Everyone has personal beliefs but common ground needs to be found in order to provide a high level of care in an atmosphere which is loving, caring and educational. Therefore staff, no matter what qualification or experience they hold work as team members to ensure that each child’s individual needs are catered for, and that learning experiences within the preschool are pleasurable for your child.

• Recognize, accept and support each child and family as unique and individual entities who have their own ideas and needs, and to be inclusive of all children and families regardless of their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The centre offers an ‘open door policy’ and aims to build strong partnerships with families and trusting relationships with the children in our care.
• To converse with the children at eye level and to never talk down to them thus assisting in building positive self-esteem in children.
• Have consistent policies/guidelines throughout the preschool but be prepared to adjust them to suit the changing needs of the individuals in the service.
• Make health and hygiene a high priority.

• Empathy in children and encourage them to help each other.
• Children to listen to each other and adults.
• Relationships between the centre and children’s families on a day to day basis as well as family involvement in our preschool to greater understand each child’s background.

• Careful supervision within a flexible program with regular, small group times that meets the immediate and long term needs of the children in all developmental areas and on an individual basis.
• A program that encourages children’s choices and individual creativity to develop at children’s own pace in a loving, secure, safe, friendly environment that is child orientated and is controlled by caring, competent adults.
• The children with experiences that will help them cope with life’s changing circumstances through opportunities to socialize with other children and adults.
• A working environment that promotes staff contentment and consistency for children and families via a stable staff roster.

We aim to ensure that each child will be safe and secure in an environment which is caring. Whilst doing so, an educational program which is based on the children’s levels of development, needs and interests is implemented within routine tasks on a daily basis. The centre is also designed to be an extension of the home atmosphere. 

At The Hills Long Day Preschool we base our curriculum on the learning outcomes of the NSW Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). The curriculum provides children with balanced opportunities for quiet times, alone and group time, adequate rest periods, small and large group activities and provision for non-participating children. Our curriculums are provided for differing age groups and transition from one stage to the next is individually structured. Children’s home language, culture and religious differences will be accepted and provision for same will be included within the programme.

All areas of development, (fine motor, gross motor, social, emotional, language and cognitive) are incorporated throughout the day within a range of activities set out within leaning centres both indoors and outdoors. Here children are able to make choices in their play and choose from a variety of materials and mediums.

Staff value group times as valuable learning opportunities for each child and thus provide a language focused group as well as a music/movement group time each day in both rooms, which each child is encouraged and assisted to participate fully in.

We realise that all children have differing needs as individuals and therefore staff continually observe each child’s behaviour, skills and interests individually and as a group to plan and implement activities which will enhance and further develop each child whilst taking into consideration age milestones and age appropriate activities according to individual development. Observations of all children are recorded consistently throughout the year using a variety of methods e.g. Individual reflection, group reflections, work samples, learning stories and checklists. These records show skills and stages reached as well as interests emerging.

The daily curriculum for each room highlights learning that has taken place over the day along with the activities programmed to extend on individual children’s and groups of children’s interests, intentional teaching, family input sheet extensions and extension activities from child reflections. This includes both the indoor and outdoor environments. The curriculum is evaluated daily via use of the EYLF learning outcomes.

For optimum development, all children need to recognise and develop an awareness, acceptance and understanding of themselves and others. Positive peer interactions are encouraged and observed. Curriculums are written and evaluated to encourage respect and understanding of others whilst building upon each individual’s self-esteem. Staff strongly believe in the following and in return staff encourage children to:

• Verbalise feelings and ideas
• Develop good social skills
• Have good relationships with each other
• Show acceptance of routines
• Interact with other children
• Be relaxed and happy with each other
• Respond to positive discipline practice
• Respect other children’s space and privacy
• Accept others of different culture, race, and religion
• Listen to other children
• Be co-operative
• Share experiences
• Seek help when frustrated
• Contribute and participate in activities
• Show respect for others

Through guidance and positive reinforcement the children become confident in themselves and with other children. Staff take the time to show and teach the children to help themselves and become independent. The children help staff to pack the toys away, place sheeting on the beds for rest time, serve themselves at meal times, learn to care for their own belongings etc. The individual respect given to each child as an individual and also demanded by staff from the children as their caregivers in return builds upon happy, healthy children with high levels of self-esteem and independence.

Parents can really assist staff members by providing feedback and ideas on their child’s development, interests and your personal belief on how the curriculum is meeting or not meeting the needs of your child. Parent’s ideas and suggestions for the curriculum are welcomed and encouraged verbally, written on the curriculum itself, via newsletters and the parent communication/suggestion book. Parents are asked to fill in family input sheets, sharing books, family photos and interest page relating to this throughout the year in order to source family input into the curriculum.

Here at the Hills Long Day Preschool our focus for school readiness is holistic. We value preparing the child socially as well as within fine motor and cognitive activities. Our school readiness program begins in both rooms  with our first focus on the children being able to separate from their families, attend at group times and self- regulate their own behavior. Skills such as fine motor, holding a pencil, cutting with scissors are then introduced. The following are skills that we believe are equally as important as one another in preparing your child for school. Staff work with each child over their time at our preschool in order to develop these important skills in order to fully prepare your child for school entry.

Holds pencil correctly, has right/left hand preference, holds scissors correctly, can thread beads, constructs using building equipment, and draws a representative picture, cuts line/shapes, copies shapes.

Walks on a balance beam, tip toes, jumps 2 feet over object, jumps forward with 2 feet, runs with control, can gallop, can hop on one foot, walks on heels, skips, catches and throws a ball.

Separates from parents on arrival, can deal appropriately with conflict situations, can share an adults attention with several other children, participates with confidence in group situations, performs/speaks before a group, co-operates during classroom procedures, communicates with peers and staff.

Has ability to: Remember and follows directions, to turn take in conversation, to answer questions, to express needs and wants, to express feelings, to ask questions, to join sentences correctly, clear articulation.

Recognizes and names colours and shapes, knows address including suburb, knows full name, knows own age, recognizes name by sight, writes own name, recognizes numbers 1-5 by sight, is able to count to 20, able to count 10 objects, can order objects according to size, has age appropriate attention span - 10 minutes, can match pairs, can match opposites e.g. up/down, under/over, front/back, can complete a 10 piece puzzle, ability to recall a story excluding detail.

Can dress/undress self, can recognize own bag and put belongings away, can finish tasks and tidy up afterwards, can put own shoes on and off and tie own shoelaces. Other activities we offer in order to prepare your child for school are: We begin by having each child recognize their own name. They then begin to trace and copy their name with a great focus on correct letter formation (NSW foundation style) and correct pencil grip.

From term 2 each year we provide a group time (alphabet time) which focusses on the children beginning to learn the names of each letter and the sound it makes. A range of fun and interesting activities are set around the 2 letters of the week in order to reinforce this concept. Children from both rooms are involved in this daily group time.