We are looking forward to getting to know you and your child. 

The term Infant Toddler Group (ITG) is used as an umbrella definition for describing the two rooms that cater to our under 3 group. The children of ITG are split between two distinct groups – 0-2 years ‘Room One’ and the 2-3 years ‘Room Two’. These two groups maintain a similar flexible routine throughout the day that caters to each child’s individual needs.

We pride ourselves in providing a nurturing high quality natural environment for you and your child. We aim to be flexible within our routine and where possible follow the same routine as at home (eating, sleeping patterns etc.) as we believe this is best practice and helps with smooth transitions between the home and the learning environment.

There are permanent room based and additional support co-educators allocated to work with the children on a daily basis – this is made up of full time and part time educators. Each room has a team of 4 consistent educators per day, where the children are able to become familiar with and build trusting relationships.

Orientation

Within this process you and your child will have a primary educator. This is an educator allocated to each child and family to ensure the establishment of a warm, secure relationship with the child and a strong partnership with the parents/guardians. There are four orientation dates and times that they will make with you. This slow and staggered orientation process allows the children to build an attachment with their primary educator’s and form a sense of belonging and become familiar within the room environments.

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Our program

We offer the children a stimulating curriculum based on individual needs and interests.  These needs and interests are determined after observation and assessment of your child and from information we gather from you and your child.

The materials we provide are mainly natural and open ended, where the room aesthetics are considered in providing the children with a soothing calm environment. We focus on children’s pro-social behavior and encourage it through positive reinforcement, encouragement and guidance. The program we offer is flexible indoor/outdoor and the children are free to explore all areas at their own pace provided suitable supervision can be maintained.

The routines are flexible.  For example, if the children are involved in an experience, we do not expect them to ‘drop’ everything and sit down for a group experience.  Rather, in the case of lunchtime, we put some lunch aside for them to eat at a time suitable for them.  Spontaneous group experiences are offered on a regular basis, however, no pressure is placed on a child to join in against their will.

We are an active part of the community regularly attending excursions to our two local parks, visiting local business, for example, supermarket and Australia post, etc. Children are able to experience different learning environments, foster new friendships, develop road safety skills as well as creating opportunities for discussion and understandings around social issues in the community and play in alternative spaces.  We allow children to understand their world first hand. We have two, four seater prams for our children in room one and usually we don’t take them on excursions until term 2 where they are more settled and secure in this environment and with their educators. The children that attend room 2 will have established relationships within the community or generally be at a developmental point where they are capable of understanding the different excursions therefore are more open to this earlier.

At Windsor we believe in children exploring challenge within their environment as a way of extending their learning and development. What this can look like in our environment is children engaging in risk taking experiences. Our yard is full of wondrous trees to explore, children will approach them, engage with them and climb them. We allow the freedom of this exploration without limitations as children are aware of their own limits. Educators are on hand to supervise and assess if children may need help however children are also encouraged to ask for assistance if they feel they require it. Within our environment we also prefer to engage with real tools again as it allows us to view children as competent and active citizens in their own right, an imitation or ‘child friendly’ version is great in setting the foundations but the real thing allows expectations and respect to be truly explored. This also translates into our excursions where we welcome challenging environments for the children to explore such as going larger parks where climbing equipment will offer new heights and ways to explore.

A continuous journey for us at the centre is ensuring that Anti-Bias principles and goals are embedded into our curriculum. Here experiences, interactions and discussions with the children will be setting the foundations for positive social outlooks for community, people and the wider world. Children and families engage with respect and kindness around topics such as gender, racism, sexuality and disability. They share their understandings and explore resources that help to unpack the themes and working towards strengthening their voice to stand up to injustice when they are faced with it themselves or see others surrounded by it.

Here at Windsor we ensure that children and families are an important part on our journey towards reconciliation. Each room is exploring their own acknowledgement to country which can include singing a acknowledgment to country song, engaging with different Aboriginal languages and paying respects to elders and communities that we work and play on. Our curriculum will also contain a number of resources and experiences that will explore the connection to country. We will also be engaging with different organisations throughout the year to run sessions at the centre and have excursions which will help strengthen our knowledge and understandings. All of this coupled with our ongoing exploration of Anti-Bias principles are working towards the creation of our own Reconciliation Action Plan.

The curriculum intention and individuals goals are based by the National & Victorian Early Years Development Frameworks. We share this information with you in various document forms such as

  • Reflections that are emailed fortnightly
  • Assessments that are emailed on a term basis
  • Developmental checklists and summaries done yearly
  • Group experiences and project work that may be displayed in the room or emailed to families as they occur.
  • Our program book that shares highlights of the different learnings in the rooms and the different connections to children’s learning they have.
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