Philosophy
We would like to acknowledge and express our thanks to the Wurundjeri People for the land on which we play and learn.
Pinewood preschool has recently been transformed into a brand-new Early years Hub, with connections to the Maternal child health nurses and playgroups that also share this amazing new space, collectively we can support children and families from birth to four-year-old Preschool. We are centrally located in the community of Mount Waverley, embracing local families for over fifty years. Many parents return to give their children the opportunity to experience kindergarten, where they too created fond memories. Our teachers have also had a long-term affiliation with our service, originally being the parents of children here too.
At Pinewood we recognise that families are the child’s first teacher and therefore know their child best, our educators work in partnership with families to provide opportunities for children that enables them to thrive. We encourage our families to be apart of the preschool be creating a sense of community through constant communication, social events, being a part of our committee and by listening to their thoughts, ideas and suggestions.
Children learn as they play, and we value their unique ideas interests and abilities. Our educators are passionate and committed to the early childhood sector as we believe children are capable and confident learners, who have the right to feel safe and supported, be heard, make decisions, learn new skills, and take risks in order to construct their own identities and understandings of the world.
When we think about our teaching and learning at Pinewood, we as a teaching team believe that KINDNESS is prominent as it is something we all strive for in our practice. We embrace kindness with children through tools such as our kindness jar, as well as friendship fins, inspired by the Rainbow Fish book, we have recently incorporated the “Kindness Kangaroo” and “Kiya” as unique tools to support the children in developing their social skills. We use kindness as we respond to diversity with respect and show interest in and explore other cultures, we also use kindness as we support our reconciliation journey; where we are committed to restoring kind and friendly relationships and to learn and understand the importance of our past, and to celebrate the ancient sovereignty of our first Australians. One of our children pointed out that “Kindness is like a boomerang, when you throw a boomerang it comes back, just like when you are kind to others, they will be kind back to you”. Bunjil the creator is a song that guides us in our attitude towards our curriculum; “Today we are learning, tomorrow we will teach”. The children tell us that “friendships” are what makes Pinewood special, in addition to “cooking in the mud kitchen, with herbs and flowers from our garden”.
Pinewood Preschool values the connections to our natural world and have fondly named our adjoining parkland ‘Tree Island’ due to the tree covered landscape we visit during our community outings. We have adopted the concept of ‘Planet Warriors’, which allows the children to champion environmental responsibility. We have puppets ‘Sustain-a-BILL’ & Reuse-a-BELLE’ that go home to connect sustainable curriculum with children’s own home settings. We extend our responsibility of caring for the living things by looking after and providing a loving, clean and safe environment our kinder pet lizard Alfie.
Our 10 Educators are valued, respected, and connected to families which promotes a strong sense of wellbeing for all. We are renowned for our smiling faces as we greet children upon arrival and our welcome attracts wonderful new families to the area as it progresses.
From this philosophy we develop many policies, which provide guidelines for our service provision.
Policy review and development is ongoing.
Philosophy reviewed March 2024.
