Early Childhood Education PK-Y2

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Newman College loves the uniqueness and energy of small children. We offer a personalised approach to learning in a safe and supportive environment at our Early Childhood Education campus. The primary intake year is Kindergarten.

We weave an informal and flexible play-based learning approach designed to move a child through a developmental pathway towards literacy and numeracy. Throughout the journey, families remain our closest partners in this process.

Our program promotes the development of children who demonstrate the attributes of autonomy, curiosity, persistence, reasoning, problem-solving, responsibility, imagination and creativity.

Through Kindergarten towards Year 2 our children will transition from wondering about ‘what’ and ‘why’ towards learning ‘how’ to do things.

Download our Kindy 2024 Orientation Booklet

Early Childhood Education – Nature Play

The Nature Play Initiative provides students at Newman College with natural, adventurous, and engaging play spaces. These enhance every aspect of their development and early learning. It encourages our children’s love of nature and learning. In doing so, this delivers benefits in health, cognitive, social and emotional development. It also builds resilience, creativity and environmental stewardship in our children.

Natural play spaces use a blend of natural areas, environmental features and plants. This engages and challenges children, while encourage them to learn about the natural world around them. Swings, slides and elements typically found in ‘pre-formed’ playgrounds are included, but natural play spaces focus on also offering ‘unstructured’ activities for learning. Therefore, children are able to participate in spontaneous and imaginative play and problem-solving.

Some of the typical elements of a functional and effective nature play space include:

  • A nature zone (e.g. plants/trees and loose materials like pebbles).
  • Bark, rocks, nuts, sticks etc.
  • Sandpit and digging patch.
  • Water play.
  • Outdoor meeting spaces/cubby structures.
  • Equipment for loco motor development (e.g. balancing, swinging, sliding, climbing).
  • Music.

Early Learning Ideas Lab

The Ideas Lab at Newman College is the latest edition to our teaching and learning landscape. Designed to inspire our early learning students from Pre-Kindy to Year 2, the Ideas Lab comes from the concept of a ‘Makerspace’. Moreover, this is a place for children to explore, create and work collaboratively together.

It is a community centre with tools that combine equipment, community and education for the purpose of enabling students to design, prototype and create. Newman College aspires to grow creative lifelong thinkers.

Therefore, it is not about the teachers having the right methodology to generate an answer, it is about setting tasks where there can be multiple pathways to a finishing point. The Ideas Lab is a tangible resource for students to explore these paths for themselves.

Before School / After School / Holiday Care Program

Newman College in partnership with Mercy Care, offers before school, after school and holiday care. The program is available daily at the Early Childhood Centre, 49 Peebles Road, Floreat for Newman College students. The service is available for children in Kindy (if they have turned 4 and there is a vacancy) to Year 6. Children in Years 3-6 are transported to and from the Upper Primary Campus each morning and afternoon.

Academic Enrichment – SHINE Program

We believe that all students are entitled to an education that will enable them to develop their full potential. This potential comes in many different forms be that intellectual, physical, creative, emotional, or social.

Newman College is committed to providing a challenging curriculum for all its students. In addition, we provide opportunities and support for students identified as gifted and talented. Our SHINE Program for students in Pre Primary to Year 10 delivers educational experiences of an appropriate depth and breadth for students identified as having exceptional academic ability.

The SHINE program is designed to provide an engaging and challenging curriculum for students to develop their aptitudes and talents. In the SHINE program students are encouraged to solve, hypothesise, investigate problems, concepts, or topics. They are also encouraged to navigate their own learning. The purpose of this program is to enrich student’s learning.

The program is designed with the College’s four pedagogical principles in mind:

  • Students are CHALLENGED to engage in critical and creative thinking tasks
  • Students are guided through COLLABORATIVE approaches to learning with like-minded peers
  • Students CREATE solutions and prototypes to demonstrate their learning and
  • The College and students CELEBRATE students’ efforts, learning and growth

SHINE at Marian

Students in Pre Primary to Year 2 participate in a range of learning experiences including STEM investigations, design thinking processes, philosophical discussion and extension and enrichment of their classroom learning.

Program Selection

Students are invited into the various SHINE program levels using a multi-faceted identification process. This includes both subjective and objective tests and reports. Student’s progress, suitability, and readiness for the various stages of the programs is reviewed regularly.

Early Learning Library

The Early Childhood Education Library is a place where all students are made to feel welcome and are encouraged to grow and learn. The students and teachers love and value their library. Furthermore, it is used daily to acquire knowledge and discover literature to read for enjoyment. The library is a safe haven for all students to think, create and share their ideas. Most importantly, it is a hub of learning and a favourite spot to discover new information, to celebrate books and to engage collaboratively with their peers.

Library staff collaborate with classroom teachers to support student learning. In addition, they provide essential resources in all curriculum areas. During library lessons the students examine and respond to a range of texts and have the opportunity to select stories by their favourite authors and illustrators. Most importantly, the library contains and promotes the best quality children’s literature. This engages the students to develop a love of books and reading. Furthermore, essential research skills, using print information books and the World Book online encyclopaedia are also taught to students.

The Library is the heart of Early Childhood Education. It serves as a central space where parents and students are welcomed each morning and afternoon to read and to borrow books. Importantly, the library also provides information for parents who wish to borrow literature on various topics such as resilience, self-esteem, death or welcoming a new baby into the family.

Finally, the library staff are always available to assist parents if they require help or ideas regarding the books and resources they need.

Parent Engagement – SeeSaw

Early Childhood Education can be complex for families to understand. However, parents of primary school students can use SeeSaw to engage with their child’s learning experience. Teachers use SeeSaw to showcase the work of children and the class. Think of this as the mechanism to enlighten your understanding of your child’s education. No longer when you ask the question, “what did you do at school today”; will the answer “nothing” suffice. SeeSaw displays images of your child’s work, assessments, tasks and more. Parents can therefore interact with this work and with the teachers.

Rhyme Time

Little Discoverer’s Newman College Playgroup provides a child-focused environment. Children 0-3 years old and their parents can collaborate in a nurturing space. Sessions will promote learning opportunities through play, stories and rhyme, therefore developing children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills.

Newman College provides the perfect setting to explore Early Childhood Education Centre. Our dedicated and professional staff are skilled in the education of our youngest students. In addition, they have the ability to use Little Discoverer’s as an opportunity to commence a learning journey that will see children become familiar with a school based environment, supporting their transition to their very first years of schooling. We look forward to welcoming new and existing families to our Playgroup and providing a further opportunity for families to be involved in Newman College’s dynamic and child-centred community. Finally, the Rhyme Time is free to access. To apply, Click Here.

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