ELC Acknowledgement of Country
We the team at Doveton College Early Learning Centre acknowledge the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we work and play. We thank their ancestors for their intimate care for country and we honour the guardianship of current and future Bunurong generations. We recognise that we are ‘one’ with country, and that we must take care of the waterways, land, and sky; as well as look after the Bubups of Bundjil.
We would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of the ELC for their generous sharing of culture and pay our respect to their ancient Aboriginal traditions, and ways of knowing, being and doing, that provide a wisdom from which we can all learn. We endorse the understanding that sovereignty of this land was never surrendered, and pledge our commitment to truth-telling, doing our part to correct the wrongs of the past and continuing our learning journey.
About Early Learning
Children are born as curious and inquisitive little beings. Their brains are primed for learning. The first five years of life represent a critical window in brain development which can have a lasting impact on a child’s learning ability and capacity to succeed in school and beyond. It is during this period that the brain is most ‘plastic’ or flexible and the neural connections they need to build in order to be healthy, capable and successful individuals are rapidly forming.
To ensure the development of strong foundational brain architecture, research informs us that children need positive interactions with long-term responsive and caring adults alongside a safe and secure environment in which to learn and explore. Our programs are ‘holistic’ in orientation. We understand that children don’t develop and learn new understandings and skills in isolation, their development and learning is interconnected. As such, our programs aim to support the growth of the whole child in the emotional, social, physical and cognitive domains.
Our team of educators are highly qualified within the early childhood field and participate in ongoing professional development each year in response to our high level commitment to quality improvement. We purposely provide child to educator ratios that exceed the requirements of the national legislation governing early childhood services so that we are able to confidently guarantee our educators can readily respond to the needs and interests of every child within their care.
Evidence-based research confirms that high quality services for young children offer the following provisions:
- Highly qualified teachers and educators
- Small group sizes with high adult to child ratios
- Language rich environments
- Developmentally appropriate play-based programs
- Safe physical settings
- Warm and responsive adult-child interactions.
Doveton College ELC prides itself on achieving and maintaining high quality provision for our families and local community.
Learning through play
Play is often described as ‘children’s work’. Young children are active ‘hand-on’ learners who are driven to find out about the world around them through play. Within play, children explore and discover ‘how things’ work, come to an understanding of the ‘adult world’ through reenacting pretend-play scenarios, and learn about symbolic communication or representation through creating and inventing with a rich variety of resources.
Our programs are guided by the National Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) while being contextualized to our service in order to meet the needs and interests of our children, families and community.
Both frameworks focus on five interconnecting learning outcomes considered essential for children to achieve within the years preceding their formal school experience. The outcomes are:
At Doveton College we achieve these outcomes through the implementation of integrated teaching and learning strategies which include adult-led learning, child-led learning and guided learning approaches.
We acknowledge parents as being their child’s first teachers and recognize that they possess a wealth of knowledge about their child that we can learn from them in order to secure the best possible outcomes for their child. We are committed to working closely with parents and families to ensure that we have a solid understanding of their aspirations and goals in relation to their child’s care and education.