At Nicki’s Clever Cookies there are six overarching aspects of practice and philosophy that guide our every decision, interaction and plan. These six areas are curriculum, community, learning environments, music, sustainability and rights paradigm.
Curriculum
We believe
- In a child-centred approach, where each is seen as an individual with their own family unit, supported by our family of early childhood professionals, who value the fact that children are also active members of a broader community.
- That life readiness starts from our youngest children in the Koala program. This means building the foundations not only for the children’s transition to school, but most importantly for positive long-term outcomes and for lifelong social-emotional growth and development.
- That play and learning are integrated. We believe that a play-based program is most meaningful when child-led interests are interwoven with adult-led experiences.
We are committed to
- Creating programs that are engaging, flexible and open-ended, while reflecting the individual and shared needs, strengths and interests of every child.
- Promoting agency, self-esteem, health and wellbeing, starting from the youngest children in our Koala program as they transition all the way to the Kookaburra program.
- Using a combination of intentional, spontaneous and differentiated teaching to cater for various learning styles and additional needs. This will encourage the children to develop learning dispositions like exploration, problem-solving, collaboration and imagination as they play.
Community
We believe
- That families are the children’s first teachers.
- That the community a child grows up in has a major influence on their experiences, perspectives and outcomes.
- That while the families in our service may not be representative of broader Australia, it is still of utmost importance that we are inclusive of all cultures, and make sure to represent and discuss the multicultural nature of our country.
- That a big part of cultural competence in Australia is acknowledging and respecting our First Nations People’s culture, history, beliefs and languages.
We are committed to
- Ensuring that communication underpins the collaborative approach that we take with the children’s families. Communication, both verbal and written, is respectful, professional, open and honest.
- Incorporating knowledge and resources from our families, staff and broader community within our programs.
- Exposing the children to opportunities wherein cultural learning can take place. We value parental involvement and celebrate special cultural days, invite families to share their culture and skills to the children and promote friendships and connections amongst our families.
- Establishing and strengthening our Reconciliation Action Plan and continue to develop this with our RAP team. We strive to embed First Nations Peoples perspectives into our daily practices which include gardening, cooking, discussions, learning experiences, music and literature.
Learning Environments
We believe
- That for children to thrive, they need stimulating, responsive and safe but challenging environments.
- Children are capable and should be treated with trust and respect to grow in their identity and self-esteem.
- That for learning environments to evolve and meet the ever-changing needs of children, so must our educators. We believe that there is always room for further growth and development in early childhood and that staff are constantly learning from the children, each other and other professionals.
We are committed to
- Providing a balance between indoor and outdoor play in our programs, where children are able to play outdoors in all types of weather. Families immediately notice the ‘home like’ feel of our small, characterful old building and this layout has also compelled us to create more opportunities for all age groups to spend meaningful time outdoors and with the community through our Adventure Days.
- Ensuring that our learning environments are nurturing, culturally inclusive and responsive. Multi-age learning is one way of enabling children to co-construct their learning and to share their expertise and skills with younger age groups, who in turn benefit from a transition process where they are supported, active contributors.
- Ongoing reflection and improvement by providing professional development opportunities for educators, using research, reflection and engaging with other professionals in our broader community to inform our practice.
Music
We believe
- That music is valuable to the development of children’s health and wellbeing. Music is able to help us, especially children, identify and regulate emotions, express ourselves and be creative.
- That music brings children, families and communities together.
We are committed to
- Featuring music, singing and nursery rhymes into our daily routines and spontaneous learning experiences. This includes incorporating structured and unstructured musical experiences in our curriculum.
- Ensuring that we celebrate and explore both the educators’ and children’s individual music tastes leading to awareness and appreciation of a wide range of musical styles and cultures that children share at home with their families.
Sustainability
We believe
- That fostering a sustainable environment means living in a way that our current lifestyle has a positive impact on generations to come
- Sustainability is not just a topic, but should be embedded across all areas of our practice
We are committed to
- Hands-on experiences to foster children’s capacity to value and respect the broader environment and appreciate the interdependence between people, plants, animals and the land. We empower children to construct knowledge, explore values and develop a love of nature through play with mud, water, sand and other natural materials. We also introduce edible gardens, cooking programs that include Native plants, and worm farming.
- Having a holistic approach to sustainability which includes looking at sustainability not just from an outdoor lens, but by including children in service-wide sustainable practices that tackle environmental issues, like upcycling, water/energy saving, and using or sharing second-hand materials with children and families.
Rights Paradigm
We believe
- That all children have the right to feel safe, seen, heard and respected regardless of their culture, gender, religion, beliefs, abilities, economic status, language or ethnicity.
We are committed to
- Having no tolerance for child abuse of any form.
- Equipping children with age-appropriate language and skills to prevent abuse through literature, games, discussions and activities.
- Ensuring that all educators are recruited, trained and involved in ongoing staff meetings, training, and readings on child protection, health and cultural safety.
- Embedding the New Child Safe Standards into all aspects of our program and practice.
This document has been created using the Victorian Early Years Development Framework (2019), the Early Years Learning Framework (2012) and the ECA Code of Ethics (2016) as guiding documents.