Glen Education Orrong Road
Creating a Sense of Belonging
Glen Orrong Road Kindergarten Educators
Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice
Our intent is to plan a program that is meaningful to each child and reflects their uniqueness. We do this through the ‘Getting to know you’ forms which form the basis for our individual planning and are located in each child’s portfolio and through frequent and open communication with families to share information that supports planning ideas. At Glen Orrong Road Kindergarten, educators use PLP (Personalized Learning Plan) for children with additional needs as a supporting document to assist children achieve individual goals. Educators use it to constantly evaluate children’s learning and development progression and adjust the program based on the progression.
Educators at Glen ORK also have an intent to support the learning of children throughout their time with us. Sometimes it’s in the spontaneous “moments” of the day as well as “planned” intentional moments of teaching. An example of supporting a spontaneous learning opportunity for children is to incorporate ICT into daily practices. When children engage in certain topics and provide their inquiries, with proper supervision, educators show children how we can use ICT as a learning tool to collect information and data that are relevant to the topic. Educators seize these spontaneous learning moments to help children extend their interests and learning.
- Liang Li, Early Childhood Teacher
Quality Area 2: Children’s Health and Safety
A sunscreen station is set up and always accessible. Children have their own hat, baskets store personal sunscreens, the table has class sunscreen, tissues, mirrors at child level. Children encouraged to apply own sunscreen under educator supervision and assistance. All staff attend Professional development such as SunSmart Training and Child Protection training. Educators actively supervise all areas, moving around the spaces and keeping children within sight and hearing. Educators use their voice continually when ratio changes to keep supervision in ratio.
- Vanessa Ashman, Early Childhood Educator
Quality Area 3: Physical environment
At Glen Orrong Road Kindergarten, educators are committed to maximising children’s learning outcomes and to ensuring the safety of all members of the community – children, families, each other, and visitors. Our team ensures that care is taken for both indoor and outdoor environment including all the equipment/recourse all time. To conduct this effectively, educators follow and utilise our service’s Indoor/Outdoor maintenance safety checklist for every session day.
We provide opportunities for children to move freely between the indoor and outdoor space, as the door to the outdoors is directly connected to the indoor room. And we look at our indoor and outdoor play spaces equal in opportunities. Educators plan for both indoor and outdoor environments and include the children in decision making on environment set ups. We believe that the outdoor space is a continuation of the indoor learning environment. Indoor and outdoor spaces are adjoined and can offer complementary spaces for children. Outdoor environments include space for exploration of the natural world, learning centres, and active physical play. They include climbing structures. Riding vehicles such as scooters are available for children, the outdoor space also includes appropriate surfaces for these. We conduct a termly team meeting with support of Glen Education leadership team in order to reflect on the programs we deliver, exchange ideas and work on new goals by ensuring/reflecting the overall vision of Glen Education and Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework, National Early Years Learning Framework as well as National Quality Framework and Laws. Our children are exposed to a predictable and authentic environment that supports their sense of agency. Examples include: Sunscreen station, Individual lockers, Watering cans for children to use throughout the session, Vegie patches and gardening, compost, worm garden, Recycling stations in both rooms and outside. Portfolios readily available and accessible in the room, Quiet/calm spaces available for children to access both inside and outside, Range of sensory aids/resources to use with children and children to access freely as needed (e.g., noise cancelling headphones, etc.) – from the inclusion support grant received in 2022.
- May Horikawa, Early Childhood Educator
Quality Area 4: Staffing Arrangements
Our staff in Glen Orrong Road have been actively engaged in different trainings and Professional Development, for example, In Safe Hands training, induction training. We very much believe that training builds on what we already know and that new information deepens our understandings of how to provide a safe and stimulating learning environment. What it’s given us is the ability to reflect on what’s happening rather than just to make snap judgements about people. We are able to look critically to see what’s going on and make decisions about where we’re going to next. Participating in professional development activities provided us with opportunities for questioning our own experiences and views, and for us to think critically about the values and assumptions underlying our practice and consider events and situations from different perspectives.
In order to maintain a high-quality practice in our kindergarten, the Glen Education leadership and administration teams have provided us with an extra staff member to support children with additional needs to ensure children’s health, safety and wellbeing, even without funding being placed. With this better educator-to-child ratios our educators can continue to contribute to the high-quality learning and care environment and maximise learning outcomes for children. Also, our staff demonstrate, care, empathy and respect for children, colleagues and families in our everyday practice, professional conduct in interactions and relationships with children, colleagues, families and members of the community.
- Weiyu Wang, Early Childhood Educator
Quality Area 5: Relationships with children
At Glen Orrong Rd we are committed to leading with a focus on togetherness, inclusivity, and kindness. Our children are spoken to in a way which role models respect for others. We use positive language and promote good manners, being appreciative of others when they help you, and offering support when people need it. It is important to us that everyone at our service is valued, and their voices heard, thus we both set the example of, and encourage children to, recognise when it’s necessary to wait our turn whether it be during discussions or out playing in the yard or classroom. The care and compassion we instill in our children is evident in the way that they relate to each other. The children of Glen Orrong Rd demonstrate their empathetic and caring nature when looking out for each other and our space every day. They show us that they are capable of autonomy and independence and can recognize when their peers might like or need some extra support throughout their day. The children at our service feel empowered to use their voices and share their opinions and ideas, and they know that they are highly valued in our community.
- Michaela Todoroviski, Early Childhood Educator
Quality Area 6: Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
Regular outings to the local library, Coles and post office provide children with confidence as they explore and begin to understand the real world. Being out and about in their community helps children to learn about their immediate environment and invites children to interact with the world around them. They are also able to practice life skills such as road safety. These experiences expose children to all sorts of new scenarios and experiences. In addition to promoting investigation and curiosity, excursions provide children with a chance to interact with their community and strengthen friendships. All of these interactions add to the richness of a child’s experience in care and helps them understand their place in the world. We have a buddy program with St Joseph Primary School students in our local community, in which we involve school students being paired with our children. The purpose of this buddy program is to support a smooth transition for children starting school in the following year. Families and the school report that the programs promote social and support networks for children beginning Prep and promote a sense of community and belonging in the school. This Buddy program is also helpful for families new to a school.
- Maree Cust, Early Childhood Teacher
Quality Area 7: Governance and leadership
At Glen Orrong Road, all educators are well aware of our service philosophy and purpose of teaching children by reflecting on our values and belief in teaching annually. To ensure continuous improvement in practices of educators we engage in ongoing building of professional knowledge in reflection of current research and theory, as well as in line with updates to the National Law, Regulations and National Quality Standards. Lead by our leadership team, our service contributes to Child Safety Action plans and policies to create a safer organization for children and educators.
By engaging in monthly meetings, all permanent educators discuss and share their knowledge and ideas providing the opportunity and be encouraged to reflect their practices actively. For continuous improvement and development of professionals, all educators reflect their strengths and development through Performance Development and Reflection Appraisal (PD&RA) every year. All staff also have been trained to understand changes of any legislation and the significance of children’s safety involved the Child Information Sharing Scheme, Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme, the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework and the new Child Safe Standards, to maintain our quality practices.
Amy Lee, Early Childhood Educator