PR E PA R ATORY S C HO OL
Guildford Grammar
School Early Learning
Centre strives to
provide a trusting,
joyful and stimulating
environment
where children are
encouraged, inspired
and nurtured to reach
their full potential.
to become lifelong learners in the 21st
Century. This approach will also ensure that
the first years of school are positive and most
importantly, foster a love of learning.
Early
learning
at Guildford Grammar School
Guildford Grammar School staff and
students are blessed with the beautiful
environment we have to inspire learning,
connect to the outdoors and to use our
natural spaces. We are committed to
developing our outdoor environment
to include and practice sustainability,
exploration, risk taking and physical activity.
The early childhood years are precious and
all too brief. Therefore, it is so important for
us to do the right thing by our students and
ensure they get to make the most of the
wonderful opportunity to learn through play,
encouragement and purposeful scaffolding
and make meaningful connections with the
world around them.
At the beginning of this year, the early
learning staff put together the above
statement as a reflection of what we want
our centre to look and feel like for all
stakeholders. We were unanimous in our
desire to build a learning environment that
would deliver our promise to be trusting,
joyful and stimulating and that would truly
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be an environment where children are
encouraged, inspired and nurtured. We
want our inclusive centre to be one where
there is a strong sense of belonging, being
and becoming (taken from the Early Years
Learning Framework 2010).
There is a buzz in the air and a skip in
the step of children and staff as we work
towards learning, creating, developing,
refining, reflecting and exploring together.
Taking the lead from current research
and the extensive knowledge of our very
experienced early childhood staff, we are
celebrating and embracing the opportunity
to incorporate outstanding developmental
early childhood practices in combination
with the various learning area curriculums.
Understanding child development and the
way young children learn, along with many
years of practice, has been the key to enable
us to create a learning environment of which
we can be justifiably proud. We believe that
our proven eclectic approach provides our
students with the necessary skills they require
Our focus is on developing language and
communication skills, resilience, fine and
gross motor skills as well as essential preliteracy and numeracy skills. We provide
these experiences in a stimulating play
based environment, which is child led, child
initiated and teacher supported. We make
use of inspired learning centres, both indoors
and out believing that ‘education for young
children should resemble play, with children
delighting in acquiring knowledge and skills
in ways that make them feel competent and
capable’ (Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk and
Singer, 2009).
Communication and language development
underpins all that we do in Early Childhood.
Every activity, experience and action requires
an understanding of language and the
ability to express and communicate ideas
and learning. We have prioritised language
development in our Early Learning Centre and
understand this to be a valuable precursor
of learning success. We continue to immerse
the children in a language rich environment
where we model reading and writing,
encourage the children to ‘have a go’, read
fiction and non-fiction books, tell and listen
to stories, teach children to question, provoke
thinking, sing, engage in dramatic play and
use technology where appropriate. We make
use of the extended school environment
and take advantage of the opportunity for
incursions and excursions that enhance the
children’s learning opportunities.
Our experience and knowledge of best
practice and developmental learning
sequences enables us to plan daily literacy