School Readiness at SMCELC

During a child’s time at SMCELC, and the purpose of Early Education & Care for ages 6 weeks to 5 years, is to promote strong, capable and confident individuals supported by a play based program that develops a child's sense of belonging, being and becoming.

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The Educators and Teachers at SMCELC ensure that each child is ready for the transition to school, physically, socially and emotionally. Self-help, social and emotional skills are vital during this transition as it assists children with the ability to enter into their future years with strong executive functioning skills that see them through not only their school years, but their lives.

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SMCELC believe that learning to read, write and count are important in a child’s early education, although it isn’t our primary focus. As the EYLF states:

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"The Framework forms the foundation for ensuring that children in all early childhood education and care settings experience quality teaching and learning. It has a specific emphasis on play-based learning and recognises the importance of communication and language (including early literacy and numeracy) and social and emotional development. The Framework has been designed for use by early childhood educators working in partnership with families, children’s first and most influential educators."
- The Early Years Learning Framework -

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SMCELC promotes each child's sense of independence and responsibility by advocating self-help skills. When a child is confident and able to dress/undress, put shoes on, use effective hygiene and the toilet, eat from their lunchbox and ask for help, it creates strong connections for learning. We develop children’s abilities, independence and autonomy. This includes carrying out things like choosing their locker for the day, putting away their belongings, think for themselves through problem solving and to clean and tidy up after themselves.

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SMCELC assists children to understand their emotions, why they feel certain ways and an ability to self-regulate. This also scaffolds developing a child's confidence to play, interact and socialise with other children and to form relationships with others. It also fosters children's ability to work through social challenges that may arise with their peers. Learning opportunities like this increase children’s engagement with learning and creates an ability to take on challenges that will benefit them in school and the future.

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Every day our Educators and Teachers scaffold and present numeracy and mathematical learning opportunities. We provide a range of experiences such as colour and shape recognition, number recognition and counting, sequencing, sorting, patterns, matching and measurement. Activities such as water play, painting and match the cards, building blocks or even puzzles can provide mathematical concept such as balance, measurement, weight, mass and more!

 

Language and literacy are embedded into SMCELC’s daily practice and routines. These  opportunities are provided as children engage in group times, read stories, sing, dance, connect with community, take part in discussions and share their brilliant ideas. Fostering these activities assists development with communication and language skills such as listening, following directions and an understanding that words have meaning. We strongly promote a child's ability to recognise their name and the connection between that of the child and their belongings and their sense of self. This is a vital skills required for school transition.

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