Curriculum

Early Learning Centre

Our welcoming, nurturing and loving environment values all children and families and the contribution they make to teaching and learning. Carefully planned, quality play experiences provide opportunities for our children to practise and develop skills and make sense of their world. Diversity and uniqueness is celebrated, regardless of age, gender, race, cultural background or additional needs.

We are informed by the Early Years Learning Framework that is supportive of a range of different theories and approaches to Early Childhood and extends and enriches children’s learning from birth to five years.

The ELC’s curriculum and pedagogy is based on the belief that:

Play-based experiences are meaningful, and through active exploration, a child gains confidence, learns strategies for thinking and reasoning and develops working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds.

Our ELC provides a unique Orthodox and Hellenic experience with a particular focus on Greek language and culture where children and educators interact in both Greek and English in fun and purposeful ways.

Our Early Intervention Program, identifies students in the early years who need additional help with their learning and are supported by special education staff and other professionals.

Routines are established to provide opportunities to learn about order, sequencing, and concepts of time. Established routines make for smoother transitions and help children to prepare mentally for the day ahead while providing frameworks in which creative learning can occur. This provides opportunities for making decisions and acting responsibly, and having a daily schedule that helps ease a child’s transition to the structure of the school setting.

View our Early Learning Centre Programs below:

ELC Philosophy

The ELC Philosophy is linked to the College Mission Statement “To inspire and empower our students to achieve their academic, personal and spiritual best”.

St George College is a Christian school, based on the Greek Orthodox faith. We serve a community that includes and welcomes those from a diverse range of faiths and cultural settings.

As educators within the St George College Early Learning Centre, we believe in the importance of creating a welcoming, nurturing and loving environment which values all children and families and the contribution they make to teaching and learning in our Centre.  We believe in the primacy of early learning as the foundation for children’s future development. We strive for excellence in our practice and pride ourselves on the communication and relationships we foster within our vibrant school community. We recognise the importance of establishing strong relationships and working in partnership with families to support children’s development, as well as facilitating a life-long interest and enjoyment of learning.

Our aim is to provide a high quality, educational, language and play-based program that responds to the needs and interests of individual children within a happy, safe, nurturing and stimulating environment. Our children flourish by forming secure attachments and reach their full potential by becoming confident, independent learners with a positive self-esteem.

Our carefully planned, quality play experiences will provide opportunities for our children to practise and develop skills and make sense of their world through investigation, exploration, manipulation, questioning and discovery.

We also respect and acknowledge each child as an individual learner with their own strengths and needs. We value and celebrate diversity and uniqueness regardless of age, gender, race, cultural background or additional needs.

As educators, the love and respect for our children will help them develop the ‘whole’ self. Spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual growth will allow children to thrive and have well rounded experiences described as the “Belonging, Being, Becoming” in the Early Years Learning Framework.  Because we believe that each child is capable and competent, within our service children have agency and autonomy and are supported to make wise choices.

By working collaboratively as a team to generate effective observations of each child and by encompassing the culture and beliefs of each family, we will create a rich program to cater to each child’s interests and individual learning styles. Our goal is to foster and encourage the potential of children as citizens of today and to support them in becoming proficient and active participants in society.

We acknowledge and respect the values and customs of the traditional custodians of this land.  We would also like to pay our respects to the elders both past and present. The Kaurna people lived here for thousands of years, raising and teaching their children. We extend our hands in friendship as we walk together on this land.

We are informed by the Early Years Learning Framework that is supportive of a range of different theories and approaches to Early Childhood. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) extends and enriches children’s learning from birth to five years (Australian Government, 2009:5).

The ELC’s curriculum and pedagogy is based on the belief that:

Play-based experiences are meaningful, and through active exploration, a child gains confidence, learns strategies for thinking and reasoning and develops working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds.

Our ELC provides a unique Orthodox and Hellenic experience with a particular focus on Greek language and culture where children and educators interact in both Greek and English in fun and purposeful ways.

We also have an Early Intervention Program, which identifies students in the early years who need additional help with their learning and are supported by special education staff and other professionals.

For more information about our Early Learning Centre programs, 

please contact:

Pauline Rugari
Registrar
E: registrar@sgc.sa.edu.au
P: 08 8159 8100