The philosophy of a childcare centre largely influences the types of learning experiences, the curriculum and the kind of care that will be present in the centre. Therefore, it is imperative that parents become familiar with the philosophy behind the centre in order to understand the focus of the program.
API Childcare Centres are committed to providing a warm and welcoming “home-away-from-home” for our families, where children are supported and nurtured by kind-hearted, attentive Educators and where our culturally rich and diverse community is evident throughout our environments. We believe that strong and trusting relationships with families form the foundation to our quality child-focused, play-based Educational Programs, and the genuine, caring connections between Educators and children.
We work diligently towards this by ensuring a “personal approach” that enables each family to feel valued and included, and that their individual and unique needs are being met. API Childcare Centres are dedicated to the positive engagement of families in the services and promotes an “open-door” policy wherein family members are regularly encouraged to engage in learning activities and day-to-day routines.
API Childcare Centres recognise children as unique individuals and provide learning programs based on each child’s current knowledge, interests and ideas that promote strengths, capabilities, and development skills. We provide families with interactive documentation through Storypark, in which family members can contribute to their child’s learning progress by offering feedback and suggestions. In this way, API Childcare Centres aim to reach a holistic understanding of the child to better support their individual learning and development, not only whilst the child is at our service, but for the entirety of the child’s life.
To achieve this, Educators at API Childcare Centres work with families to understand the child and create their play situations, as well as listening to the child to meet their needs and interests. We accomplish this by ensuring that each child’s learning and development is assessed as part of an ongoing cycle of planning, documenting and evaluation. Our programs ensure that decision making contributes to each child’s learning and developmental outcomes in relation to their identity, connection with community, wellbeing, confidence as learners and effectiveness as communicators.
The Philosophy guides pedagogy and teaching decisions, and the above Outcomes are achieved through the set principles of the National Quality Framework. The principles are used to assist children to achieve the Learning Outcomes and include:
• Secure respectful and reciprocal relationships
• Partnerships
• High expectations and equity
• Respect for diversity
• Ongoing learning and reflective practice
API Childcare Centres have made a commitment towards reconciliation with Australia’s First Peoples and acknowledge the Turrbal and Yuggera People as the traditional owners of the land on which the centres now stand. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and through respectful learning and information sharing, we hope to share this respect with the children and families of our services. Our environments and embedded practices reflect our genuine respect for Indigenous cultures.