Our philosophy

We believe that relationships are at the heart of all learning. Our team reaches out to children and their families to establish responsive and supportive relationships, where all family members can feel safe, secure and comfortable. We value each child’s unique experience of family, community and culture, knowing that each aspect of a child’s life must be present in their early care and learning experiences (sometimes even their teddy bears!). We affirm the family as the centre of each child’s life; finding ways to acknowledge these relationships within the learning groups in the centre. Many of our centre’s families are students or teachers from other parts of the world. Our team supports cultural, linguistic and religious diverse families by developing programs which are inclusive to their experiences and needs.

Our each learning group develop a unique group culture, based on all the participants, where a sense of belonging is cultivated for all ages and interests.

Our team creates programs where each child’s needs are addressed in the first instance (Marlowe’s Hierarchy of Needs). We acknowledge that human needs are uniquely expressed by each child and we learn each child’s cues and preferences. Murdoch University Child Care Centre is aware of and acts on our protective care responsibility (mandated) across all contexts, that the children participate in.

The curricula for each group are based on providing opportunities for children to feel empowered to plan, reflect and make choices throughout each day. Through participation in all aspects of the program, children are able to implement emergent skills as responsible participants in the learning and care context.

As early education professionals, we believe that the play environment is the “third teacher”. We create and maintain play and learning environments which invite imagination, exploration and experimentation as well as a sense of homeliness, wonder and love of the natural world. Our educators provide opportunities for children to participate in environmentally responsible practices. We are dedicated to finding ways to minimise toxicity, waste and pollution.

We acknowledge that children are in the midst of continuously developing strategies to respond to their world. Therefore, the team guide, support and inspire them to express and cope with challenging feelings (rather than isolate and shame them for their emerging impulse and emotional skills).

We embrace our place in the Murdoch University learning community and find ways to emphasise learning skills that children can use throughout their lives, in a range of contexts. These include: observation, reflection, collaboration, experimentation, research, evaluation and repetition. When appropriate, the children spend time in the University exploring ways that adults learn and apply knowledge in a range of contexts (that include laboratories, lecture theatres, libraries, clinics, cafes, paddocks). This approach is imbedded in the belief that children’s own interests, preferences, lived experience relationships/interactions and dispositions should drive the curricula.

As a team, the educators at Murdoch University Child Care Centre engage in their own reflective practice, where the learning skills are modelled. As a team, we keep up to date with professional development and contemporary research. The team assess and evaluates teaching and caring strategies and embraces continuous improvement. Where appropriate the centre implements ‘best practice’ (including low child to educator ratios) as it emerges from the Early Years Learning profession. Murdoch University Child Care Centre fully participates in all government, peak professional and industry accreditation, quality frameworks and standards.