Our Learning Programs

At St Mary's Children Centre all of our rooms have a program of planned activities and experiences to support each child's development and learning. Our program is developed through the guidance of the Early Years Learning Framework that all early learning and care and kindergarten services are governed by. The room educators use the framework alongside their knowledge of child development, family shared knowledge of their child and our centre philosophy to ensure our program caters for the children within our community. The room program is designed to scaffold and support each child's learning and development by exploring and interacting with their environment in a safe and secure place. Learning is an ongoing process which takes place in children’s lives all the time. We believe that the child’s family is their first teacher, and we value working with you to provide the best learning environment for your child. Our room program is displayed outside of the all room and accessible to all families, team members and visitors.

OWNA is our online forum between home and the centre. We use this to share information with families around your child's learning and time at St Mary's Children Centre. Owna has two main components that we use to communicate with families. The first is our community section. In this area we place important centre happenings, and this goes to all families. This will have upcoming events, what’s happening at St Mary's, special dates to remember etc. Families are able to interact by responding to the posts.The second is each child will have their own individual learning page which is only accessible by the family. Here we place learning stories, goals and communicate with families on our program and exchanging of ideas towards your child's time within our program.

Some things to remember when accessing and using Owna. It is a public forum, and we have an expectation that all users remain respectful and keep all communication professional. OWNA is not a forum for grievances. For any communication around feedback, concerns or queries these are needing to be done via email. This ensures privacy for the family/child/educator.

OWNA is also not used for instant communication around children. Any communication around your child's drops off, clothing or general information can be emailed through to the centre as there will always be someone who can get back to you.

During the first couple of months the main goal we will be working towards is to build trusting and respectful relationships with the children and the families. Over this time, we will be creating opportunities to get to know you and your child during your orientation time. By having these opportunities, we are able to develop more of an understanding around your child's needs, interests and background and find out your expectations as parents and any learning goals you would like us to support your child in.

We are also here to support our families so if there is anything you need from us or would like to know more about, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Thank you