Being located geographically within our Primary School courtyard we are blessed to be able to enjoy the benefits of school life such as visits to our school library, music lessons with our school specialist teachers, access to the school oval, the Yarning Circle, Sensory Garden and ‘Active Bodies’ education in the school gymnasium.
Preschool at Emmaus is a 2-year program beginning in 3 Preschool with a focus on ‘Belonging’ in community. In this first year of preschool, we look at what it feels like to belong to our family, belong at Emmaus and belong in our wider community. In the Pre-Kinder year, we move into the ‘Being’ program where we spend time being in nature at Bush School. Our Pre-kinder class travel to locations around Canberra where they spend regular half days in the outdoor classroom. Being outdoors and connecting with nature, learning to take risks in play and being researchers in nature sees us develop life skills and set up good well-being habits for life. Our final phase of the 2 year preschool program focusses on the ‘Becoming’ ready for our first formal year of schooling as we transition well to Kindergarten. This phase of our program sees our Pre-Kinder’s spend time getting to know our Primary School staff, including having regular visits from our Kindergarten and specialist teachers, spending time in small groups playing and exploring the Kindergarten spaces and becoming familiar with the wider school environment. The transition to Kindergarten program is exceptional in its offerings to students and setting them up well ready to thrive in their first year of formal schooling.
In Preschool we offer a 2 day program (Monday – Tuesday) or a 3 day program (Wednesday to Friday) during the school term, beginning in 3 Preschool and continuing into the Pre-Kindergarten year. As our 3 Preschool students hold their enrolment into Pre-Kindergarten, we do not open any further enrolments for the Pre-Kinder class. Holding a 3 Preschool enrolment ensures your child has a secured position in Kindergarten through to Year 10 at Emmaus Christian School.
We are open each day from 8:30am to 6pm, with our preschool program running from 8:30am to 3pm daily with a university degree qualified Early Childhood Teacher. Families are welcome to utalise our Afternoon Care Program at no extra cost, which runs in the preschool by our permanent educators until 6pm each evening.
During the school holidays our preschool families are welcome to enroll their children into our in-house Holiday Care Program which is run by our dedicated educators. During the holidays, our fees are reduced, and we operate to our normal hours from 8:30am to 6pm daily.
Respectful relationships
Educators model and display respectful actions and interaction between one another and towards our children and families. Our workplace culture is founded on mutual respect, shared decision making and biblical values. We cultivate close and caring relationships between educators, children and families, so children feel loved, safe, secure and appreciated.
We acknowledge families are a child’s first teacher and respect their decisions, values, beliefs and cultural diversity and include family input in our planning process.
We expect a high level of reciprocal communication between children, educators and families in a way that is kind, compassionate and empathetic. Parents are expected to participate in conversations concerning their child and their input is valuable and welcome.
We believe the role of the educator is to facilitate and nurture the child’s development as a life-long learner. Educators will respond to children’s ideas with enthusiasm and will employ teaching strategies that scaffold and extend children’s learning.
We recognise that children are:
- a valued learner.
- a co-contributor to their peers learning.
- active learners, bringing with them a wealth of experience and knowledge from their family and this prior knowledge is to be respected.
- capable of learning through many different avenues.
Children are active engagers, holding different and unique perspectives on the world and how they perceive the world. Children are relational and can grow their ability to recognise other children’s capabilities and to engage together as co-constructors and co-contributors to their play.
Our partnerships aim to extend to the wider community so we can draw upon their vast collective wisdom and knowledge in shaping our children’s world perspectives at Emmaus.
High Expectations
Children have a right to:
- Be safe
- Learn
- Engage
- Be listened to
- Take risks
- Enquire and develop at their own pace
We recognise that all Children have the ability to succeed and Educators are willing to try all avenues to promote progress of the whole child’s development. Educators work together to reach and engage with all children and respond with a high level of encouragement and flexibility for individual needs, growing trust with each child.
Each child has God given gifts and abilities. Educators will support perseverance and encourage the child to discover these gifts and challenge themselves to do their best.
Programming will:
- allow each child to grow on their own journey.
- allow time for a child’s interest to develop and evolve.
- acknowledge the importance of recognising each child’s needs, desires and abilities.
- respect that each child will engage with the program to their own level of comfort.
- allow for opportunities for open, unhurried play.
Respect for our environment
We believe in nurturing a love of our natural environment, the land and animals, helping children develop life-long respectful, positive and proactive attitudes ensuring a sustainable future. We believe that our Earth is an amazing place, it reveals to us God’s beauty, glory, power, wisdom, presence, creativity and His love.
Creation is a gift from God and it is his intention that we ‘Tend and Keep’ it. In our programming and activities we seek to embed sustainable thinking – ‘what can we reuse’, ‘how can we do this smarter’. We seek to provide organic opportunities for the children to learn about natural environments and to participate in life cycles of plants and animals.
Respect for diversity
God made us all intentionally unique. We believe in unity in diversity because we are created by our loving God
We acknowledge the intrinsic value of each child, their family unit and culture. We embrace that there are different ways of doing things.
In preschool, we support children to understand and engage in diversity by embedding a love for diversity and cultural difference in our progam, engaging in activities for special events, through visual displays, modelling respect for diversity and by reflecting with the children about the things they like, enjoy or are thankful for.
Staff and educators need to be knowledgeable about what diversity looks like and how to embrace and promote the strengths of diversity, including developing an appreciation and knowledge of different cultures and disabilities, translating this in a way that children can learn and engage with.
Wellbeing
Using intentional programming and relationship, we support the holistic development of each child through the social, emotional, cultural, physical and spiritual domains.
Our learning from the gratitude project and empathy program, has led us to embed in our program gratitude and empathy practices with the aim of maturing attitudes of thankfulness and gratefulness in our young children.
Our preschool provides opportunities to experience and learn the importance of healthy eating and food choices, and children are actively encouraged to explore the environment around them and explore and engage in physically active play opportunities. Rain is just another opportunity to enjoy play in an outside environment.
Critical reflection
We believe critical reflection is essential, honest, intentional and sometimes uncomfortable. Critical reflection discussions should be robust and conducted with prayerful consideration. It should be practiced both individually and together as staff.
Critical reflection shapes educational practices. This should be ongoing, holistic and adaptive to both the children and staff strengths and interests. This process guides future play and programming and should include children and families.
Transition
We recognise the transition from Prekinder to Kindy as being a significant transition and adjustment for children to make. We work on the transition phase from the beginning of Semester 2 using a number of strategies so that children are familiar with the classroom, library, playground and courtyard.
Do our Preschoolers wear a uniform? From the very beginning our Preschoolers are taught that they are members of our school community and learn that they belong at Emmaus. A part of belonging is wearing our school PE uniform consisting of a school sports t-shirt and plain navy trackpants, shorts or skirt until they grow into the Emmaus branded size 4 uniform purchased from Lowes Belconnen.
What are the hours of operation? Both 3 Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten classrooms operate from 8:30am – 3pm during the school term. Our Afternoon Care Program runs from 3pm to 6pm in the preschool and is staffed by our Diploma and Certificate trained educators. No extra fee applies, nor do you need to book in for the Afternoon Care Program.
What happens during the school holidays? During the school holidays we provide a School Holiday Care Program, run by our daily educators in our preschool. Families are welcome to book their child into the program.
What days are enrolment? We offer a 2 day enrolment being Monday and Tuesday or a 3 day enrolment being Wednesday to Friday. This enrolment rolls across the two years of preschool with children keeping the same days of attendance.
Is food provided? Parents are required to pack a lunch box each day filled with nutritious snacks and lunch which will nourish and fuel your child’s body for learning and play. Our preschool families are welcome to order lunch which will be delivered to the classroom through our school café.
Are the any requirements for enrollment at Emmaus Christian Preschool? Children cannot begin in Preschool until they have turned 3 years old, additionally they must have turned 3 before April 30th to begin in that cohort. Children must be independent in their toileting and toilet trained. We understand little children have accidents from time to time and our educators are here to help when such incidents arise.
Are Emmaus Preschool families able to claim CCS? Yes.
Are parents able to claim the ACT Government 1 day of free 3 year old preschool fees? Yes. Emmaus is a participating provider of the ACT Governments fee relief. Families are only able to claim this from one service per child so it is important if preschool days are offset with daycare that you indicate which service you would like to claim from.
If my child has an enrolment in preschool will I need to apply again for Kindergarten? No you will not need to apply for Kindergarten. An enrolment in preschool secures your child as a student at Emmaus right through from 3 Preschool to Year 10.