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At Gowrie Newstead, our preschool program is proudly and intentionally play based.
Neuroscience confirms that nothing lights up the brain like play. Play is the child’s most effective tool for learning, not only the academic, but the very skills and dispositions that enable children to be effective members of society and lifelong learners.
The learning environments at Newstead are designed to provide multiple diverse opportunities for children to playfully engage in learning. Every aspect of Newstead’s preschool program has been thoughtfully designed with children and childhood in mind.
We also know that children learn best when they can connect new knowledge with something familiar, so we highly value our links and relationships with families and the local community that inform the content we teach and the generous provisions that we provide.
Each child’s current knowledge and interests are the foundation of the program.
At Gowrie NSW, our play-based contextual curriculum is developed alongside children, to capture the interests, strengths, ideas, culture, abilities, curiosities and questions that motivate their learning. Our curriculum is developed within the context of each centre, making the curriculum at Newstead formulated with the children, contextualised to the centre, the neighbourhood and the Orange community… in other words built with and for the children who will experience it.
All aspects of the program at Newstead Early Education, Care and Preschol, including routines, are organised in ways that maximise opportunities for each child’s learning. Educators sit with children in small groups at mealtimes, held in the central light filled piazza, to facilitate conversation about the day. The flow of the day allows for long periods of uninterrupted play, empowering children to revisit their work, to think together more deeply, and to expand on ideas. Literacy and numeracy are taught holistically, embedded within learning spaces, and intentionally in small groups, to ensure that each child can develop their speaking and listening skills, their confidence and concentration, their willingness to try new or difficult tasks and their dispositions for learning such as critical thinking, problem solving, curiosity, cooperation, creativity, persistence, and enthusiasm.
Stories, singing and rhymes will be peppered throughout the day to inform interests, capture quiet moments, and simply for the joy that they bring.
The beautiful outdoor settingwith magnificent trees and established gardens enables children to develop an ecological identity through explorations in the natural environment. Carefully curated sustainable equipment will be used to leverage learning by expanding on children’s explorations, encouraging them to hypothesise, create and test theories, challenge ideas and work collaboratively to problem-solve.
This approach forefronts the use of STEM processes (Science, Technology Engineering & Mathematics) and environmental sustainability, so important for future learning.
The Creative Arts will contribute extensively to learning, both through art making and through exposure to artists and artworks from the Orange Regional Gallery, only a short walk away. We know from research that art appreciation promotes collaboration, artistry, positive reflection on the work of others and confidence to revisit their own artwork and build on it. Opportunities to mark make, paint, draw, and explore other art forms provide the basis for early writing skills, however, they also provide opportunities for children to express their ideas and to develop their thinking in new ways.
These opportunities will be offered in multiple ways every day.
Gowrie’s vision that “children are active participants in society, their voices are heard, and they are empowered to make a positive contribution in their community and make a difference in the world,” will underpin our preschool program as educators look for opportunities for children to be active, aware and contributing citizens in their local community.
