INFORMATION

BOOKLET

Lower Macleay Preschool Inc.

51 Belmore Street, Smithtown NSW 2440

Phone: 6567 4743

Email:

Find us at Lower Macleay Preschool on Facebook

Welcome to the Lower Macleay Preschool

The Lower Macleay Preschool is a Community Based Preschool that strives to deliver your child with a play-based early childhood experience. The Preschool provides a caring, secure environment and an educational program based on the development needs of each child. The Lower Macleay Preschool is a non-profit organisation. We are funded by the Department of Education and Communities and cater for children between the ages of three years and school age.

As a community based organisation, we believe that the centre is part of a wider, diverse community, and the rights of the many and varied groups in the community should be respected. We will provide opportunities that will honor the diversity of, and promote unity for all groups and people in the community regardless of religious beliefs, culture, ability, social-economics status and lifestyle.

Code of Ethics

Lower Macleay Preschool abides by the Code of Ethics provided by Early Childhood Australia Inc. The Code of Ethics provides a framework for reflection about the ethical responsibilities of early childhood professionals. Following a national process of consultation, principles emerged which are indicative of the values we share as early childhood professionals in Australia. The Code is intended for use by all early childhood professionals who work with or on behalf of children and families in early childhood settings.

Our Philosophy

Belonging

Educators at Lower Macleay Preschool provide a relaxed and caring environment. This will nurture your child to be enthusiastic and involved in their learning. We believe that you and your child should feel a sense of connection and belonging to our preschool community. Our preschool has strong relationships with the local schools and we value these professional connections.

Being

Every child learns through being actively involved in their play. This provides endless opportunities to connect with children and their educators. Your child will enjoy the adventure of being in a place where they can create, discover, and learn.

Becoming

Preschool is a time for children to grow and develop their sense of identity and value themselves as an individual. We give your child time to think, explore their capabilities, and develop a sense of their responsibility to themselves, their family, friends, educators, and the wider community in which they live.

Our preschool is passionate for you and your child to feel a strong connection with our community. We embrace all cultural beliefs, practices, and needs of families at Lower Macleay Preschool. Children are provided with opportunities to learn to understand and respect diversity as we are a nation of many cultures. Lower Macleay Preschool recognises the traditional owners of the Dunghutti Nation upon which our preschool is located and the deep connections they have with the land.

Our Educational Team believes in providing a calm environment where learning happens naturally and authentically. Every moment has the potential to be a learning experience. We have a strong emphasis on teaching children that the core value of feeling good about themselves is the foundation for learning positive attitudes of being kind and caring. This leads to meaningful relationships with their friends, educators, community and the world around them. Educators give time and attention and tune into children so that in that moment we are there just for them. Then children know that we care about them, we respect them, and we value them as individual people.

Our educators recognise the significance of your connection with your child and we acknowledge and value this in our everyday practice. We believe that your involvement and support will enhance your child’s learning at Lower Macleay Preschool. We welcome the opportunity to partner with all families and support all child’s learning, wellbeing and development by providing an open, respectful environment that leads to positive supportive relationships.

Our thoughtfully designed play environment will enhance your child’s ability to be an enthusiastic participant. Our educators will facilitate your child’s interests, current knowledge, ideas, culture, and abilities so that they can fully participate and be an active contributor in their learning. Play is the way that young children learn and they need endless opportunities to develop skills to reach their full potential. Educators observe, reflect and discuss how the learning environment empowers children to pursue their ideas that lead to deeper learning.

Our team is highly committed to the ongoing professional development of our educators. Our management committee is supportive and promote our educators to incorporate contemporary research and practice into our educational program. We want to enhance your child’s abilities so they can thrive in their journey of learning for life. Lower Macleay Preschool is a place where children are encouraged and inspired to be confident and actively involved in all aspects of their learning.

We believe that healthy eating and being active is fundamental to children’s wellbeing. It is in our everyday conversations that we discuss and provide opportunities to extend children’s learning and understanding about nutrition and physical and active play. As educators, we model the benefits of eating nutritious food to encourage children’s increasing awareness and enjoyment of healthy living.

The significance of sustainable living is an important part of our belief. Your child will have opportunities to discover their connections with each other, our community and the natural environment in which we live. Our educators are motivated for children to learn and participate in sustainable practice throughout our program. We want to inspire children to develop reflective critical thinking about the environment so they can become confident and involved and passionate about caring for our planet.

We want your child to know that we will care for them and we will celebrate their WOW moments and delight in their achievements. We respect and appreciate our families and these connections with our preschool community will form meaningful memories of your child’s early years learning.

Aims

We aim to facilitate a partnership with families by providing a secure environment in which each child can grow and develop. We realise that each family member is unique and we strive to support families in the care and educating of their children.

We endeavor to deliver professional early education that offers a safe and caring learning environment.

Our website and Facebook page are also a source of information about our centre and program. The website address is:

National Quality Framework

Lower Macleay Preschool upholds the National Quality Framework that guides practice across seven quality areas:

1. Education, Program and Practice

2. Children’s Health and Safety

3. Physical Environment

4. Staffing Arrangements

5. Relationships with Children

6. Partnerships with Families and Communities

7. Leadership and Service Management

The preschool is assessed against these standards and it is the framework that is followed at all early childhood education and care centre’s Australia wide.

Early Years Learning Framework

The Early Years Learning Framework: Belonging, Being, Becoming is Australia’s first national early years learning framework that guides the curriculum at all early childhood education and care services.

‘In early childhood, and throughout life, relationships are crucial to a sense of belonging. Belonging shapes who children are and who they can become. Being recognises the significance of the here and now in children’s lives. All young Australians should become: successful learners; confident and creative individuals; and, active and informed citizens’ (Early Years Learning Framework, 2009).

Management Committee

The Preschool is run by a voluntary committee consisting of Families or Guardians of children enrolled or attending the centre, together with other interested members of the community. All family members are welcome to attend open committee meetings and can be nominated by two existing members for executive positions at the Annual General Meeting.

The daily operation of the service is overseen by the Director of the Preschool who is responsible to the Management Committee.

Staff

Director:Debbie Dillon

Educational Leader:Kathryn Hines

Educational Team:Vicki McGuiness, Tanya Brett, Mel Ryan, Pat Brown,

Melissa Alavandi

Administration:Karen Denaro

The team of educators at Lower Macleay Preschool endeavor to work in partnership with families to offer a caring and nurturing environment to meet all of the children’s individual needs.

Service Information

Notice will be given in our Newsletters when these days occur.

Hours of Operation

Our Service caters for children aged three years up to school age.

The preschool core hours are: Monday to Friday – 8.00 am to 3.30 pm – during the school term. We can provide extended hours from Monday to Friday, during the school term however are closed for preschool care on NSW school and public holidays.

Preschool fees are charged on these core hours.

There is an additional fee for out-of-hours care and this will need to be prearranged with the Preschool.

Where circumstances arise which prevents families from collecting their child from the preschool within those hours, the parent/guardian must contact the preschool.

Our licensing requirements state that all children in care must be vacated from the centre

by no later than 4.00 pm. Staff are not contracted outside 8.00 am and 4.00 pm.

Care for children after 4.00 pm is illegal and we are unable to provide care so arrangements must be made for children to be picked up by an authorised person.

In the case of an emergency the preschool needs to be contacted as soon as possible as children sometimes become concerned as do educators on the whereabouts of the families.

Any family who continues to overlook the requirements of the preschool hours may be subjected to a late fee of $50.00.

Goals for your child at our Service

“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.”

Maria Montessori

The aim of each Educator in our Service is not to fill the child with facts and provide basic, one dimensional activities but rather to act as a vehicle providing access to materials and information that scaffolds on their ideas and create experiences that cultivate their own natural desire to learn, to give them lifelong tools to question, seek and succeed.

Along with you, we will create a list of goals for your child that we will program to and observe on. The outcomes will be reflected on, extended and recorded, all in consultation with you. The broader goals we have for each child are based on the outcomes in the Early Years Learning Framework and include:

  • Mutual respect and empathy
  • Concern and responsibility for self and others
  • A sense of self worth
  • Social awareness
  • Importance of sustainability
  • Self-discipline
  • Habits of initiative and persistence
  • Creative intelligence and imagination
  • Self-confidence as an independent learner
  • A love of learning

We strongly encourage communication between the Service and home to ensure continuity in what we are delivering to your child and acknowledge that the role of the Educator is to work in partnership with families; children’s first and most influential educators.

How we share your child’s learning

The preschool utilizes a portal for families to access their child’s learning through an app called ‘Kindyhub’. Using this app you will be able to read and see pictures and stories of your child as well as communication informing you of the program or newsletters. You are able to give us feedback or share information with our educators.

Each term, all children have two learning stories that will be sent through your app.

Each day they attend preschool, any photos taken of your child will be available via Kindyhub.

We will share 'Wow' and 'My Achievement' moments which are short statements about your child's learning. These will also be shared on the app as they occur, keeping in mind children have lots of positive learning experiences throughout the day. As you can understand, it would be impossible to capture each one every day as our job is to guide and facilitate children's learning and maximise all teachable moments. There will be times when we share these moments with you personally when you pick up your child.

Your child's portfolio is still available and this will contain other aspects of their learning including their artwork (if they let us keep it!!!!!). The portfolio books are located just inside the learning room and you are welcome to access these at any time and seek clarification of any aspect of our program with the educators.

The Educational Team formulates the program each day and this will be sent to you via Kindyhub. This program gives you an insight to your child's learning and can be a conversational starter with your child at the end of their preschool day.

Sharing your child's education with you is important and we are available to partner with you to support your child in their early year's learning.

Please feel free to discuss any aspect of your child's progress whilst they are at preschool. It is a pleasure to work with you with this new exciting addition to our program.

Portfolios

Every child will have a personal, confidential portfolio comprising of:

  • Child profile sheet
  • Goals from families and Educators
  • Observations
  • Objectives for further development
  • Work samples
  • Checklists
  • Other relevant data

Education programs are documented and individual child portfolios developed to provide feedback to the parent of child development and support for the continued development, welfare and well-being of the child. Your child’s Portfolio Book is located at the entrance in the learning room and you are welcome to view your child’s folder at any time and children are encouraged to view their portfolio throughout the day. With prior arrangement you are also welcome to take the portfolio home to share with family members. Please arrange this with the educators and remember that the document needs to be returned to preschool.

At the end of the year the preschool celebrates the children’s time at Lower Macleay Preschool at the Christmas Concert and your child will be presented with their portfolio.

Daily Program

Our aim is to provide a variety of enriching experiences and challenges that are developed around the children’s needs and interests utilizing the framework’s principles and learning outcomes. The preschool provides mixed aged grouping of children in one room however children move into small groups for literacy and numeracy learning experiences.

Programming

Through our curriculum, The Early Years Learning Framework, we have a focus of Belonging, which is integral to a child’s sense of self. It acknowledges belonging to a family, community and culture. It is the foundation of relationships and acceptance. Along with Belonging we have Being. Being is allowing the children to be in the present - to concentrate on the here and now. It’s allowing them time to investigate, attach to people, environments and experiences. They are able to meet challenges with confidence that they have the time and support to work through and overcome any obstacles in their own time. Being sees the Educators develop and support an environment that is child focused, not for the convenience of routine or the Educators. Lastly, we have Becoming. Becoming acknowledges change and there is no time in one’s life that has more rapid change than in the years of early childhood. Becoming recognises the skills that are necessary to thrive through change and how experiences and circumstances create skills, expectations, understandings and relationships. It allows flexibility for a child to learn and grow. On this foundation we observe each child for outcomes that we can support in the program. The 5 outcomes are:

  • Children have a strong sense of identity
  • Children are connected with and contribute to their world
  • Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
  • Children are confident and involved learners
  • Children are effective communicators.

We know that children learn effectively through play and this is supported by Educators who are diligent in their responsiveness to each child. Applying strong intentional teaching practices will provide the children with an authentic and meaningful learning environment where they have large blocks of time to challenge, support and nurture each child to become capable and resourceful.

The program at Lower Macleay Preschool is created from observing and documenting children’s play: