The beginning of the year is a busy time with children returning and new children beginning, new rooms, new groups, new staff and some new expectations. In early childhood, we value the opportunity to give children time to settle and learn new routines. Routines are helpful for all children, helping to create security, a rhythm to the day and a sense of the predictable. The national and Victorian early childhood frameworks both privilege outcomes and goals around routine for children as significant areas of focus within all age groups from zero to eight years.
As well as helping children have a sense of the rhythm of the day and week the routines are also designed by staff to support children and their sense of belonging. Having a sense of belonging is important to us all, and we all belong to many different groups – within the ELC the children belong to their room group but also to the whole ELC and we are also part of the bigger Carey community. Within room groups, children create and find different groups as well as they begin to find ‘their people’. People with similar interests or skills, like-minded people who share a similar sense of humour or like the same kind of stories or playing and creating in the sandpit or in the imaginative play areas.
Staff are deliberate in the way they work with children to help them feel secure and provide opportunities for a range of opportunities to mix within the group. Opportunities for morning tea and lunch where children sit in small table groups to eat are great occasions for children to connect with others in a social setting. They are opportunities to develop different connections and share social etiquette, listen to others, practise turn-taking in conversations and share a sense of belonging – notwithstanding the opportunity to see different types of food and be encouraged to enjoy the social occasion of shared eating.
Wendy Seidler
ELC Director – Kew Campus
