Bankstown Children’s Educational Centre Is

• Trusting in the power of play and intrinsic learning
• Seeing children as competent and decision makers
• Collaboration between children, staff, families and the community
• Mutual respect and understanding of diversity
• Embracing of children’s interests and mutual curiosity
• Dependant upon teamwork and planning to create effective documentation that meets the needs of all involved.

The Preparatory Year provides a firm foundation for formal schooling. Children develop their independence and social skills, physical skills, oral language, literacy and numeracy understandings, creativity and curiosity about the world. The emergent curriculum aims to get the best possible outcomes for a child and newer research shows that children are learning from birth at a fast rate and should be exposed to as many literacy learning experiences as possible. Therefore the early childhood context is a prime place to target for facilitating learning. We all know that children learn through play because play comes naturally, is fun non threatening and you don’t have to think about it.

Why is play so important?

Play is the most effective, powerful and productive way to learn the information young children require.

Play provides the ultimate curriculum for social, physical and cognitive advancement. Play is also a very effective way for children to accumulate a vast amount of basic knowledge about their world: language, science, mathematics which leads to discovery of personal proficiency and preference.

Using children’s interests is a vehicle for learning, extending, scaffolding their learning in a meaningful way.

Play also allows children to enter the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky) where development of skills is higher than normal.