Our Philosophy
Living, Learning and Growing at Berkeley Vale Community Preschool
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Living, Learning and Growing at Berkeley Vale Community Preschool
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Living, Learning and Growing at Berkeley Vale Community Preschool ∙ Living, Learning and Growing at Berkeley Vale Community Preschool ∙
Our Vision
To provide the best start in life for our children, for a better community.
Our Mission
To develop life-ready children with a sense of belonging to the community, culture and environment.
Our Roots
Living, Learning and Growing in the Berkeley Vale community since 1983.
Image of the Child
At Berkeley Vale Community Preschool we view children as capable, competent and resourceful. We believe that children learn best when their interests and ideas are respected and their curiosity, imagination and enthusiasm is supported. We strongly support that every child has a right to childhood and children should have long periods of uninterrupted time to dig in the dirt, climb trees, paint, hunt for bugs, splash in puddles, travel to imaginary worlds, explore with their hands and quite simply – PLAY!
We believe strongly in the United Nations Rights of the Child and see ourselves as advocates not only for children in our care but also in the wider community.
The Learning Environment
At Berkeley Vale Community Preschool we are passionate about the need for inclusion and believe ALL children should have a right to access preschool prior to starting formal education. We value authentic school readiness, where children are provided with quality tools and resources and are supported to develop a passion for learning and discovery. It is through our commitment to play-based learning and learning environments which are supportive of children’s exploration and discovery, that we are able to nurture trusting relationships and understandings that are genuine to each child.
We recognise the environment as the “third teacher” in the facilitation of children’s learning. Our preschool is designed to enable children and adults to connect to the natural world and to understand the importance of nature.
We facilitate a risk-based approach to children’s learning to enhance their development of risk competency as they freely explore their world. We also acknowledge that when educators take risks, they open doors to new ideas, opportunities and understandings.
Respectful Relationships
Berkeley Vale Community Preschool aims to extend and complement the home environment by providing a loving and stable place of being. We acknowledge that families play the most important role in their child’s development and place emphasis on building trusting relationships between the service and home environments.
Our preschool strives to reflect children, family and educators’ culture, language, family grouping, and ability level in an authentic light, celebrating uniqueness and diversity as a strength.
Value is placed on the contribution of family’s knowledge and skills as a vital component of our curriculum. We encourage active family participation in the preschool’s daily activities, creating a strong sense of family partnerships.
We exercise our responsibility to advocate on behalf of children, families and educators; embracing reconciliation and actively engaging with Darkinjung custodians in an authentic and collaborative partnership to maintain a sense of belonging, connection to the land and pride in our shared Aboriginal history and culture.
Community Connectedness
As a community based not-for-profit service, we value the integral role the community plays in supporting the wellbeing of children and families at our Pre-school. We value our relationships with stakeholders including local schools, clubs and businesses as active participants in our preschool community and acknowledge the economic support offered to assist in improving and maintaining the high-quality standards of our preschool.
We value the importance of creating and maintaining strong links within the community to assist in enriching our curriculum. This understanding of the history and connection with the community helps our children to adopt values, attitudes and ways of living that will enable them to contribute positively to our community. We strongly believe that children are global citizens, so they should be a member of our community and be seen as active citizens. We endeavour to integrate excursions to our local community as much as possible, as well as inviting visitors to our Service.
Berkeley Vale Pre-school strives to keep up to date with appropriate information and resources accessible from the wider community, enabling our service to be a positive source of information to all stakeholders.
We have a commitment to ensuring continual improvement of our services for our community, as we acknowledge the importance of the journey not the destination.
