Curriculum
The Early Years Learning Framework:
- Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
- Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
- Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
- Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
- Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
National Quality Framework:
- Quality Area 1- Educational program and practice
- Quality Area 2- Children’s Health and Safety
- Quality Area 3- Physical environment
- Quality Area 4- Staffing Arrangements
- Quality Area 5- Relationships with children
- Quality Area 6- Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
Australian Curriculum:
- Understand that language can be used to explore ways of expressing needs, likes and dislikes (ACELA1429)
- Understand the use of vocabulary in familiar contexts related to everyday experiences, personal interests and topics taught at school (ACELA1437)
- Use interaction skills including listening while others speak, using appropriate voice levels, articulation and body language, gestures and eye contact (ACELY1784)
- Practise personal and social skills to interact positively with others (ACPPS004)
- Participate in play that promotes engagement with outdoor settings and the natural environment (ACPPS007)
- Identify actions that promote health, safety and wellbeing (ACPPS006)
- Cooperate with others when participating in physical activities (ACPMP012)
NSW Syllabus:
- Communicates with peers and known adults in informal and guided activities demonstrating emerging skills of group interaction (ENe-1A)
- Responds to and composes simple texts about familiar aspects of the world and their own experiences (ENe-11D)
- Communicates ways to be caring, inclusive and respectful of others. (PDe3)
- Identifies actions that promote health, safety, wellbeing, and physically active spaces (PDe-7)
- Practises self-management skills in familiar and unfamiliar scenarios (PDe-9)
- Uses interpersonal skills to effectively interact with others (PDe-10)
Other Link/s:
"God loves every person infinitely. ‘Life and physical health are gifts entrusted to us by God and it is everyone’s responsibility to not only take care of oneself but also look to the needs of others."
- Catechism of the Catholic Church – CCC2288
Families
Read
Childhood is a time be, to seek and make meaning of the world. Children are experiencing what is happening now in the present. They are understanding that they are accepted for who they are and knowing that others care about them.
A child’s sense of being can relate to how childhood educators show respect for each child through greetings, conversations and actions. When a child has a sense of being they build and maintain relationships with others, take part in life’s journey and face challenges in their everyday life.
Selfhood starts at birth, but children don’t start expressing an “idea of me” until toddlerhood. Children then start to gather information about themselves and store autobiographical material, starting a life narrative that guides their responses to the world.
Children with positive perceptions of themselves have the best social and academic outcomes, perhaps because they focus on success and aren’t deterred by failure. Parents can help their child develop positive self-esteem by reacting positively to them and their achievements, and helping them to overcome negative events.
Explore
- Going to a local playground to interact with children in the community.
- Encourage your child to share who they are, their interests with the peers.
- Opportunities for your child to describe themselves in a few short words or sentences.
- Discuss what their strengths are and what they would like to work towards to achieve.
- Meditation or some time for mindfulness.
- Taking photos of their interests and points of fascination and intrigue in the world around them.
- Engage in activities that promote volunteerism, e.g. Clean Up Australia Day.
- Create a collage of your child’s achievements and success stories no matter how big or small or what facet of life it is, e.g. sporting, social, visual arts, music, literacy, numeracy.
- Perhaps your child could share this with the other children, their educators and extended members of their family.
- Respond to your child’s cues and allow them to lead. They may wish to play alone, with others or with you.
- Encourage your child to make up their own play. Allow time, space and materials. These could be simple, natural or bought items.
Teachers
Reflect
Reflect on your knowledge and practice.
Take into consideration the outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework, Australian curriculum/NSW Syllabus and National Quality Framework (NQF).
Reflective questions for children with diverse learning needs:
- Where have these children come from?
- What are their diverse learning needs?
- What support have they or are they receiving at the moment?
- What are some short-term goals for long term success?
- What do you expect from them?
- How can you build their sense of self, their self-identity?
Think about the pedagogy in your learning environment that enables young learners to build and maintain positive and successful relationships with others. That enables them to engage with life’s joys and complexities to meet the challenges in everyday situations. This is both about preparation for the future and the present.
This is an opportunity to create and maintain a supportive and safe learning environment that implements inclusive strategies that engages and supports all children.
Engage
Engage in a learning dialogue with parents and carers:
- Is there anything in the video that caused you to think different about children with diverse learning needs?
- How can you include and best cater for students with diverse learning needs?
- How can you get to know a family’s children socially, emotionally and cognitively by asking the family particular questions? What questions could you ask of them about their child?
- How are the children showing inclusive practices towards children with diverse learning needs and what can you do to support this?
- Are there any practices for the support of children with diverse learning needs that families are successfully using that you can apply to your learning environment?
Some ideas for activities to support children with diverse learning needs:
- Play ‘People Bingo’
- Assign ‘All About Me Bags’
- Read together about following your dreams, and then have students detail their own dreams
- Create a tangled web: while sitting in a circle together, give one student a ball of yarn. The student should hold on to the end of the yarn and share something new about him/herself. After sharing, the student holds on to the end and passes the ball of yarn to another student across the circle. That student hangs on to the string, shares, and passes the ball along to someone new
- Writing, reading and listening to positive affirmations, e.g. ‘Today will be a great day’, ‘I can get through anything’, ‘I believe in myself’, ‘I am kind’, ‘I love to learn’
- An emotions check-in: a simple way to encourage learners to think about how they feel and what they need to work through those feelings
- Create a self-collage: use magazines, scissors, and glue to help kids design their own personal self-colleges. On the collage, encourage kids to add words and pictures that help represent who they are and who they want to be.