About Us

We believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a caring and safe environment which fosters natural curiosity, respect for all things and all people, promotes spontaneous play and learning that takes place both indoors and outdoors. We strongly value a play-based approach as this is where we are grounded by “being” in the moment – we immerse ourselves in the child’s imaginative mind, and give them space to experiment and learn from their surroundings.

We aim to support and extend upon children’s knowledge of the world with experiences that encourage children to make choices, explore, create, take challenges, appreciate diversity, imagine and discover all whilst learning and making lifelong friendships. We value the diversity of families in our community and embed learning of our First Nation’s Peoples in “becoming” culturally inclusive. We aim to do this through creating warm, welcoming and safe environments with open-ended and purposeful learning with careful consideration to non-tokenistic approaches to educating our children to be future responsible and respectful community citizens.

In the words of our children – our educators at Crayon House provide an environment that is “safe”, “friendly”, “restful”, “cuddly”, “like family”, with plenty of toys and experiences that give the children plenty of opportunities to be filled with wonder of their world. We seek to teach our children how to be active participants through sustainable practices for a bright and beautiful future – encouraging their natural curiosity to ask questions about their place in the world while learning to live and play happily with their environment and those around them. Every day is important when it comes to nurturing a child’s spirit and providing learning opportunities. We can only live that day once so let’s make each day one to be remembered!

Crayon House Childcare uses a software called OWNA. Children’s development and learning both individually and in groups is documented and sent to families via an app which can be installed on your mobile or via email.

During your child’s day of attendance, you will receive a daily diary entry documenting the experiences your child has been involved in including photos. You will also receive monthly individual learning observations.

OWNA also has a text message feature so you can connect with your child educators. We understand it’s important for families to feel connected with their child during the day when they are in care. OWNA supports communication and building trusting relationships between families and educators.

The Early Years Learning Framework has a vision for children’s learning. This vision is upheld by our Educators who are passionate about implementing the framework at our service.

“Being, Belonging and Becoming”, refers to how children are linked to family, community, culture and place.

Being – to experience what is happening here and now, life in the present. For children, understanding that they are accepted for who they are and knowing that others care about them is important. Childhood is a time to play, try new things and have fun. When a child has a sense of being they build and maintain relationships with others, take part in life’s journey and face challenges in everyday life.

Belonging – children feel they belong because of the relationships they have with their family, community, culture and place. When children have a sense of belonging they are more confident, feel more secure, are more creative and more likely to explore the world of learning.

Becoming – to experience change through different events and circumstances in one’s life. A child’s sense of becoming refers to the changes they experience as they grow, learn and develop.

Within early childhood, a child’s sense of being changes overtime as they gain knowledge, extend their understandings, create relationships and develop skills. Through these relationships a child’s development and learning takes place as they begin to explore, develop interests, create their own identity and make meaning to the world around them.

It is our goal to support your child to be themselves and guide their own learning. To come to place where they feel a sense of belonging, and assist them in their learning journey to become the next generation!

The Early Years Learning Framework has five outcomes Educators use to govern and link to children’s learning, the outcomes are

• Outcome 1- Children have a strong sense of identity
• Outcome 2- Children are connected with and contribute to their world
• Outcome 3- Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
• Outcome 4- Children are confident and involved learners
• Outcome 5- Children are effective communicators

Our educators provide an open ended, emergent learning environment which encourages exploration, investigation, imagination, communication and promotes each child’s sense of agency by encouraging children to make choices about their learning. This encourages and supports children to become competent and confident learners within our community. The learning environment allows children to engage with a variety of experiences both planned through intentional teaching and spontaneous this allows children to explore, learn and discover their surroundings through a play based curriculum. Educators recognise that both planned and spontaneous experiences, whether in play or routine, are valuable teaching moments and learning opportunities. Children are provided with an environment that fosters a range of developmental areas with a focus on the importance of the natural environment.

Every experience that happens in a day can be used a time to teach skills and development!

Crayon House Childcare aims to provide the Kindy children with all the skills they will need to be prepared and confident to make the transition into Primary School.

For children aged between 3-5 years of age we have two qualified Early Childhood Education Teachers who have a focus on school readiness, whilst still programming for individual interests and abilities.

We also program specific school readiness activities based on literacy, numeracy, fine motor, gross motor, cognitive and social skills development.

This program is based on the children’s interests, strengths and family input.

At Crayon House Childcare we will ensure that the guidance of children’s behaviour will reflect the Philosophy of our centre, and that the child will be given positive guidance towards behaviour that is acceptable.

The behaviour guidance we provide children with will be guided by the following practices:

• Our educators will support children to explore different identities and points of view and to communicate effectively when resolving disagreements with others.
• Our educators will discuss emotions, feelings and issues of inclusion and fairness, bias and prejudice and the consequences of their actions and the reasons for this as well as the appropriate rules.
• Our service will encourage children to engage in cooperative and pro-social behaviour and express their feelings and responses to others’ behaviour confidently and constructively, including challenging the behaviour of other children when it is disrespectful or unfair.
• Our educators will encourage children to listen to other children’s ideas, consider alternate behaviour and cooperate in problem solving situations.
• Our educators will listen empathetically to children when they express their emotions, reassure them that it is normal to experience positive and negative emotions and guide children to remove themselves from situations where they are experiencing frustration, anger or fear.
• Our educators will support children to negotiate their rights and rights of others and intervene sensitively when children experience difficulty in resolving a disagreement.
• Our educators will learn about children’s relationships with others and the relationship preferences they have and use this knowledge to support children manage their own behaviour and develop empathy.
• Our educators will work with each child’s family and, where applicable, their school, to ensure that a consistent approach is used to support children with diagnosed behavioural or social difficulties.
• Our service will collaborate with professionals or support agencies that work with children who have diagnosed behavioural or social difficulties to develop plans for the inclusion of these specific children. These will be kept in the individual child’s file.
• Our service will ensure that children are being allowed to make choices and experience the consequences of these choices when there is no risk of physical or emotional harm to the child or anyone else.
• Our service will ensure that children are being acknowledged when they make positive choices in managing their behaviour.
• Our educators will guide all children’s behaviour in ways that are focused on preserving and promoting children’s self-esteem as well as supporting children to develop skills to self-regulate their behaviour.
• Our educators will speak in comforting tones and hold babies to soothe them when they are distressed.
• We will have strategies in place to involve children in developing behaviour limits and the consequences of inappropriate behaviour. Strategies will also be put in place for educators to manage situations when a child’s behaviour is particularly challenging and when families have different expectations from the service in relation to guiding children’s behaviour.
• Our service will support educators to enhance their skills and knowledge in relation to guiding children’s behaviour.
• Our educators will use positive language, gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice when redirecting or discussing children’s behaviour with them. They will also remain calm, gentle, patient and reassuring even when children strongly express distress, frustration or anger.