Welcome to Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre. Our centre is a private organisation established in 2011 for the long day care and education of children between the ages of 6 months-6 year olds. Our hours: 7.30am - 6.00pm Monday to Friday (closed on public holidays).
At Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre we believe education is very important this is why we have created a program that is educational, individualised and fun for your child. We have incorporated the Reggio Emilia Approach into our program with the support of the Emergent Curriculum and the Early Years Learning framework.
The Reggio Emilia program is one that builds upon the interests of the children. Topics for study are captured from talk of children, through community or family events, but the most worthwhile are the children's interests. Children learn about themselves and the world around them through investigation and discovery.
The educator takes the child's interest and turns it into a learning process and allows the child to be not just learning but sharing and developing their own knowledge.
We welcome all enquiries and look forward to showing you our lovely centre.
Dr Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) founded the 'Reggio Emilia' approach at a city in northern Italy called Reggio Emilia. Today, the Reggio approach to early childhood education has attracted the worldwide attention of educators, researchers and just about anyone interested in early childhood education best practices. This approach to teaching has been adopted all over the world, such as, USA, UK, New Zealand and now Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre Parramatta NSW.
According to Dr Malaguzzi, her research has demonstrated that the first years in a child’s life is a crucial time because during this phase their brain develops and much of its 'wiring' is laid down. Positive education, experiences and relationships a child has will be with them right into adulthood.
So what is Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre all about?? Well, to begin with, the centres Reggio approach views the children as capable, competent, resourceful, curious, imaginative and inquisitive people. They believe children learn best through interaction with others, including parents, staff and peers in a friendly learning environment. They encourage children to learn about themselves and the world around them through investigation and discovery.
At Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre, they believe that children shouldn't be expected to all have the same ways of expressing themselves. Therefore children learn and explore many principles, such as science, math and language through projects directly related to those interests. The program considers collaborative group work and project work, both large and small, to be extremely valuable and necessary to advance Cognitive Development, Physical Development, Social Development and Language and Literacy Development.
Children are encouraged to dialogue, critique, compare, negotiate, hypothesise and problem solve through group work and working through a variety of fun and innovative projects. Children work on projects that are concrete, important to them and of interest to them. The projects can emerge from children's ideas, they can be provoked by teachers and they can also derive from the teachers knowing what is of interest to the children.
The teacher’s role at Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre is to be a researcher along with the children. The teacher takes the child's interest and turns it into a learning process and allows the child to be not just learning but sharing and developing their own knowledge.
This exciting and innovative teaching approach also includes an Italian and Spanish language program and a music program delivered by a qualified music teacher. The children are involved in an educational program that includes an abundance of expressive elements such as paint, clay, art, music, drama, cooking, etc.
The Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre was architecturally designed with the Reggio Emilia approach in mind. It offers the best resources and facilities in the childcare industry, and is considered a bench mark in what all Early Learning Centres should be like in the future.
At Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre we have a strong commitment to provide high quality care and education for young children and their families. To achieve this we base our program on a strong knowledge base and the current research of best early childhood practice. The program reflects the Reggio Emilia Curriculum, the Emergent Curriculum and the Early Years Learning Framework.
The program at Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre encourages children to actively participate in a number of varied, challenging and interesting learning experiences. The children learn to communicate, investigate, make independent choices, decision make and express themselves through a variety of learning experiences in a friendly supportive and fail free environment, where independence and co-operation is encouraged and appropriate behaviour is reinforced.
The children are encouraged to work on projects that are concrete, important to them and of interest to them. The projects can emerge from children's ideas, they can be provoked by teachers and they can also derive from the teachers knowing what is of interest to the children.
The Program Reflects
Daily Routine
Encouraging self help skills during meal times.
Making toileting & nappy change times positive learning experiences.
Keeping the daily routine as consistent as possible.
Group times, Language groups, Music & Spontaneous group times
Change of the routine can happen due to children's interests and weather conditions.
Environment
The Reggio Emilia Environment is considered the "third teacher, we believe the teacher to be a teacher-researcher, a resource and guide as she/he lends expertise to the children.
The environment being structured into 'Learning Centres' Organising the environment to be accessible to all children.
Organising the learning environment so children have free choice experiences
Internal And External Contributions And Participation
Parental and family participation to the program eg: cultural experiences, storytelling, cooking, teaching their home language.
Interactions & Relationships
Group experiences that involve turn taking
Experiences designed for more than one child
Dramatic play
Managing positive and negative interactions with peers and adults and the environment
Diversity & Inclusion
Differences of culture, family, age, gender, language and religion
Experiences that appreciate additional needs
Partnerships With Families
Parent, grandparent and family involvement
Feedback on our centre program, philosophy and policies
Parents to provide educators with information on their children's learning styles, interests and external experiences.
School Transition
Our centres have links to schools in the local area. Many of our children start their school experience at these schools, so it is important that we establish and maintain good relationships with them to support the children's transition.
Throughout the year we work on school readiness experiences to get children ready for school. The preschoolers are placed into their own group throughout the day, and participate in relevant experiences/projects that interest and educate them.
Towards the end of the year the school readiness program is more structured and the children are involved in a variety of fun related 'school' experiences.
The centre's Transition to School Program aims to support children to:
Develop confidence in going to school
Have trust in the adults at the school
Develop effective social/group skills
Develop confidence in themselves
Develop effective pre-writing, number, shapes, colours and letter recognition skills.
Developmental Records
Developmental records and reports to parents are completed by the qualified teachers and given to parents. Parents are given formal information about their child via a Developmental Checklist two times per year. This checklist is given to parents in June and then updated with a view to complete in December.
