Our Program
At the Cooroy Community Kindergarten we provide a beautiful learning space that nurtures children and supports their natural play urges. Urges such as the need to gather, build enclosures, connect things with ropes, dig and bury, run and play chasey, water play, make mud pies and climb. Nature play, supported risk taking and including children in decision making processes are a major component of the program.
We believe children are competent and capable and learn best when they are fully engaged. To support this we provide a free indoor-outdoor, self selective program, that allows children plenty of uninterrupted time to use their own initiative and imagination to engage in play and collaborate with others, and to freely access resources to design their own learning environments. Our program gives children the freedom to develop in their own way, at their own pace and to focus on the areas they most favour to express their ideas, skills and individuality. For some children this could be in the area of dramatic play. Others might prefer art projects, construction and design, dance, performance, the natural world, physical activities, thinking games or maybe, a bit of everything.
Our planning decisions are tentative, and open to possibilities as we collaborate with the children, families and wider community to negotiate a meaningful curriculum. When planning we also take into consideration the skills the children need to become successful learners. Literacy and numeracy is visible everywhere in the program but not taught in a formal way. Kindergarten education is about providing a solid foundation that can be built upon. This includes encouraging and supporting children to use their own initiative, problem solve, rise to a challenge, persevere, be responsible for their own actions and belongings, respect others, the environment and the equipment. This also includes learning to follow multi- step instructions, avoid distractions, control rash responses, adjust when rules change, communicate well with teachers and peers, collaborate with others and work as a team. Our educational focus is not only on the child as an individual but the child within the group, family, and wider community as we concentrate on social interactions, collaborations, relationships and dispositions.
Please note our curriculum does include formal group time sessions which focus on activities such as singing, music and movement, drama, story telling, yoga, games, individual presentations, cultural studies, Italian language and drawing class. We also invite families and people from the wider community to visit us and share their interest, skills and expertise on various subjects.
Like all community kindergartens affiliated with Lady Gowrie Queensland, our curriculum is informed by the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines (QKLG) and the National Quality Framework (NQF).