Buddies Early Learning Centre

Buddies Philosophy
Buddies strives to create a home like environment that is welcoming and warm, there is a strong emphasis on partnerships with families and the surrounding community. A Family's cultural and linguistic diversity is embraced and acknowledged, with the Jewish culture embedded into the program. Buddies provides a Jewish and Hebrew learning curriculum with values and experiences that enable each child to make meaning of their Jewish identity. Engenders values, knowledge and skills so that children can contribute their full amount to their community as Jewish and Australian. An integral part of this is to build a positive and open relationship with our families.
Buddies provides an educationally appropriate and inclusive curriculum using the Early Years Learning Framework to grow and nurture the whole child. At Buddies we acknowledge that the early years are the most important and are the foundation of future learning. We recognise the value of play and encourage children to be explorers of their environment. At Buddies we enable children to learn to respect and care for all living things, by teaching responsibility and role modelling care for the natural environment. Buddies is aiming to be a sustainable centre and embedding this into the children to make them more informed citizens. The daily program is designed specifically for child and adult directed activities.
Staff are committed to ongoing training and learning and are respected for their individual strengths and abilities they bring to the centre.

Learning
Buddies has Bachelor qualified educators, together with their qualified and experienced support team. We use The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) with the three key concepts of Belonging, Being and Becoming shaping our focus on the learning and development of children in their early years.
As part of your child's day, we have Storypark to record and communicate learning as it happens. You receive instant feedback as we plan new ways to extend your child's unique interests and abilities.
Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
The EYLF is a government initiative that outlines a national curriculum for children from birth to 5 years.
Belonging, Being and Becoming are the foundation stones within the EYLF that focus on a child’s development.
Belonging is focused on the children feeling safe and secure and building sustained meaningful relationships within our service.
Being is celebrating the child and their individuality and transforming their interests into meaningful experiences.
Becoming is focused on the independence, confidence and aptitude for learning a child will develop as they grow. This is linked with skills children may need for school readiness.
The Framework includes principles, practices and outcomes.
The principles guide educator practices with participation from families and our community. The practices require play-based learning (developed from children’s interests), inclusivity, holistic development and intentional teaching moments. Lastly the outcomes provide educators with key indicators of learning to assist in their planning, observations and daily practices.
The emphasis on play based learning is immersed within the principles, practices and outcomes of the Framework. Play is an integral part of the Framework, specifically designed for each child’s interest, keeping in mind the children’s sense of agency, individuality and ownership. At our centres further exploration and extension of a child’s interests requires the inclusion of our educators’ personal pedagogical practices which are aligned with the centres’ philosophy.
Our under three year old rooms
Our goal is to focus on building connections and meaningful relationships with each child and their families. At this age, what’s essential is that each child feels safe and secure, takes risks and are encouraged to develop at their own pace, being fully supported and guided by our educators.
Our three year old room
Children in our three year old room enjoy the benefits of educators who develop individualised play based learning programs with a focus on the child’s interests. We incorporate enrichment programs and children benefit from our high educator to child ratio.
Our 4 year old room
Children in our four year old room are developing self help skills, confidence, resilience and pre-literacy and numeracy skills through our educational programs which have been designed specifically with the school readiness program in mind.
Assessment and Rating
Buddies operates under the National Quality Framework and is assessed and rated against the National Quality Standards by the requirements of the National Law and National Regulations.
The National Regulations and the National Quality Standard are organised around seven quality areas. These areas cover best practice and the way in which high-quality education and care is to be delivered.
In our most recent Assessment and Ratings review at Jasper Rd. we received the highest standard possible in all 7 quality areas (exceeding).

Community
At Buddies we believe in social cultural theory, which acknowledges how social learning occurs in a cultural context and how children learn from each other, adults, and the community in which they belong.
For children, a sense of community plays an important role in the development of their feelings of belonging and security. Children thrive in an environment of mutually supportive and caring relationships. For this reason developing a sense of community within Buddies is crucial.
Strong links with the local community also provide educators with invaluable information and resources. With this in mind Buddies has developed rich relationships within the community which includes local excursions, participating in and contributing to community events, inviting community members and organisations into our services—all of these demonstrate the diversity of our community and assist children in understanding the importance of these connections.
By drawing on community knowledge and expertise, our educators are better able to understand the children and families with whom they work and are therefore confident to provide children with learning experiences that are meaningful and relevant to their lives.

Sustainability
Buddies values equity of resources, which means our centres impart the sharing of resources to ensure they are available for future generations. We believe that by teaching the younger generations these values we can contribute to a sustainable future.
Buddies is a leader in the community with comprehensive and varying programs embedded into the children’s everyday practices. This is achieved through our “collaboration of sustainability officers” who are a mix of children and educators.
Children can be supported to become responsible and show respect for the environment when sustainbale practices are embeded in the curriculum. To achieve this, pro-active polices and procedures are supported and practiced consistently by staff, children and families.
Buddies environments engage with the outside world, as demonstrated by the following.

Natural Play Spaces
The Buddies environment supports the concept of Belonging by being welcoming to children and families.

Nutrition
All meals are prepared on our premises by our centre cook and include breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and supper. We offer a four week rotating menu with vegetarian options. We endeavor to use organic and seasonal produce where we can. We regularly review and update our menu in line with current guidelinesincorporating recommendations from www.eatforhealth.gov.au
Our centre has a Five Star Quality Rating awarded by the Glen Eira Council and we comply with the requirements of the Food Safety Plan that is assessed annually by both local council and an independent Auditor.
To ensure a varied and nutritious menu our cooks plan using the guidelines from Nutrition Australia and dietitian staff.
The environmental spaces are warm and inviting, consistent and predictable and provide a sense of ownership and involvement for the children. They also provide challenges and some risk, as well as opportunies for children to make choices, all of which helps them to feel a sense of achievement, (self esteem/identity/feeling good about yourself).

Culture
Buddies is focused on the cultural sense of the community and as such, offers and encourages special events around the Jewish calender. Families cultural and linguistic diversity is embraced and acknowledged, with Jewish cultural activities related to the sabbath and particular high holydays and Israel being studied, discussed and celebrated.
Learning about Jewish culture through hands on experiences such as, baking Challah on a Friday, preparing Matza for Passover and having a visit from a bee keeper to teach us about honey prior to Rosh Hashana is celebrated throughout the calendar year. The immersion of Jewish culture through the everyday curriculum embeds knowledge, customs and rituals and gives meaning and purpose to the childrens’ appreciation and understanding of these practices.
We engage and invite families to many joyous gatherings during the year to share in our customs and celebrations. For example, we have a weekly Shabbat programme where two children are asked to be the Imma and Abba, with their extended families attending to celebrate the event with them. Families are also invited to share our Passover Seder, Purim parade and feast, and our Succot party, amongst other activities.