Learning Unlimited Childcare Philosophy
At Learning Unlimited Childcare centre, we strive to provide a warm, loving, fun and safe environment to our children. By following each child’s curiosity, creativity and interest, we create endless possibilities and opportunities for learning at our childcare setting.
Our philosophy’s development is based on the four principles of Te Whāriki, the National Early Childhood Curriculum. These principles are:
Family and community
At Learning Unlimited, we recognize the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi and therefore Te Reo (language) and Tikanga (custom) Maori are woven into our daily practice. We take pride in ourselves to be a community based as well as a multicultural centre.
Therefore we welcome families from different cultures and we value their contribution to complete the identity and uniqueness of our centre. We also believe in the inclusion of children with diverse needs and we will modify our curriculum where possible to support all children in their learning.
Empowerment
We are committed to prepare and plan our environment in such a way to foster positive self-image and confidence in the children at LU.
We believe in the power of positive role-modelling, which has a profound influence on our children. Through role-modelling, our teachers strive to promote many internal skills such as perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism in our children, which help the children become independent, life-long learners and contributing members of the society.
Holistic Development
We aim to always be aware of each child’s individual interests, strengths and levels of development.
This serves as the foundation of our curriculum which aims to foster development of children in the cognitive, spatial, social-emotional, spiritual, logical, physical and language domains. Values play an important role within our programme. We encourage children to think laterally about how they respond and the effect on others. We believe that a successful life has as much to do with emotions and behavior as it does with academic achievement (Gayne, 2004). Excellent facilities and resources are provided to promote both gross and fine motor skills development.
Relationships:
We strive to meet the needs of parents/whānau, who play the primary role in the development of their children.
It is paramount to establish and maintain reciprocal relationships between staff, children and their parents/ whānau. Children and their parents/whānau are greeted warmly as they arrive at the centre. Management and staff are always available to talk to parents regarding to their suggestions and concerns.