School Readiness

It is our belief at Erina Kindergarten that a comprehensive and holistic school readiness approach is an essential part of a child’s learning journey and transition to school. Our school readiness skills are developed with reference to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and are embedded into our weekly curriculum and every day practices. At the very heart of the Early Years Learning Framework is the view that early childhood is a time when exploring notions of “being”, “belonging” and “becoming” are essential to the development of identity, cognitive reasoning and wellbeing. We work closely in partnership with families to achieve our outcomes. “Play-based learning is a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds, as they actively engage with people, objects and representations” (EYLF, 2009, p.46)

A play-based learning context encourages a range of positive developmental outcomes such as personality expression, individuality, relationship development, curiosity and creativity as well as developing a sense of overall esteem and wellbeing. It’s our goal to guide each individual child into confident learners to set the foundation for lifelong learning. Our team of Bachelor qualified teachers and Diploma qualified educators are responsible for integrating the foundations of the Early Years Learning Framework into our learning contexts to ensure that your child’s learning outcomes are being met. Some of the learning that they will implement with your child includes:

Promote language, numeracy and cognitive development:

• Plan and teach a play-based curriculum
• Observe children to evaluate & record progress
• Assist with personal hygiene
• Promote health and safety concepts
• Encourage empathy, cooperation & respect
• Encourage and promote positive attitudes towards learning

In addition, our teams undergo regular professional and teaching development programs to ensure that practices are consistent with industry best practice.

Transitioning to ‘Big School’ is an exciting time in your child’s life. Together with Erina Kindergarten we can make the transition from preschool to ‘’big school’’ easy and exciting. Our goal is to ensure your child is fully prepared in every way possible to transition effectively to the new set of learning objectives in the school environment. Some examples of how our centre implements the Early Years Learning Framework into our programs to promote these skills includes but is not limited to;

• Enhances visual perception and spatial relationships
• Extends early mathematical concepts and language such as counting and measurement
• Promotes thinking, planning and problem solving
• Facilitates social skills such as collaboration

• Increases physical health and wellbeing
• Encourages autonomy, resilience and a sense of agency
• Extend social skills such as taking turns
• Promotes lateral thinking and problem solving

• Facilitate an understanding and respect for the environment
• Develop the ability to explore, infer, predict and hypothesise
• Increased understanding of sustainability and children’s role in it

• Develop a sense of identity
• Facilitate expression of ideas and feeling and strong emotions
• Nurture empathy
• Provide opportunities to explore other identities and points of view
• Encourage imagination and creativity

• Provides opportunity to experiment with colour, shape, texture and line
• Develops symbolic thinking and expression
• Promotes the ability to make choices and decisions
• Facilitates expression of ideas, thoughts and feelings
• Outlet for emotions

• Enhances personal and cultural identity
• Provides opportunity to express emotions and feelings
• Develops body awareness, rhythm and coordination

• Enhance social skills such as sharing and collaboration
• Develops hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills
• Promotes logic, reasoning and systematic thinking
• Improves concentration and persistence
• Increases visual discrimination and spatial awareness

• Develop the ability to enjoy moments of solitude
• Provides time for reflection
• Nurture emotional wellbeing and sense of identity
• Enhance feelings of being and belonging

• Stimulates the imagination and broadens understanding of the world
• Extends speech, language and vocabulary
• Increased awareness that ideas and feelings can be expressed in print
• Develops early literacy skills such as letter recognition and letter-to sound relationship
• Pincer scissors grips & writing skills for school

• Provide opportunity to explore, predict and infer
• Promote logical thinking
• Instil a sense of wonder and awe
• Facilitate understanding of self and place in the world

• Enhances visual perceptions, colour, pattern, shape and detail
• Facilitate social skills such as collaboration
• Encourage persistence

• Develops a positive attitude to new tools, new methods, new results
• Promotes competence, skill and adaptability
• Enhances functional life skills
• Provides opportunity to investigate, imagine and explore ideas

Our holistic School readiness curriculum aims at supporting the development of confidence

• Children become strong in their social and emotional well being
• Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical well being

• Children feel safe, secure and supported
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, interdependence, resilience and sense of agency
• Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
• Literacy is all around your child in their day to day life. At Erina kindergarten we harness this and embrace all the forms of literacy and how your child can develop the appropriate skills to become a confident literate learner.Literacy skills are an extremely important part of development for your child. At Erina kindergarten we believe that literacy skills include a variety of aspects, not just reading and writing.

Literacy skills include:

• Storytelling
• Dramatic arts/role play
• Communication
• News – talking in front of peers build confidence & self esteem

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
• Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another
• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials

This aspect of our curriculum focuses on your child’s understanding of numbers and becoming numerate. At Erina kindergarten we aim to educate your child and help them understand that maths are an extremely important part of life. We use activities and games to promote your child’s number learning and use interest-based projects to facilitate positive mathematical learning.

Numeracy skills are an extremely important part of development for your child. At Erina kindergarten we believe that Numeracy skills include a variety of aspects, not just counting.

Numeracy Skills include:

• Numbers and measurement
• Shapes and spatial awareness
• Patterning, sorting and classifying

• Children begin to understand how symbols and patterns systems work
• Children begin to sort, categorise, order and compare collections and events and attributes of objects and materials, in their social and natural worlds
• Children develop an understanding that symbols are a powerful means of communication and that ideas, thoughts and concepts can be represented through them

Creative includes, dancing, acting, singing and visual arts (painting etc.). At Erina kindergarten we believe The Arts gives your child another form of communication and a way for them to express themselves. Studies have shown that many children can grasp numeracy and literacy skills better through the arts. The Arts also offers your child a form of emotional release and is fun. At Erina kindergarten we provide munch and move programs as well as planned and spontaneous visual arts experiences.

Creative Skills include:

• Exploring expressive, artistic and creative abilities
• Learning through art, music and movement.

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
• Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media
• Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking

Is all about your child becoming acquainted with themselves as an individual, learning how to express themselves and share their feelings and emotions. It is important that your child feels welcome and has a strong sense of belonging to the centre, to their friend and educators. Having world awareness is an area of our program that ties closely to our Erina kindergarten Goes Green program. It is a way for your child to become in touch with the environment and to explore nature and what it has to offer. We encourage your child to have a positive impact on their environment by making environmentally friendly choices and changes. We work with our resident horticulturalist to work with our vegetable gardens, compost, worm farms and recycling.

Self-awareness is a part of the curriculum that your child will always be involved in. At Erina Kindergarten we assist your child in becoming independent and an autonomous learner.

Self-Identity Skills include:

• Having care, empathy and respect
• Becoming autonomous and independent
• Being confident and communicative
• Understanding oneself and a sense of security

• Children feel safe, secure and supported.
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
• Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities.
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect.
•  At Erina kindergarten we believe that having knowledge of the world and how their actions impact their environment will assist them to be caring and nurturing towards their environment and aware of others.Using external resources, we engage your child in language lessons, challenging their cognitive skills. Our event calendar throughout the year celebrates, acknowledges and encourages a range of mixed cultural events including events such as multicultural week.

Community & culture skills include:

• Having and showing respect for the environment
• Feeling a part of a cultural group and community
• Diversity
• Partnerships and collaboration
• Shared decision making

• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation
• Children respond to diversity with respect
• Children become aware of fairness
• Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

• Children feel safe, secure and supported
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, interdependence, resilience and sense of agency
• Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
• Your child’s exploration is a powerful source of learning!