Learning and Development Programs

At Creative Learning Preschool, our program takes many forms. We believe that children learn best through engaging play-based activities that are based on children’s interests, both voiced and observed.

Our lead educators plan a weekly program that outlines the experiences that will be offered to the children. These planned experiences are informed by children’s interests and developmental needs as observed by educators or shared by children and families.

There is also flexibility within these programs to make adjustments or to allow for spontaneous learning activities to occur. This means that life's beautiful moments are not overlooked by a pre-planned schedule.


Child-Led Exploration

During the morning and afternoon, we implement mixed-age/family grouping, which allows children of all ages to interact with each other. We find that this is beneficial to younger children as they learn from their peers and are inspired to try new activities, while the older children have opportunities to build on their leadership skills as they mentor their younger friends.

During these mixed-aged groupings, we aim to provide children with plenty of time for uninterrupted play and flexibility of being indoors or outdoors, depending on their preference. This allows children opportunities to explore learning environments that are relevant and meaningful in the moment.


Group Time

After morning tea each day, our children split into groups to spend time on group-specific activities planned by their lead educator. These activities are adjusted to be developmentally-appropriate, and take into consideration the capabilities of each child within the group.

Our 3 groups are:

Lilly Pilly, Toddlers aged 18 months - 3 years old

Banksia Group, Preschoolers aged 3 years - 4 years old

Waratah Group, Pre-K aged 4 years - 6 years old in the year before school.

Special Events and Celebrations

Each month, Group Leaders will plan for upcoming special community events and cultural celebrations. This information will be shared with families, and ideas on how to celebrate each event are always welcome. Educators offer music, songs, dance, storytelling, decorating, cooking experiences, sports or physical activities, art and craft experiences to acknowledge and celebrate special and cultural events.

Engaging in special events and cultural celebrations helps children to develop a strong understanding of their own personal and cultural identity, whilst also developing understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity.

Incursions and Excursions

In conjunction with children’s learning and development interests and special/ cultural events, we aim to provide children with opportunities to engage with the wider community through external company events within our service or excursions to places outside of our service. This may be through visits from local professionals (firefighters, police, Sydney Trains, Surf Lifesavers, Life Education), walking excursions within our local community (North Ryde Library, local parks).

Occasionally, we may organise a larger travelling excursion (e.g. Power House Museum, Sydney Aquarium, Taronga Zoo). This is highly dependent on the group of children, their interests, and other opportunities that have been provided throughout the year.

Parents will always be notified of intent for these events ahead of time and asked for permission for excursion events.

We aim to provide 2 - 3 incursions and 2 - 3 walking excursions (children 3y/o and up) every 6 months.

Transition to School Program

The transition to school is a very important time in a young child’s life and begins well before a child begins at a childcare or preschool service.

Many families express that their understanding of school readiness is teaching the Alphabet, numbers or reading skills, however this is not necessarily developmentally appropriate for children under 6 years old. Children will have plenty of time to learn these things when they are actually in kindergarten!

Whilst we do include aspects of these academic learning in our school readiness program, our major focus is to provide opportunities for children to learn the skills required to successfully transition into the kindergarten classroom.

At Creative Learning Preschool, we understand the importance of providing our pre-schoolers with the best possible start to their primary school journey while they are still in kindy. To accommodate this, we provide our pre-schoolers with a comprehensive transition to school program from the moment they step into the classroom. Our school readiness program is run for the Waratah Group only, in the year before children attend school. Children will participate in increasingly complex group sessions appropriate for the interests and developmental capabilities of each child.

We hold a School Uniform and Lunchbox week in November each year as part of our Transition to School Program. During this week, we also set up environments and specific group times for children transitioning to kindergarten to experience a simulated classroom. This encourages children to practice skills and build excitement in the lead-up to primary school!

Our Connection With Children

We listen to and respect the voices of all children
We work in collaboration with children in relation to making decisions that will affect their learning and wellbeing.
We provide all children with flexible routines to ensure that they are given the time they need to connect, engage and to simply be in the moment.
We believe that every child deserves to feel safe and to belong and as such, our educators and staff will work towards building and maintaining meaningful relationships with all our children.
We are committed to fostering each child’s strengths and on-going learning by providing each child with a program that is based on their current interests and developmental needs.
We promote inclusive practice to ensure that each child is supported to fully participate in the program.
We encourage cultural competency across our centre’s community. A child’s cultural background and home language should be supported and celebrated through involving a child’s family and community to assist in making decisions relating to a child’s care, education and wellbeing.

Our Partnerships with Families

We work in collaboration with our families to establish the most effective ways of connecting with individual children
We believe that in order for us to establish and maintain positive partnerships with families, communication between both parties should be open, honest and constructive.
We encourage our families to share information with our educators regarding any aspect of their child’s development and wellbeing. In return our educator’s goal is to work alongside families to provide opportunities for their child to explore, learn and grow in an environment that is safe and nurturing.
We strive to develop a range of strategies to facilitate interactions with families and we encourage parents to contribute to program decision-making, policy reviews and our quality improvement plan.
We welcome and celebrate diversity and equality, and acknowledge and respect all family structures and cultures.

The Value of Our Educators and Staff

We believe that our educators and staff are the heart our centre, and as such we believe that it is essential to provide all of our staff and educators with the support and encouragement that they need in order to help our children to grow and thrive.
We understand and respect that our educators and staff come from many different walks of life, and each bring with them a set of skills, strengths and expertise that contribute to our centre. We believe that it is important to embrace these unique skill sets and life experiences.
We provide opportunities for our educators and staff to build on their existing knowledge of early childhood education, and encourage all staff to further their skills and knowledge through professional development and the sharing of knowledge between colleagues
We aim to create a workplace culture that is positive, friendly and professional where educators and staff can communicate with one another respectfully and openly.

Our Approach to Holistic Programming

We believe that an authentic program should be meaningful and continuous and should reflect the children’s interests and developmental needs
We are guided by the Early Years Learning Framework to assist our educators in making curriculum-based decisions
We use the Early Years Planning Cycle as a way of ensuring that our program accurately reflects our educator’s purpose in providing opportunities for continuous learning that is meaningful and appropriate for each child
We ensure that the program accurately reflects our children’s interests and incorporates opportunities for both planned and spontaneous activities.
We are inclusive and endeavour to provide opportunities to support and extend on our program based on the needs of each individual child.
We see our educators as facilitators who support children to scaffold their own learning through independent and guided investigation.

Our Connection With Community and World Around Us

We acknowledge the Wallumedegal people, the traditional custodians of this land. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture as rich and enduring and pay our respects to elders past, present and future. We are committed to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural perspectives into our everyday practice.

We recognise our children as active citizens and aim to connect them to their local community to gain a true sense of belonging.

We are committed to promoting sustainable practices through educating and working with the children, families and wider community about the positive impacts that embedding sustainable practices in our day-to-day routines can have on our environment.

Meals and Nutrition

We provide breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and an evening snack, all of which are cooked/ prepared fresh onsite by our AMAZING cook.

Our 4-week seasonal menu is developed by our on-site cook and reviewed at least every 6 months. It is multiculturally inspired, meets the Australian Dietary Guidelines for Children, and includes a variety of healthy (and tasty!) fresh produce.

We offer inclusive alternative meals for children with allergies, intolerances, and special dietary requirements.

We also encourage children and families to contribute to our menu development with any family favourites or child preferences.