it is critical that parents allow their children to explore the limits of their abilities within an encouraging environment which is tolerant of failure.
For example, rather than put on a child’s clothes a supportive parent should have the patience to allow the child to try until they succeed or ask for assistance. So, the parents need to encourage the child to become more independent while at the same time protecting the child so that constant failure is avoided.
A delicate balance is required from the parent. They must try not to do everything for the child, but if the child fails at a particular task they must not criticize the child for failures and accidents (particularly when toilet training).
The aim has to be “self control without a loss of self-esteem” (Gross, 1992).
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
Initiative versus guilt is the third stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. During the initiative versus guilt stage, children assert themselves more frequently.
These are particularly lively, rapid-developing years in a child’s life. According to Bee (1992), it is a “time of vigor of action and of behaviors that the parents may see as aggressive.”
During this period the primary feature involves the child regularly interacting with other children at school. Central to this stage is play, as it provides children with the opportunity to explore their interpersonal skills through initiating activities.
Children begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with others. If given this opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative and feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.
Conversely, if this tendency is squelched, either through criticism or control, children develop a sense of guilt. The child will often overstep the mark in his forcefulness, and the danger is that the parents will tend to punish the child and restrict his initiatives too much.
It is at this stage that the child will begin to ask many questions as his thirst for knowledge grows. If the parents treat the child’s questions as trivial, a nuisance or embarrassing or other aspects of their behavior as threatening then the child may have feelings of guilt for “being a nuisance”.
Too much guilt can make the child slow to interact with others and may inhibit their creativity. Some guilt is, of course, necessary; otherwise the child would not know how to exercise self-control or have a conscience.
A healthy balance between initiative and guilt is important. Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of purpose, while failure results in a sense of guilt.
