Our Philosophy

We acknowledge the Dharawal speaking people, who are the traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, learn and play.

We would like to pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.

Together we can and together we will strive to learn from those who walked before us and grow in culture. We come together in a place of peace where we feel like we belong as we bring children, families and community together.

We strive to learn from those who walked before us as we say thank you to those who came before us for taking care of Mother Earth.

We extend our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within our community.

This land was, is and always will be Aboriginal land to be shared with our Indigenous and non-Indigenous brothers and sisters.

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Children                                                                                              

At Cambrai Early learning Centre, we deeply value each child for their uniqueness and view each individual as a competent and capable learner- we celebrate, share and document children’s progress. We believe all children have the right to be included and provided support for their individual needs.  

We celebrate their autonomy and support their sense of agency, through a play-based, emergent and flexible curriculum. We understand the importance of Educator and Child interactions and we support this through building nurturing relationships; based on trust, kindness and respect, ensuring that children in our care are feeling safe, loved and supported. We encourage children to be kind, understanding and respectful of others by role-modelling and ensuring all children feel safe and happy. Children are supported to self-regulate, developing their resilience, social and emotional skills.

We value children’s voices and we provide child-led, open-ended experiences, giving children the opportunities to extend on their own ideas and views. We believe in planning for the holistic child, scaffolding each child’s learning and encouraging them to always try their best.

We believe child safety is paramount, by upholding Child Safe Standards, we will always act upon children’s best interests and the rights of the child.

Families
Cambrai views families as the child’s first teacher. We respect and value their expertise and knowledge- drawing on this to best support their children. We honour that parenting is one of the most challenging roles in society and want to support and celebrate families in their journey.

Reciprocal, collaborative and trusting partnerships based on honesty and mutual respect is of upmost importance to us in order to provide the best possible care for each child.

We are dedicated to getting to know everyone's culture, views and beliefs. Our service encourages families to be involved and provide input in all areas of our service operations as we believe this plays a vital role in deepening children’s sense of belonging, creating an active platform for improvement, enriching curriculum planning process and provides opportunity for ongoing critical reflection

We believe it is important to support families in their parenting role. We understand the challenges that come with parenting and aim to provide care and a network to our families to assist them in their roles as parents without judgement in order to provide best outcomes for children.

Educators
Our educators highly value honesty and integrity, being the foundation for everything they do. Educators are guided by the Code of Ethics and are committed to high quality practices.

Our educators form a strong team who support, encourage, challenge and communicate openly with one another. We use a strength-based approach allowing all educators to share their skills amongst our team.  We believe it is important to be continuously learning; through critical reflection, challenging ideas sharing our learning and professional development with each other.

 Educators strive to meet the individual needs of the children through various teaching styles that embrace holistic approaches.

We are committed to advocacy to ensure every child’s wellbeing and development is recognised, valued and supported. As a team of educators, we create a safe, secure and nurturing environment, promoting a place of belonging and actively fostering the connection between home, the service and community to consider different ways of enriching the curriculum.

Community
At Cambrai Early Learning Centre we understand the importance of active participation within local community and the relevance of interconnection within the community for young children and their families. As a service we contain members from the local and wider community, actively participating in development of curriculum with aim to enrich the program with unique learning opportunities.

We view the community as our support network fostering children’s learning, sense of belonging and understanding children’s rights to opportunities as active participants. We are dedicated to share knowledge about the community through incursions, excursions and visitors to the service.

We believe in working together with our local community including local schools, support networks and businesses, and the Aboriginal community to create better outcomes for all. We strongly believe in importance to give back to the community where there is a need, relevance and value.

The Role of the Environment
Cambrai ELC aspires to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive environment that reflects the diverse needs, culture and context of families, children, educators, and the community.
Cambrai Early Learning Centre offers a safe, nurturing, and age-appropriate environment where children and their families feel a sense of belonging and inspires children to learn, explore and develop

Our learning environment allows children to make choices, undertake healthy risks and offers an emergent curriculum that is continuously changing, flexible and fluid. We believe that children have an innate desire to learn and our environment aims to nurture this love for learning by following their lead as they discover the world around them.

Our environment encourages children to have a sense of agency and independence, making decisions about their day. It allows children to explore their limits by allowing them to be exposed to risks that build on their capabilities and develop self-esteem and confidence.

We value sustainability and therefore create space for children to explore the natural environments and learn to care for the land through a variety of learning experiences. We take inspiration from the lands first custodians - The Dharawal People. We are committed to continuing to care for Country and share this knowledge to the next generation.

Celebrating Diversity

Cambrai Early Learning values and celebrates diversity. We welcome all to our service and strive for everyone to feel included regardless of culture, race, religion, ability, gender or sexual orientation.

We believe it is important to teach children to respect and understand diversity-exposing them to diverse cultural celebrations, involving them in identifying equity issues and encourage responsibility in maintaining an inclusive environment.

We believe in providing each child or family the support they need to maintain an equitable, inclusive environment. We view each family as unique and therefore provide the support needed based on individual needs. Each child is given what they need to succeed and be included in the environment.

We work collaboratively with families, Inclusion agents, support and specialist workers to improve outcomes for children

As a service we acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of all Nations as the original custodians of the land of Australia. It is important that children learn about and respect Aboriginal culture and history and that Cambrai plays a part in taking steps towards reconciliation.

We strongly believe everyone has the right to feel safe and included in our setting.