Our Mission
St Mary’s Children Centre offers experiences that foster and develop an awareness of Christ and His teachings in a safe and nurturing Christian environment, where maintaining the Coptic identity and teaching the faith and Christian curricula will be embedded in our program.
We do our greatest to provide a positive atmosphere in which children can grow and learn, developing a high level of personal integrity and a sincere respect for others regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, or circumstances.
At St Mary’s Children Centre, we respect and appreciate the value of each child as an individual and support all of our children to thrive and to discover their God-given talents and purpose in life. Children are encouraged and supported to develop self-respect, self-determination, personal initiative and a sense of belonging to their family and community, to prepare them to be honourable citizens in society and in the global community. This will be underpinned by the play-based program, and guided by the relevant early childhood curricula, for example, the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework.
Our holistic approach to play-based learning caters for the development of the whole person - emotionally, physically, cognitively, and socially. This enables each child to develop problem solving skills, self-esteem, and confidence, while feeling loved, appreciated, and connected to their environment.
We strive to meet the unique needs of our children through providing the best learning programs, positive experiences and wellbeing support, to equip our children and see them flourish and achieve their potential.
Our Centre is committed to creating a culture of child safety to minimise or eliminate, as much as possible, the risk of harm to children. Our Staff are highly qualified and caring professionals who respect children and are committed to children’s safety, wellbeing and learning.
Values
St Mary’s Children Centre aims to provide a safe learning environment for each child by focusing on strong Christian values. These values enable children to develop an understanding of the richness of life through the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ. Values empower them to be both successful learners and valuable members of the wider community.
Our Vision
St Mary’s Children Centre is part of a Christ-centred church community, aspiring for excellence in learning and care. We work in partnership with families, supporting and encouraging each child to be the best they can and to make a positive difference to the world as they develop, learn, and thrive. While offering care and education, we encourage each child to take responsibility for their own decisions, respecting their voice and choice.
Philosophy
At St Mary Children Centre we believe that all children are unique and will develop as individuals at their own pace. We are God’s creation, created to do good works. God has plans to provide hope and a future for us. We are all blessed with unique gifts, and we can bring God glory when we use them (Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:10, Psalms 139:16).
We acknowledge and appreciate all cultural backgrounds, and we aim to provide an environment in which all children feel safe, secure and nurtured on a daily basis. At St Mary’s Children Centre, we believe that play is such a valuable way for children to learn and we aim to provide a fun and stimulating environment for children to explore and learn using all their senses. Our programs and practices provide an inclusive environment that promotes equality and diversity whilst fostering all aspects of every child’s development; physical, intellectual, social and emotional.
Children
We understand and acknowledge that learning begins from birth, and we are committed to provide an environment which meets the holistic needs of every child. By doing this, we are encouraging a sense of identity, wellbeing, confidence and opportunities for the children to contribute to the world around them. We also aim to provide an environment that is welcoming, un-biased and respectful for all our children, families, educators and the wider community. We firmly uphold the Australian Child Safe Standards, prioritising the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care, including children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders communities. We view the partnership with families and the community as a vital part of ensuring children’s safety.
Family
We believe that a child’s family is their first and foremost influential educator. We believe that family is the most valuable connection to the children in our care and we support this by developing meaningful and reciprocal relationships with each individual family. We encourage family involvement and feedback, and we also promote honest and open communication with families whilst respecting their rights and opinions. St Mary’s Children Centre aims to meet each family’s individual needs and respect their culture and values through our day-to-day practices and educational programs.
Educators
St Mary’s Children Centre believes that each and every one of its educators is a valuable resource to the service, families, children and the community. Educators empower children with the skills and knowledge for a successful transition to primary school, while fostering their intellectual, emotional, social, physical and spiritual development. As a faith-based organisation, we are committed to teaching Christian values, helping children understand and appreciate the importance of compassion, kindness and respect for themselves and others. We recognise the commitment of all our educators and fully support their continued professional learning. Educators will engage in critical reflection of the philosophy, ethics, and practices to enrich decision-making about children’s learning. Whilst our programs are interests based; the educators also believe that there are many opportunities for intentional teaching to occur within our daily programs.
Children’s Learning
We believe that children are capable learners and to be given ample opportunities to gain confidence within themselves. Our programs aim to promote and foster independence in all children, and we do this by supporting and encouraging children to first attempt things on their own.
We believe that mealtimes are a valuable time for social interactions to occur between children, peers and educators and is a way to incorporate intentional teaching aspects. At St Mary’s Children Centre, we encourage all children and educators to enjoy this time together.
We believe that routines and programming need to be flexible and provide opportunities for spontaneous learning to occur. Our aim is to ensure we also provide a balance of structure within our routines which will provide consistency for the children as well as allowing for flexibility within our day. We believe that this helps children to feel safe and secure by knowing what will happen next.
We encourage families and the community to actively participate in the centre’s daily activities and provide educators with feedback, thoughts and suggestions for our programs and the daily operations of the service.
Our programs are interest based, which encourage and support every child to develop their capabilities whilst building on their needs and challenge their strengths.
We believe that the outdoors is just as important as the indoors for children to learn and develop a range of skills. Our programs provide children with opportunities to participate in many planned and spontaneous activities throughout the indoors and outdoors.
Our programs support and fosters the children’s learning and development across all five learning outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework: Identity, Community, Wellbeing, Learning, and Communication.
At St Mary’s Children Centre, we aim to provide a program to extend on our learning around Bible stories and Australian culture incorporating respectful and authentic learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. We would also like to pay our respect and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which our early childhood service stands, and also pay respect to Elders both past and present.
We believe that a philosophy statement changes as new insights are gained and practice is evaluated.
Most importantly we aim to provide an atmosphere that is full of respect, calm, laughter, fun, love and appreciation for the children. Just as one body has many parts, we all have a part to play within our community. We are called to have fellowship and love one another, accepting others as Christ has accepted us (1 Corinthians 12:12-27, John 13:34-35, Romans 15:7, Ephesians 4:3, Galatians 6:2).