Our Philosophy

At Alphabet Cottage, we believe each child is a unique individual in their own right and that their special abilities, interests and cultural backgrounds should be the basis of our curriculum. We work with families to provide high quality education andcare within a warm, secure environment which promotes diversity and inclusion.

We believe each child is a strong capable learner who has the right to be actively involved in their own learning. We value and promote every child’s voice in our curriculum. Each child’s health, security and wellbeing underpins all learning experiences. We will ensure each child feels loved, develop a sense of security and belonging to the centre by maintaining a trustful relationship with them and through meaningful one on one interactions. We will promote exercise, good nutrition, sleep and rest periods. Our outdoor and indoor areas engage every child in experiences which promote play and learning through stimulation of the senses in built and natural environments.

We encourage high levels of family and community involvement in helping guide children’s learning to ensure we embed collaborative practices. We believe in promoting diversity and developing every child’s understanding of the importance of social justice and equality.

We believe that the relationship each child has with the Land and the natural world are important foundations for learning. We will use these relationships to embed respect for the Dharug People and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous perspectives in our practices. We will continue to develop our Bush Tucker Program to support all children to understand the importance of Indigenous knowledge and healthy eating practices.

Sustainability and Environmentalism are key elements of our Centre. All children will explore, investigate and learn the importance of sustainable practices. We will compost, recycle andre-use. The children will take an active role in caring for the natural environment and have an ongoing role in growing and harvesting our garden. We believe that through these practices each child’s health and wellbeing will be promoted.

Our outdoor and indoor areas engage and challenge every child in hands-on sensory play. We go outside in the rain and jump in puddles, we encourage children to participate in Risky Play, develop resilience, the ability to express their emotions and positively deal with peer conflict. We focus on using natural materials in all elements of children’s learning and play. Peer to peer learning and cross-room collaboration is an important element of children’s development.

All children are active agents of their own learning and with the right scaffolding are capable of exploring and achieving anything. We will work with families to support every child’s confidences, independences and self help skills. Children’s home cultures and experiences will be celebrated and incorporated into our practice.

Alphabet Cottage is committed to developing our Bush Kinder Program and creating amazing ‘WOW’ moments for every child to experience. Our children will use our excursion program to explore their wider community and gain important life skills.

We will support the development of every child’s sense of community, providing large and small learning experiences. We believe that literacy and STEM learning can be promoted in play, spontaneous and planned experiences. We will engage in ongoing reflection about our practices, policies and procedures to drive continuous improvement within our centre, team culture and to ensure each child can maximise his or her learning opportunities, and as educators, we value opportunities for professional development. We are committed to providing high quality innovative Early Childhood Education.