OUR PROGRAM

Our programs cater to the current interests and abilities of all children; this assists in empowering children to view themselves as successful, capable and competent learners. In addition to this, we’ve adopted some home-based principles from the Reggio Emilia approach, to support children to understand and contribute to their daily routines at home. 

At Bowral Street Childcare, children are engaged in a variety of experiences, which include opportunities to explore and discover their environment, work together, problem solve, engage in sensory play, engage on their own or with educators, and participate in quiet or vigorous experiences. 

When we are outside, children play with children of all ages, we call this family grouping. It’s lovely to see the diversity of friendships that develop; young children look up to and learn from the older children and the older children develop care and compassion for those who are younger. When we are inside, children are separated into their rooms where they are grouped age appropriately. Bowral Street Childcare has three separate rooms, the Koala Room (2-3 years), the Echidna Room (3-4 years), and the Kangaroo Room (4-6 years). This enables us to provide a routine and educational program that is appropriate to children’s age and emotional development.

Our experienced educators use the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) outcomes to guide their planning and offer excellent educational programs for all children. We identify each child’s strengths and interests, choose teaching and learning strategies and design appropriate learning environments to suit the individual child. Our school readiness program is also based on the EYLF and includes the practice of a range of skills that children commonly learn in Kindergarten, with the intention of easing them into their transition to school and we’ve received positive feedback from many teachers as a result of this program.

In addition to the children’s play and intentional teaching, we offer children a wide range of enjoyable activities and experiences; we have quite a few special guests who visit our centre to support our educational program. These include the Matilda Farmyard Nursery, Reptile Man, a magician, a puppet show, community members who visit us for ‘People who help us’ week, a soccer coach, karate instructor, etc. We also currently teach the children Japanese and have previously taught Spanish; thanks to the skills of our wonderful Educators.

All of our children’s learning is documented on our OWNA Digital Software for their parents to view and keep up to date with their education. This is readily available to all parents via the OWNA App, web portal and in our monthly newsletters. We encourage families to contribute to our program regularly through our Educators’ program and daily records, through spontaneous experiences and guest visits, and by offering ideas and suggestions for activities.