Alison’s update
Chief Operating Officer
Welcome to our April 2024 Family Newsletter. When caring for young children, it is important to understand that every family is unique. May 15 is the United Nations International Day of Families, a global observance that focuses on the importance of families. At Petit Early Learning Journey, we respect that all families are diverse and unique. We believe in building strong relationships with our families through everything we do, from our philosophy to our curriculum. Our environments, policies and strategies reflect our commitment to nurturing positive and meaningful family partnerships.
Behind the scenes, Julie Ker, our National Quality and Education Practice Advisor, regularly connects with our educational leaders and centre management teams to share essential information on programming, practice, and environments, inviting educators to reflect on and act on selected topics that have flow-on effects for our families. These topics support our third and fourth quality improvement focus areas across Petit Early Learning Journey for 2024 — Communication: Shared moments each day for each child; and Learning: Developing visibility of learning through Storypark and in the studios.
We have observed our centre teams’ dedication to creating meaningful documentation of children’s learning, emphasising each child’s learning learning stories. Teaching teams use the Studio Program books and Storypark daily to observe, assess, plan, implement, reflect and evaluate each child’s learning and growth. Aside from written observations and reflections, this area may include images, drawings, written ideas, and thoughts of the world seen through your child’s eyes. You will also notice displays of learning within your child’s studios that showcase what children have learnt and how they learn, focusing on the process rather than the end result.
We will continue to share our centres’ learning insights with you in our National Family Newsletter which is moving to bi-monthly as we are a smaller group. Please talk to your Centre Director if you would like more information on family events or how we support, partner and communicate with families at your centre. We are always here to help.
Exceptional performer for April
Rebecca Harney from Petit Early Learning Journey Forest Hill
Congratulations to Assistant Centre Director Rebecca Harney from Petit ELJ Forest Hill, this month’s exceptional performer. Rebecca is a long-standing employee who is consistently proactive and responsive and always considers the team and children.
Rebecca’s enthusiasm and support for educators to put critical reflection into action are highly regarded by her peers, as is the support she demonstrates to her Centre Director and Educational Leader in embedding and growing quality practices.
What do you enjoy most about your role as Assistant Centre Director?
As Assistant Centre Director, I enjoy the positive impact I can have on those around me. I am there to support the team, children and families and form strong connections with them. It has been very rewarding to witness the growth within each individual team member from their commencement with Petit ELJ to now.
How did you get started in the early childhood education and care sector?
I’ve worked in early childhood for ten years and have been with Petit ELJ for over eight years. Before this, I worked as a chef, focusing on patisserie. Although I enjoy and am passionate about cooking, I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to devote myself to. That’s when I thought I would step completely away from what I had learnt and dive headfirst into something I knew nothing about. After completing my first placement, I knew I loved working with children. No two days are the same, and the connections you form with the children and families make working in this sector so rewarding.
Do you prefer working indoors, outdoors or both?
Indoors or outdoors? My answer will always be both! We are so fortunate to run an indoor and outdoor program at Petit ELJ. Both environments provide wonderful learning opportunities for all involved.
I am a very big believer in outdoor play, getting outside and enjoying the fresh air, basking in the sun during summer, crunching on fallen leaves in autumn, jumping in puddles and squelching mud in the winter and picking flowers in the spring.
What is your most memorable experience with Petit ELJ?
Being with Petit ELJ for eight years certainly makes it difficult to choose just one moment. Each year, it has been wonderful to join the Petit team from around Victoria as a community as we celebrate Christmas together. It’s a great chance to build further relationships with other educators, share our experiences and connect.
Feature article
Socio-Dramatic play at Petit Early Learning Journey Wooloowin
Report by Educational Leader Elizabeth Wisowaty
What is Dramatic Play?
Dramatic play is how children imitate the world around them, and they do this through representation and role play.
In representation play, children pretend that one object stands in for another. In younger children, this is more often an exact replica. For example, they may use a play telephone, but by the time the children are around three years old, they may use a block to represent the telephone.
In role play, children pretend to be someone else. A toddler may pretend to be someone or something familiar, like a parent or an animal, whereas a preschooler can be something more abstract, like a pirate.
What is Socio-Dramatic Play?
When imaginative/dramatic play is shared with others, it becomes sociodramatic play. Sociodramatic play can involve the use of props, costumes, and scenery, but this isn’t a requirement. It is possible for sociodramatic play to use nothing but children’s imagination.
Sociodramatic play allows children to explore and create new worlds. The possibilities of children’s sociodramatic play are endless. This teaching practice can be a powerful tool for learning language, as children take on roles/characters, act out various scenarios and stories, and solve problems using language and movement.
In line with Vygotsky’s (1967) socio-cultural learning, play allows a more capable “player” to support the children. For sociodramatic play, this means that older peers and educators can model more advanced play. This will then allow children to learn collaboratively and eventually be able to engage in more advanced sociodramatic play by themselves.
Educators model and extend upon children’s play to challenge them to continue building upon their own independent play experiences. We love seeing our educators join in this type of play!
What does this look like at Petit ELJ?
At Petit ELJ Wooloowin, all of our studios have spaces for socio-dramatic play. While we may refer to this as “home corner”, it may take on many different forms. At other times, home corner has become a train, a library and a space station!
Earlier this year, our Treasure Cove studio children had an ongoing interest in dramatic play around camping. A small group of children started this dramatic play experience in the outdoor environment. They created a space in their yard for a pretend campfire.
Over time, and supported by the educator’s intentional teaching, the Treasure Cove studio home corner housed a full-size tent, as more children were captivated by the experience and wanted to join in the sociodramatic play experience.
Community connections
Petit Early Learning Journey Clifton Hill conquers 86K for a Cure
Report from Centre Director Alana Olivieri
The Petit Early Learning Journey Clifton Hill team walked, ran and tracked their steps in March to contribute to the 86K for a Cure fundraiser for Children’s Cancer Institute while promoting donations within the community. Educators used excursions with the children as opportunities to go towards their total step count.
Thanks to our supportive and generous centre community, we raised and donated $1,047, exceeding our target of $1,000.
Within a child’s early learning journey, educators support children every day to learn and grow so they have the opportunity to use the skills they are taught throughout their adult lives. Children’s Cancer Institute also believes that each child has the right to grow up and grow old, chase their dreams, and reach their full potential, which is why we feel so aligned to support this great cause.
As we work so closely with children daily, we believe that this cause and charity deserves our support to raise awareness and funds to contribute to finding a cure through children’s cancer research.
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Latest parent review
Petit Early Learning Journey Kew
“Our son attended Petit Kew from the time he was about 14 months old, until we sadly had to move house just before his third birthday. We miss the team and community at Kew daily! Not only did we feel he was cared for, we genuinely loved coming in every day. Seeing his and the team’s happy faces and being greeted with such warmth and enthusiasm every time made our lives so much easier (being honest dropping a toddler at childcare is not always easy….) and the friends he made and the fun he had made us so happy. THANK YOU endlessly to the Petit Kew team.”
– Emily & Tom Shields
Our culture: Opening up the world with inquiry-based learning
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Experiences from around our services
Petit Early Learning Journey Coffs Harbour recycles cardboard into art
The children from Petit ELJ Coffs Harbour’s Haven Place and Treasure Cove studios discovered creative inspiration for a group art experience with donated cardboard from local business, Anderson’s Flooring.
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