Service Information

At Cockatoo Community Childcare we offer a play based, indoor/outdoor program which provides opportunities for individual and group learning in a natural setting.

Through child-initiated play and intentional teaching moments we aim to instil a love of life long learning while scaffolding and extending on each child’s current knowledge and abilities. Our programs are influenced by the children, families, educators, and the wider community.

We view children as competent, capable contributors and participants in their learning. We strive to provide a sense of belonging, safety, security, and agency for each child.

We do this by forming trusting relationships with children, allowing risk taking, providing choices, and acknowledging different abilities, learning styles, cultures, beliefs, and interests. We value the children’s voice and this is documented into our programming

We uphold and advocate for social justice, equality, and inclusivity. Educators respond to children’s ideas and play and extend children’s learning through open-ended questions, interactions, and feedback. Each child’s agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world.

We acknowledge that children belong first to a family and the support, input and information provided by families are crucial to maintaining high quality care and education.

We encourage the sharing of information and skills from families and members of the community. Therefore, we regularly attend our local library bus and have opportunities for exploring the bushlands and community gardens.

We view the learning environment ‘as the third teacher,’ as a potentially rich and rewarding learning opportunity.

We therefore aim to create an aesthetically pleasing environment that provides opportunities to facilitate choice, independence, inquiry, self-esteem, resilience and self-help skills; supporting the children to reach their full potential.

We believe we have an ethical responsibility to share and provide children and families with access to information about sustainability, waste minimisation and the impact of human activities on the environment.

Therefore, we embed sustainable practices throughout our daily routines and program.

We recognise the skills, values and knowledge of all the educators and support and encourage on-going professional learning.

We believe in the need for regular critical reflection to improve our practices.