Glen Education Brady Road
Embedding Cultural Safety – Creating environments where children feel respected, valued, and safe to be themselves
By Helen Tselios, Lynne McCracken and Vernessa Johnstone - Early Childhood Educators
At Glen Brady Road Kindergarten we create environments where children feel respected, valued, and safe to be themselves. At our service we celebrate Cultural inclusiveness by creating an environment where children, families, and Educators, feel respected, recognised, and we embrace diverse cultural backgrounds. This involves ensuring that children from all cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds feel valued, respected, and included. What Cultural inclusiveness means to us at Glen Brady Road Kindergarten is we celebrate various cultural perspectives, traditions, languages, and experiences into the daily activities and interactions within early childhood settings.
During Reconciliation Week a child attending Glen Brady Road Kindergarten wanted to share her Indigenous Culture with her peers and educators. This is the child's voice on her family story. This is my Family's story. "Hi, my name is Frankie and this is my story, I live with my mum, dad and brothers. My dad is Indigenous, and he came from a place called Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. My mum kindly came to my Glen Brady Road Kindergarten to share some items which are very special to our family, here is my dad's special kangaroo blankets one has pictures burnt on it by our Aunty Kath who is an Indigenous elder, she made it especially for my dad showing where he's come from and his life's journey as you look closely you can see the detailed pictures that tell his story."
"Also, a very special handmade necklace which is called a 'Sista basket' this is for women only to collect their treasures and wishes to keep them close to them, hoping they come true. The men can only receive didgeridoos as our culture and tradition. Here are a few special hand painted paintings too, which resemble the beautiful Bunji the eagle circling the sun, and another painting representing our family. Jake and I both have a special hand painted in the bedrooms too. I love them."
Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity. This is evident when children promote a strong sense of who they are and their connections to others, provides children with examples of the many ways to incentives and cultures are recognised and expressed. As per our Glen Brady Road Kindergarten Program Goals for 2025 we as educators want to teach the children to communicate their needs for comfort and assistance, establish and maintain respectful, trusting relationships with other children and educators.
We as a service believe in fostering a strong partnership between educators, families, and children at our service. Our service teaches the children the importance of Aboriginal flags as a group discussion with the children about each meaning of the colours on the flag. As educators we educate the children by using visual images of photographs, such as posters, that acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and cultures.
Our program encourages intentional teaching and facilitating of learning and exploration, working collaboratively with children, families, and the community. We believe the role of the teacher/ educator is to provide provisions and experiences that extend on children’s interests and encourage investigation and exploration. We foster a team approach where all teachers and educators are equally respected and valued for their contributions.
At our service we believe in Fostering a sense of belonging supports children in feeling safe and welcome in the learning environment, supports development of critical social-emotional skills, supports development of friendships, and builds resiliency.