Philosophy Statement

We believe God has made each child to be precious and unique and provide the opportunity for them to learn about Jesus Christ and begin to understand the value of God’s love for them.

We believe God has created us to live in relationship with him and each other. At Concordia Kindergarten we acknowledge the many stakeholders in education, children, families, staff and the community. We acknowledge the importance of collaborative relationships in developing children’s sense of belonging, self-identity and confidence.

We acknowledge and respect the diversity of each child and their family and our teachings will reflect the rich cultures that they bring to our centre, taking into consideration and celebrating our indigenous people, their customs and teachings.

We will provide children with opportunities to foster a positive sense of self by listening and valuing each child’s voice; responding to each child in a positive and respectful manner; allowing each child to make choices about their learning and by supporting them to explore their ideas and challenge their own thinking to become the best version of themselves.

We strongly support a play-based learning environment. We believe when children are actively engaged in their own learning, they will develop a positive sense of self and wellbeing. Through the provision of a dynamic, challenging and open-ended curriculum, built upon the interests and prior experiences of each child, we will provide children with opportunities for exploration, discovery and consolidation of meaningful and deep learning.

We provide an environment inspired to encourage children to independently challenge their understandings of their world through, developing theories, test hypotheses, and using creative problem skills.

As educators at Concordia Kindergarten, we will uphold the Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics that focuses on the protection and wellbeing of children. We will promote contemporary perspectives of Early Childhood Education and advocate and practice play as a primary learning tool. We have high expectations of ourselves as reflective practitioners and recognise our responsibilities in continuous improvement. All children have the right to access a high quality, play-based curriculum. We acknowledge that all children come to our kindergarten with a range of experiences, knowledge and diverse backgrounds and we celebrate this diversity. We understand that all children require different levels of scaffolding at different points along their educational journey. Staff will provide learning experiences that are open-ended and allow children to experience success while being challenged.

We acknowledge and value the natural elements of our kindergarten and aim to foster a sense of respect and connectedness with the world around us. We believe sustainability is an essential part of our curriculum and that each member of our community has a responsibility to actively practice and promote sustainability. Through embedded everyday practice and routines we support children’s knowledge and understandings of their individual and shared impact and responsibility towards global sustainability and their responsibility to care for God’s creation. We believe giving children opportunities to participate in tasks independently and interdependently develops their personal sense of self-worth and purpose as competent members of society.