We work together with families to provide each child with the best possible start to their education journey. Each Happy Sprouts family contributes their diverse range of skills, experiences and knowledge to the Happy Sprouts community. The Early Years Learning Framework set out by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority underpins our creative curriculum which means that each child is warmly welcomed and accepted for who they are and for who they are becoming.
We carefully and selectively choose the best quality educators from our local community who are committed to providing intensive, individualised and relational educational experiences that match our philosophy. All of our educators are qualified and have a certificate 3, diploma or Bachelors of Education. Our education team are focused on creating individualised programs to support each child to develop the social, emotional and cognitive skills needed to be ready for school.
Our educators regularly engage in reflective practice to critically examine all aspects of their work. Reflecting on how and why we do things inspires us to imagine that we can always do better in the way we engage ourselves, our children, our families and our local community in the journey of ensuring continued excellence.
Our holistic approach to reflective practice involves a process aimed at exploring the emerging strengths and interests of each child to inform our program planning. This process is an ongoing cycle that involves observing, questioning, planning, acting and reflecting.
Attentive observation helps us learn about the uniqueness of each child and their emerging interests and connections with family, our educators, and the broader community.
Our observations lead to an open questioning process where we curiously explore and analyse what we have discovered about each child. This questioning will inform the next step which involves planning a tailored learning and development program.
In this step, our dedicated educators develop a tailor-made education plan for each child. The planning incorporates elements such as unique routines, relational interactions and exciting new experiences. Family and caregivers are fully engaged throughout the planning process.
Acting is all about implementing the tailor-made educational plan. Throughout the acting phase, our educators continue to observe each child’s response so they can sensitively adapt the program to maximise learning and development.
Reflection is a vital part of the planning cycle. Reflecting provides a space for us to think about the process, the individual learning plan and our own practice. We consider how each child is progressing and how the learning plan benefited each child and family. Reflection leads to beginning the process again with fresh observation to ensure we continue to provide the support and opportunities needed for each child to flourish in their learning.
We are passionate about providing learning activities and experiences that creatively support important areas of development, such as:
Play is how children learn and interact with the world around them. This is why the Happy Sprouts curriculum has been carefully curated to encourage play that motivates children to take on new experiences, including taking well considered risks. These experiences inspire each child to think creatively, use their imagination, problem-solve and experiment with emerging ideas and interests through trial and error.
We implement the Reggio Emilia child-led learning approach to encourage the development of independence and self-help skills. This approach focuses on providing a range of options for children to choose from including when and where they engage in their preferred learning activity. Happy Sprouts is committed to maintaining single-level buildings so that each child can independently choose to engage in indoor and/or outdoor learning experiences. Reggio Emilia has three core principles:
Each of the principles plays a vital role in nurturing the foundations for a lifetime love of learning and discovery. Happy Sprouts is proud to contribute to the development of responsible and engaged citizens of the future.
