Our Early Years Vision Statement
At Yanchep Beach Primary School, we work with families and the wider community to support the whole child. We nurture independent, lifelong learners through a balance of Explicit Instruction and Intentional Play-Based learning, differentiated to meet each child’s needs. Students learn by playing and exploring, engaging actively, and thinking creatively and critically. Our dedicated staff design open-ended, integrated learning experiences that maximise every child’s potential.
We value parent engagement and are committed to providing a quality holistic education that values each child’s ability, cultural background and interests; providing opportunities for students to be the best they can be. There is no one definition of play, however; there are several agreed characteristics that have been brainstormed by our dedicated team of Early Childhood Practitioners.
“It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain, as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.” – Tina Bruce
The Early Years Learning Framework defines play as “a context for learning, through which children organise and make sense of their world as they actively engage with people, objects and representations”.
Play Based Learning – Yanchep Beach Primary School
Play based learning defined by our staff in Early Childhood is an holistic approach to learning and development. Through play, children learn valuable life skills that support their social, emotional, physical and cognitive development. As highly skilled early years educators, our role is to create strong, positive relationships so that we can engage children in the learning environment and maximise learning opportunities. Through open-ended questioning we ensure that our children are thinking creatively.
Types of Play at Yanchep Beach
Free play- Unstructured, child-initiated play allows children the freedom to explore, create and discover without predetermined rules or guidelines. It’s been shown to foster cognitive development while boosting physical development and social and emotional development. It specifically helps creativity and imagination, problem-solving abilities and social skills. Most of this type of play happens in our beautiful nature playground.
Teacher led / directed play – Intentionally planned open-ended ‘provocations’ led by educators to practise skills with a curriculum learning intention.
Guided / mutually directed play- Emphasised as a child-directed practice. Control is with the child and educators intervene during play to scaffold and capitalise on skills through co-playing, questioning or demonstrating new ways to interact with materials.
Our Daily Routines
At Yanchep Beach Primary School we are committed to hands on, developmentally appropriate learning practices within our Early Childhood Classrooms. Each day in our Kindy and Pre-primary classrooms there is a blended approach of Explicit Instruction leading into Play-Based learning opportunities. Our environments are designed within the Continuous Provision Model.
Basic Provision– is not directly linked to assessment of strengths, needs or learning preferences.
Continuous Provision- resources that continue the learning when an adult is not present.
Enhanced Provision- supports what we are focussing on in teaching, considering learning and specific interests.
Linked Provision- linked to a need that has been identified through observation and assessment.
Adult- led provision- Adult initiates an activity or play experience, identifying a teaching opportunity using the children’s interest as a springboard.
Challenges- In our Kindy and Pre-Primary classrooms we set our children challenges each week which become our ‘non-negotiables’. These are differentiated based on assessment and observation. Children are expected to complete the challenges by the end of the week and evidence it either using a photograph or a piece of work. This encourages our children to become independent learners who can explain their learning to an adult and also gives children opportunities to practise the skills being taught during Explicit Instruction time. The result is authentic learning where our children thrive academically, and socially and emotionally.
