Welcome to Squiggles & Giggles Early Learning Childcare Centre.

• We are a Centre providing quality care for children aged between 2 to 5 years
• Our hours of operation are 7 am to 6pm, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year for your convenience
• All children's meals are provided throughout the day, including hot lunch, morning and afternoon teas.
• The children's abilities in all aspects of their cognitive, language, physical, social and emotional development are individually assessed and enhanced in our programs and routines. A special school readiness program is also included for children who plan to attend school in the following year.
• When enrolling your child, please ensure that all immunization and family assistance records are current and that copies of these records are provided with the enrolment form as well as your child's birth certificate.
• Please note that all items that your child brings must be clearly labeled with your child's full name.

Thank you for your enquiry, and please feel free to contact us at any time, should you have any queries. Alternatively, you will be most welcome to come in and have a chat

AIM

The Licensee/Supervisor/Director and staff of Squiggles & Giggles believe that the early years of a child's life are their most influential.  It is within these years that a child develops the foundation skills and abilities that will carry them through life. Our Educators feel by being attuned to children's thoughts and feelings, support the development of a strong sense of wellbeing.  Our aim is to work closely with families to form a partnership, where educators can develop learning programs responsive to children's ideas, interests, strengths and abilities, and recognise that children learn through play. Fundamental to the EYLF is the view that children's lives and childhood is a time of Belonging, Being and Becoming. 

We aim to:

• Work as partners with parents and families of the children.
• Provide information, contacts and support for the children, parents, and families.
• Provide high quality care and learning environment.
• Provide a program based on the Early Years Learning Framework where all children experience learning that is engaging and builds success for life.
• Provide a safe, secure, happy and loving home like environment where children have a sense of belonging.
• Provide a place where childhood is a time to be, to seek and make meaning of the world.
• Provide an environment that has vibrant and flexible spaces that are responsive to interests and abilities of each child.
• An environment rich in resources to stimulate learning and development.
• Provide staff that are experienced in nurturing, caring and valuing children.
• Recognise, respond, to all children's strengths, abilities and interests.  We value and build upon children's strengths, skills and knowledge to ensure their motivation and engagement in learning.
• Respond to children's expertise, cultural traditions and ways of knowing, the multiple languages spoken by some children, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and strategies used by children with additional needs to negotiate their everyday lives.

Source: Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments.

MISSION STATEMENT

At Squiggles & Giggles we acknowledge the importance of play in early childhood development.  Play is very important and the  most effective tool  and is central to a child's learning and development.  Play is non threatening, spontaneous, and meaningful.  Through play babies and young children explore and learn to understand the world around them as they come to communicate, discover, imagine and create.  When children play they are showing what they have learned and what they are trying to understand. When children play with other children they create social group, test out ideas, challenge each other's thinking and build new understandings. 

This is why play is one of the foundations of the Early Years Learning Framework.  By using this Framework educators will guide children's play by carefully designing learning activities and stimulating indoor and outdoor learning environments. We also acknowledge that each child is unique and therefore will progress at their own pace. The EYLF is a key component of the National Quality Framework which has been developed by Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to assist educators to provide young children throughout Australia in their early years opportunities to maximise their potential and develop a foundation for success in the future.

The Framework's vision is for all children to experience play-based learning that is engaging and builds success for life.  

• Belonging is the basis for living a fulfilling life.  Where children feel the belong because of the relationships they have with their family, community, culture and place.
• Being is about living here and now.  Childhood is a special time in life and children need time to just ?be'-time to play, try new things and have fun. 
• Becoming is about the learning and development that young children experience.  Children start to form their sense of identity from an early age, which shapes the type of adult they will become.

The framework focuses on your child's learning.  Educators will work with you in order to get to know your child well.  At this centre we will create a learning program that builds on your child's interests and abilities and keep you in touch with your child's progress.  Through the Framework's five learning goals educators will assist your child develop:

• A strong sense of their identity (have confidence in themselves and to form friendships)
• Connections with their world (learn to respect the environment and cultural diversity)
• A strong sense of wellbeing (socially, emotionally & physically)
• Confidence and involvement in their learning (explore, create, learn, experiment)
• Effective communication skills (by using literacy and numeracy to communicate)

Source: Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments.

CENTRE GOALS: EYLF OUTCOMES

Outcome 1

• Children to feel safe, secure, and supported
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency
• Children develop knowledgeable and confident self identities
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect

Outcome 2

• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation
• Children respond to diversity with respect
• Children become aware of fairness
• Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

Outcome 3

• Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing
• Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing

Outcome 4

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
• Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another
• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials

Outcome 5

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others from a range of purposes
• Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media
• Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
• Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking

Source: Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments.