Melbourne Juniors Preston

Melbourne Juniors is a beautiful Early Learning Centre in Preston. Managed by a team of multi-lingual educators, we have over 30 years experience in caring for children in a nurturing learning environment.

Following the Reggio Emilia learning approach, our centre is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment.

We observe your child and their interests, abilities and needs very carefully and provide appropriate individual and group experiences to challenge and stimulate them.

The Program

At Melbourne Juniors, we believe the program needs to:

• Be developmentally appropriate and caring
• Be concerned with every aspect of each child’s development
• Reflect the multicultural nature of our Australian society
• Be challenging, interesting, and varied, providing lots of choices
• Involve parents in its planning, implementation and evaluation

“Influenced by this belief, the child is beheld as beautiful, powerful, competent, creative, curious, and full of potential and ambitious desires.” – Valarie Hewitt

The programs encourage children to:

• Makes choices
• Develop creative abilities
• Problem solve
• Negotiate and cooperate with others

Children learn best through a play based program focusing on their individual interests, strengths and needs. While establishing routine is important for children to develop independence and self esteem, the program acknowledges that all children are unique individuals and need to be nurtured within a flexible environment. There are known ages and stages of child development; but not all children go through these at the same age, time or rate.

The Curriculum

Play is a vital part of a child’s life and is the way they make sense of their world. It’s the basic ingredient to learning, develops new skills, and stimulates intellectual growth. We value play very highly in our daily experiences with the children and this is the base for most activities. It’s this spontaneous play and exploration that forms our emergent curriculum.

An emergent curriculum is one that builds upon the interests of children. Topics for study are captured from the children’s ideas and conversations (such as puddles, shadows, dinosaurs, etc.), community or family events.

Projects are in-depth studies of ideas and interests. Considered an adventure, projects may last one week or may continue through the year. Teachers help children make decisions about the direction of the project and based on the children’s responses, will introduce materials and questions that provoke the children’s curiosity to further explore the topic. Long term projects enhance life long learning.

Each teacher is responsible for the organisation and curriculum of their room under the guidance of the Centre Director and Management team. Teachers are allocated child free time each week to plan for and evaluate each child’s ongoing development. This time is essential for the delivery of a high quality curriculum. Additional assistants may work at Melbourne Juniors when children with special needs attend.

Healthy Habits

We ensure our children have the right nutrition to keep them going throughout the day. All fresh, delicious meals are prepared in our purpose-built kitchen by a qualified chef and eaten together in the communal eating areas. We can also cater for special dietary requirements and allergies.

Children are encouraged to enjoy our natural environment by caring for chickens and planting their own vegetable garden then use the fresh ingredients in their lunches.

We have a passion for games and activities to keep the children active, develop their gross motor skills and body awareness. We will run a speciality yoga program to introduce concepts of focused breathing, movement and to provide an outlet for self expression. This healthy, active approach will encourage your child to chose a healthy lifestyle in their present and future life.