Welcome to
KIDS ON MERIDIAN
Quality Early Education
Early Learning Centre & Kindergarten
At Kids On Meridian we believe children learn best in a caring and nurturing environment which provides the opportunity for exploration, experimentation, problem-solving and play in a safe and supportive space.
We view all children as capable, confident, creative and active learners. We understand that the early years in every child’s life set the tone for the person they will become. Our everyday focus is to support, encourage, care and educate each child in an environment that lays the pathway for success. We will always work towards continuing to build and develop strong relationships with children and their families.
We acknowledge that parents are a child’s first teacher and so all of our families have a strong voice and play an active role within our centre. The success of these relationships are foremost in ensuring happiness and success for all.
OUR FEATURES
At Kids on Meridian we have developed nutritious seasonal menus in consultation with The Oscar Care Group to ensure that each individual child receives their daily nutritional requirements.
We provide your child with opportunities to enjoy healthy foods that promote growth and allow them to develop healthy eating habits that promote development and learning.
All meals are prepared fresh daily on site using only fresh ingredients. We devote significant resources to any allergy requirements and in addition we can provide Vegetarian and Halal meals as specified on your child’s enrolment form.
Our play-based programs are designed to assist each child to develop a lifelong love for learning. Throughout each term and across the year each child is planned for individually to ensure that they are meeting milestones, are able to participate and are offered learning experiences that are meaningful and allow for challenges and success. These are aligned with the Early Learning Years Framework and cover all 5 learning areas.
We encourage children to develop their creativity, imagination and independent thinking. Learning experiences such as loose parts play, open ended art experiences and construction allow for creating through the use of natural and recycled resources all support children to be independent and allow for the opportunity to explore their imaginations.
Our art experiences provide children with the opportunity to explore a range of media such as clay, paint, paste, paper, fabric and a variety of natural and man-made resources to support their creativity.
We are a family owned & operated service and pay special attention to ensuring each child and their family experience individualised care, support and education from their very first day.
We take the time to get to know and understand every family’s needs through orientation visits, family meetings with each child’s teacher and building strong relationships with everyone at our service. We support our families in a welcoming environment through quality relationships and our core values are to:
- Care for every child
- Support our families
- Be part of the community
All of our educators take the time to develop positive, meaningful relationships with children and their families. Our educators collaborative partnerships with each family and our wider community is developed and maintained to support each parent in their parenting role.
Our educators expertise, knowledge and commitment to each child by providing engaging, programs, stimulating play, that utilises each child’s current knowledge, strengths, ideas, culture and abilities that is the foundation of their and learning experiences.
Teachers communicate on a daily basis with families through our online learning platform Educa in conjunction with daily communication at the start and end of each child’s day.
Our teachers hold Parent and Teacher collaboration interviews twice yearly to set individual goals and evaluate each child’s progress.
Our highly qualified and dedicated Early Childhood Teaching team, work with their amazing co-educators to ensure each child is able to take part in an enriching and holistic learning program that encourages curiosity, collaboration and supports the development of each individual child to ensure they are confident global citizens ready to take on the world.
Our curriculum contributes to each child’s learning and development outcomes in relation to their identity, connection with the community, wellbeing, confidence as learners and effectiveness as communicators.
At Kids On Meridian each week we offer two different incursions to support children’s wellbeing. We offer a sports program ‘Little Sporty Legends” from our nursery Fawns room right through to our kindergarten Owls room.
Each week the coaches will provide opportunities for children to build on their gross motor skills set along with encouraging important social skills linked to sharing, co-operating and working as a team through fun and energetic games and play.
Our service has partnered with Jumparoo where each room has the opportunity to be engaged Fun and Creative Movement that is Educationally Programmed specifically designed for the Early Learning Years.
Educators within each room take an active role in supporting the children to participate in and enjoy these programs. Each program we offer aligns with the Early Years Learning Frameworks – Being, Belonging and Becoming.
All of our incursions and special classes are at no cost to our families.
Our programs are play based with many of our experiences focused on supporting children’s mathematic and language development. Children are encouraged to explore a variety of mathematics concepts such as shape, colour, size and number through open ended experiences that may involve counting, sorting or measuring.
Language and literacy are an important part of children’s growth and development and at Kids On Meridian we understand that all children develop these skills at different stages.
We support children’s language development by providing a language rich environment that supports children to explore letters, the printed word, writing and concepts such as rhyme and letter sound relationships.
Our team of educators have a wealth of knowledge and experience in supporting early language development.
At Kids On Meridian, we believe it is important for all of our team, the children we care for and their families to have a deep understanding and appreciation of our land’s indigenous history and the traditional landowners.
To ensure this we have a dedicated RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) team that focus on ensuring team members continue to develop their understanding of the importance of Aboriginal culture.
The team can then share this knowledge and understanding with our children and families.
Each day every room spends time sitting for an Acknowledgement to Country in their unique way, through song and music and discussion.
We believe it is important that all children are given the opportunity to develop their understanding of their world and their environment.
We believe in teaching the children about the importance of sustainability and care of their environment through using recycled water for our garden beds and vegetable patches along with using many recycled items in play experiences.
At Kids On Meridian we have a designated Environment and Sustainability Officer who is responsible for ensuing sustainable practices are promoted throughout the Centre with our team, the children and their families.
Our service cares for the environment and support children to become environmentally responsible leaders.
At Kids on Meridian we have purposefully set up and engaging indoor and outdoor spaces that are organised and adapted to support each child’s participation to engage in quality experiences in our natural environments.
Problem Solving and challenging oneself is an important part of every child’s growth and development.
Our STEM champions attend professional development training on a regular basis to further strengthen educators’ skills and expertise to further develop and maximise quality learning for all children. This ensures that all educators are able to provide fun, stimulating and challenging learning environment and experiences that develop a variety of concepts related to Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering.
These concepts can range from working in a team to construct the tallest tower, building structures using pop-sticks and pegs, exploring volume and capacity or making a volcano in the sandpit.
The children are often given a ‘Problem to Solve’. We stem and extend on our learning based on an idea. We use well-known books as a platform to elevate children’s learning linking to books from well-known author Pamela Allen ‘Alexanders Outing’ or ‘Who Sank the Boat. The children work in small teams with their teacher to create solutions to solve ‘the problem’ that will support the development of important math’s, science, engineering and technology skills.
We believe that learning should always be fun and based on the children’s interests.
Our established Community Explorers program is an opportunity where children are encouraged as part of our service to build community relationships with our Meridian Community in which they live.
Our Community Explorers program involves small groups of children to explore and learn about their environment by going on exploration walks with their teacher. Our service has regular opportunities to visit places in our community which supports children to form relationships with a broad range of people from the community, and to build reciprocal relationships.
The Community Explorer program includes visiting local services that are important in our everyday lives. A visit to a grocery store to buy fruit and vegetables for a cooking experience, post a letter, or a visit to the Police station, Fire station, swim school and local parklands.
Our teachers plan our Community Explorers program in conjunction with the children, our Educational Leader and local community, with purposeful and meaningful opportunities to maximise learning and confidence. Our Community Explorers programs are at no cost to our families.
INNOVATIVE METHODS OF TEACHING
“The best educators tell you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” Alexandra Trenfor
At Kids On Meridian we see every child as a unique individual, a person that has their own disposition for learning and a person that will accomplish and achieve milestones through supportive and meaningful interactions with both their families as their first teacher and their educators.
We believe that there is no one philosophy or teaching method that is suited to all children, but employ a combination of philosophies such as Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Steiner along with encouraging children to become independent learners that are able to make their own choices about how and what they learn.
Our play-based programs take a holistic view of every child, taking into account their sense of identity, how they view themselves within the community, their sense of wellbeing, their disposition to learning and the way they are able to communicate. All programs are linked to the Early Years Learning Framework. In addition our service encompasses The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development (VEYLDF) to guide our Early Childhood Teachers as a collective effort in conjunction with families to build on each child’s learning and development with the 5 learning outcomes that are positively supported and embedded robustly as Educational Professionals in our every day practices.
