Our Philosophy
Secure, Safe, Respectful, Responsible, Honest, and Happy.
Ana Kindergarten, a division of the Australian Anatolian Community Services CO-OP is a Non-Profit Community Organisation, aimed at providing quality of care and educational program for children aged between 0 and 12, supporting families in their parenting roles, and working in partnership with families and community. We provide welcoming, inclusive, nurturing, secure, open-ended, and motivating environment, one that supports risk-taking, connection with nature and invites share ideas for children, educators, families and relevant stakeholders.
We believe that community engagement is important as it has an immense impact on children’s wellbeing and learning. Experiences of relationships and participation in community contribute to children’s ‘belonging, being and becoming’. Engaging with the community builds on children’s interest and expertise in being and becoming contributors to their world.
We believe that secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships provide children with a secure base for exploration and learning. Positive relationships help children to learn about their responsibility to others, to appreciate their connectedness and interdependence as learnings. Our educators believe that engaging in intentional teaching recognises that learning occurs in social context and that interactions and conversations are vitally important for children’s learning. ‘No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.’ – Dr James Comer Sustainability
We believe young children represent the first of the future generations which makes it important for us, as educators, to help the children realise the significance of caring for and protecting their environment. We believe in promoting sustainable practices in everyday learning. Educators, children and parents work together to show respect, care and appreciation for the natural environment.
We believe that sense of wellbeing in children incorporates both physical and psychological aspects and is central to belonging, being and becoming. Being healthy, well rested and free of illness assists children to be able to participate happily and successfully in the environment. Educators attend to children’s wellbeing by providing safe and secure environments, affirmation and respectful for all aspects of their physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, creative and spiritual being.
We believe indoor/ outdoor learning environments support all aspects of children’s learning and invite conversation between child, educator, family and broader community. Learning environments promote opportunity for sustainable shared thinking and collaborative learning. Our learning spaces invite open ended interaction, spontaneity, risk taking, exploration, discovery and connection with nature. Our environments is inclusive, promotes competence, independence and learning through play.
We believe working in collaborations with educator, families and children by using learning outcomes to guide then planning for children’s learning. We use the framework to guide the educators in their curriculum decision making as a part of an ongoing cycle to assist in planning, implementation and evaluating children’s learning. Educators intentionally scaffold children’s understanding and learning by making use of spontaneous and intentional teachable moments to extend on children’s learning. Educators also use reflective practice as a form of ongoing learning which involves engaging with questions of philosophy, ethic and practices.
We believe that families are children’s first and most influential teachers. Partnership are based on the foundation of understanding each other’s expectations and attitudes and build on the strengths of each other’s knowledge. We trust each other by communicating freely and respectfully with each other to engage in shared decision making.
We believe that being culturally competent is about building respectful relationships to support, promote and embrace cultural difference. It occurs overtime, by our connection with others and through our daily experiences with children and families in local communities, we can equip all children to live well with diversity and become active citizens now and into the future. It is through our commitment and our daily action to truly value difference that we become a community in which all can be long and flourish.
