Aurora Early Education Doncaster

he centre is proud to have an exceptional time of highly-qualified teachers and educators, well-versed in early childhood education best practice. The team shares a commitment to nurturing children in a safe, supportive learning environment. 

The centre encourages ongoing training and professional development to stay abreast of new developments in child learning, to ensure children get the very best experience.

Team members also engage with families to support the individual needs,  interests and culture of every child.

The centre understands and values the importance of family connection. It welcomes all parents and carers to speak with educators at any time, for details on children’s activities and individual progress.

The centre keeps families connected with the Aurora App, a virtual real-time connection that records data including food and fluid intake, sleep, nappy changes and other important daily information. 

Educators also document children’s activities with photos and videos throughout the day, and provide evaluations of every child’s experiences and educational goals for the future.

The centre has created a dynamic curriculum inspired by both modern and traditional theorists such as Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Kathy Walker, and a multi-age learning approach. The curriculum is underpinned by a deep understanding of child development and an emphasis on ‘hands-on’ and child-led learning. The curriculum includes several key focus areas.

Health & Wellbeing

Educators teach the vital skills of personal care, mental fitness, and independence. Children learn about responsibility, autonomy and agency and are supported to complete tasks. This also helps build a sense of identity and belonging.

Self Expression & the Arts

Art and expression play an essential role in the Aurora curriculum. The colour choice, size of brush and type of brush stroke that a child chooses, for instance, are the starting point for conversations on personal choice and individuality. Arts allows children to express their preferences, feelings and thoughts in a way that is unique to them.

Physical Education

Children love to move! The physical education strand of the curriculum responds to this with programs that help develop gross and fine motor skills and an understanding of how the body works. 

Listening, reading, writing and recognising

The centre understands the importance of sharing books and recognises this is often the first formal learning experience for children. Reading with children promotes listening skills and vocabulary, helps children recognise sounds and pictures and later on, helps them learn to read and write. So that no child misses out, all families are invited to share the Aurora library at home.

Construction, engineering and design

When children construct, engineer and design in play, it provides exciting opportunities to learn about cause and effect, trial and error and problem-solving. Educators encourage conversations about how a bridge works or how a car moves, to challenge a child to think beyond what they know, and to see how they can influence the world with their thoughts and actions.

Science, technology and mathematics

Science and mathematics are essential components of cognitive development. This is weaved through the curriculum in concepts of counting things, understanding different shapes and patterns and continually asking why? Educators help children develop mathematical concepts with topics programmed into day to day experiences.

Topics of interest and projects

All children are capable of making meaningful contributions to their learning, and the centre encourages students to bring their interests to life through project work. With projects as a form of play, children can work home or keep it safe so they can pick it up again the following day. Projects help promote continuous learning.

Nature

The centre focuses on our innate attraction to nature and natural processes as humans. The curriculum incorporates the Biophilic theory, which suggests that we all have a genetic connection to the natural world built up over hundreds of thousands of years of living in agrarian settings. The centre uses these ideas to provide learning with benefits to our health and well-being.

At Aurora, health and wellbeing represents the ‘care’ we provide our students; but it also represents a critical area of learning in our curriculum. We teach the skills of personal care and independence. 

The everyday routines that involve eating, drinking, sleeping, toileting, applying sunscreen and cleaning up after ourselves are as valuable learning experiences as any other with academic outcomes. 

Through fun and engaging activities, we also teach children how to respect and explore new flavors, encouraging them to try a variety of foods. They learn about cooking in a hands-on, enjoyable way, gaining an understanding of what they can and cannot eat based on their own preferences and dietary needs.