Early Years Learning Framework

‘Belonging’ is all about children’s relationships with the people and communities around them.

Children belong first to a family, a cultural group, a neighbourhood and wider community.

This sense of belonging forms the basis of a child’s sense of identity. This requires our educators to recognise and integrate the uniqueness of each community into the service’s daily practices.

It also means working with families to ensure children’s needs are met.

‘Being’ simply means allowing children to be children.

It is about the present and children learning about themselves, engaging in all the experiences life has to offer and meeting everyday challenges.

At our centre, this means we help your children to explore the world around them, take safe risks and make mistakes in order to learn valuable lessons.

‘Becoming’ focuses on children’s growth and development in these early years.

It is these formative years in which children’s identities, knowledge, understandings, capacities, skills and relationships change and evolve depending on surrounding events and environments.

In an early learning setting, this means providing a nurturing and stimulating environment that helps children learn about themselves and the world around them.