Our Philosophy

Kindergarten is a unique time in the educational journey of a child. It offers an opportunity for development in a child’s life through a multitude of learning experiences.

We believe:
Play is central to a child’s learning and enables a child to develop a positive disposition towards learning and is a scaffold to future learning.

Children have an innate desire to learn and explore their world.

Children are resourceful learners who are active contributors to their own learning. At White Hills Kinder we seek to enhance each child’s learning and development by providing a stimulating, evolving, enjoyable, play-based program (Erikson) incorporating the following elements:

• Open-ended activities
• Child-led activities -based on their interests and questions
• Educator-led activities, or intentional teaching – based on professional knowledge
• Sensory experiences
• Utilising the benefits of indoor/outdoor play spaces
• Creative, imaginative play areas
• Investigative, exploratory activities
• Routines
• Literacy and numeracy embedded in our curriculum

Our beliefs about children:
Children are unique individuals who progress through established, continuous developmental stages (as identified by Piaget) at their own rate.

Children need sufficient time to refine skills and knowledge, investigate, deepen their understanding, build confidence in their abilities and ideas, and express themselves therefore we schedule large blocks of uninterrupted time for engagement in experiences.

Children have an inherent curiosity about nature and the environment and we are able to support this through our enhanced natural, outdoor environment.

Every child is a unique individual who, with support and a safe and enriching environment, will begin to develop skills needed to progress as confident learners and resourceful community members.

All children have the right to be heard and to contribute to the learning environment.

Our beliefs about learning:
Children’s learning is fostered by developing trusting and supportive relationships between children and educators.
Developing a trusting and supportive relationship with families helps to enhance the child’s learning. The partnership of the family is vital to the development of appropriate learning and development goals for each individual child’s needs.

Parent involvement is valued to provide insights and to support their child’s learning. Parent involvement is also vital in supporting the Centre through committee membership, fund-raising, working bees, kinder duty and sharing of expertise and culturally relevant knowledge.

Our beliefs about our community:
Community is vital to establishing and nurturing a children’s identity and well-being, therefore children’s interests and family culture help to shape and enrich our program content.

We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community as well as the diverse cultures that make up our growing community. We acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional owners of the land and the DJa Dja Wurrung people past, present and future.

We endeavour to embed and celebrate the many cultures that contribute to our wider cultural learning.
Service providers from the wider community are also utilized to provide broader input to enhance children’s experience and learning. (Socio-cultural theory Malaguzzi, Vygotsky, Rogoff).

Our beliefs about our role as educators:
We aim to promote and progress the learning and development of the whole child with reference to the learning outcomes identified in the five areas of the Victorian Early Years Learning Framework: Identity, Community, Wellbeing, Learning and Communication. The standards are the foundation of quality teaching and learning.
Educators use knowledge of what a child ‘knows, can do and understands’ and their interests to provide meaningful experiences to engage their attention and stimulate curiosity and further investigation.

Educators engage in Vygotsky’s concept of scaffolding to guide, and nurture a child” in development and learning (Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development).

We seek to foster development of core learning dispositions and skills such as confidence, persistence, resilience, problem-solving, resourcefulness, self-motivation, collaboration, inclusiveness, cooperation – identifying these elements as essential for building independence, interdependence and providing a foundation for healthy relationships, current and future learning and developing skills for life. (Montessori).

Educators use various methods to make learning visible, recognising the distance travelled’ by each child. Educators are always willing to discuss this progress and achievement with parents, both formally and informally.

A child’s kinder years should be a happy and fulfilling experience for both the child and their family, ones that are fondly remembered in future years for the relationships formed and the experience gained.