Pre-K - Year 2
We create a sense of belonging and encourage our young people to develop independence within a supportive child-centred environment.
The Beginning of Their Journey
Teachers Nadia Howells (née Dalecki) and Shona Browne explain more about the philosophy of the Early Childhood Centre and what your child will experience during Pre-Kindergarten to Year 2 at All Saints’ College.
Click the play button on the left to watch the video, or scroll down to learn more.
Building Independence
Our educators, with their specific expertise in Early Childhood development, engage students in a way that personally inspires and creates a sense of belonging, encouraging students to develop independence within a supportive child-centred environment. We listen carefully to the words of children to understand their interests to engage and motivate them. Children gain resilience by working positively through mistakes and to see them as natural in learning; we call this flearning, or learning through failing.
Outdoor Learning
Bush school is a special place that nurtures an appreciation of our natural bushland while building resilience and opportunities for sensory, multi-disciplinary learning. Squelching through mud and splashing in the creek provide great inspiration for expanding vocabulary and role play. The experiences also inspire questions and wondering, leading to scientific understandings of the natural world.
Making Thinking Visible
Our students are encouraged to make their thinking visible through the routines that have been developed from our work with Harvard University’s Project Zero. Students become familiar with regular thinking practices to promote engagement, understanding and independence. Students are encouraged to question and investigate, and the walls of our classrooms and studios show the process and progress of thinking that grows through inquiry. This also enables us to personalise our children’s learning.
Incursions for Inquiring Minds
Committed to ‘porous borers’ between the College and wider community, educators look for opportunities to inspire learning through engagement within our broader context. Students are motivated by seeing and doing and immersing themselves in what is real and experienced, first-hand, whenever possible. Excursions and incursions are just two ways in which purposeful links are made with the wider community in order to enrich learning and understanding. Students are encouraged to develop their empathy and look for problems in the wider community to solve.