Our Values
We aim to create a loveable school. One that is vibrant, creative, and innovative. A place of relationship, culture, and research where all children, teachers and families; all people feel important and connected.
We aim to create a beautiful, safe, and authentic educational environment, with a focus on the whole child, a place where children are seen as active participants and curators of our community.
Our Educational Philosophy
Our school aims to weave the principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach to Education into our Australian and Bellingen Context.
We create learning contexts and opportunities that support children, families and educators to grow a positive sense of who they are within our school, our community and the world.
We value the richness of diverse knowledge and experience that each family and child bring to our school.
We believe that children have the potential to make decisions about matters that affect them and to positively contribute to our world. Each child has knowledge and experience that enriches our collective.
We inspire and nurture moments of curiosity, wonder and joy and honour the many “languages” that children possess to make sense of and express their understanding of their world.
We believe in listening closely and responding to children’s ideas, perspective and enquiries. We value documentation and allow children’s ideas to guide our curriculum. Learning may be child lead and teacher facilitated or teacher initiated and child guided.
We respect the beautiful Gumbaynggirr Wajaar within our preschool and immerse ourselves in the greater Bellingen community, culture and environment. We aim to cultivate a love of nature and ecology to build sustainable attitudes for our world’s future.
The first five years of life lay the foundations for learning and set children on the path towards lifelong success as an adult. We value the Early Childhood profession as shaping the hearts and minds of children.
We value the integral role of our Early Childhood educators in the continual improvement of our school. We strive to continually improve our teaching and learning through professional development and community engagement.
Connecting With Gumbayngirr Wajaar
Acknowledging and celebrating Gumbaynggirr culture and language in children’s learning is at the heart of our school. Connecting children, educators and families to Gumbaynggirr ways is interwoven within our daily practices, interactions and learning.
BKE (Bernard Kelly Edwards), a local Gumbaynggirr man and artist regularly guides educators and children, intertwining cultural perspectives into our walks on country, storytelling, song and daily life at preschool. BKE shares many lived stories and song with children that connect us to country and each other, inspiring children, educators and families.
Jarwin from Bularri Muurlay Nyanggan Aboriginal Corporation (Two Path Strong) currently also shares language and culture with us on a weekly basis, weaving culture and language into our walks on country, singing, dancing and linking language to our experiences together.
Every morning during our morning gathering, children and educators participate in an Acknowledgement to Country, bringing the Gaagal (Ocean) and Bindarray (River) classes together, connected as they are on Country.
We raise our Maarla (hands) to the Garaala (Sky) that covers the Gumbaynggirr Wajaar (Land/Country).
We touch the Wajaar in the care of the Gumbaynggirr Wajaar.
We place our Maarla on our Miingii (heart) in love of Gumbaynggirr Wajaar.
BKE and Jarwin lead us to mindfully connect to country, singing Giinagay (Welcome) to the creatures and features specific to our land.
Community:
The Pedagogy of thinking & learning with others
Participation is an educational strategy that characterises our way of being school and doing school. Participation involves the children, the families, the teachers and our community.
“…It is viewed not only as taking part in something but being part of the essence, the substance of a common identity, a “we” which comes alive through participating” — Carla Rinaldi
We believe that education is a right of children and the responsibility of all stakeholders in our school and wider community. This includes families, teachers, children, the management committee, our local leaders and governing bodies. True participation and democracy stems from meaningful engagement and dialogue, a place from where perspectives can be shared, and new understandings made amongst people with a common purpose. Understandings of what participation is, will be different for all of us, we all come with different experiences and points of view. A collective understanding of participation and citizenship within our school can only be shaped through relationship and engagement with each other.
Growing Ecological Identities:
Connections with Community, Culture & Place
We believe ecological studies to be the most poignant of our time. Though children can be viewed as suffering from current environmental issues, it is important to recognise their strength and ability as citizens to work persistently toward a more sustainable world.
This can be supported with exposure to nature and ecological theories in the early years. Through democratic conversations, mindful daily rituals, modelling and offering real project-based ecological and cultural experiences, we can genuinely explore and make explicit our interconnectedness and interdependence.
We are committed to inspiring a connection to community, place and nature, nurturing a heart connection with others and our environment. We aim to cultivate a love of nature in the early years, a love that grows empathy, respect and pausing to consider the interconnectedness of plants, animals and humans in our world.
Affording genuine experiences like caring for our Bush Tucker and Vegetable gardens, Market Park visits and rejuvenation projects with local Environmental groups, working with local artists or visiting the local Library, not only makes children visible as citizens, it engages children with the concept of community in an authentic way, children meaningfully experience how they impact a place and others.
