Alberton Preschool awarded second Excellent rating by ACECQA

Alberton Preschool has been rated as Excellent for the second time by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), the highest rating a service can achieve under the National Quality Framework.

• collaborative partnerships with professional, community or research organisations
• commitment to children that respects, reflects and celebrates culture and diversity, including place of origin
• practice and environments that enhance children’s learning and growth.

• Partnering with Alberton Primary School (APS) to undertake joint professional development and collaborative project inquiry and research work. 

• Service and APS staff have collectively presented their documentation and findings on an integrated three to six year old program and re-imagining the early years of school at their ‘Saturdays in the Nest’ workshops. Advice has also been sought out by Department for Education representatives on best practice for school based preschools.

• Obtaining a second de Lissa funding grant to conduct research highlighting how use of a play based pedagogy in the early years has a positive social and wellbeing impact on children’s transition to school and early years of schooling. 

• • modified classroom structure, design, resources and staffing within APS to reflect elements of Alberton Preschool. Service staff now transition to APS with year one children and staff from APS move to the service to increase continuity of practices and belonging across the whole school community;
  • creation of The Hive, a dedicated play space for year one to year three children and families to transition into each morning. This was in response to family feedback collected by the service suggesting school classrooms did not have a welcoming atmosphere during the morning transition. Children also expressed feeling rushed into making decisions rather than being able to settle through play; and, 
  • incorporating play choices into The Hive including small world play and hot glue guns, as requested by children transitioning from the service to APS.

• As part of the South Australia Collaborative Childhood Project (SACCP), the service was selected to participate in Project Quattro. This included:

• • twelve months of professional learning with international education experts and attending bi-termly meetings to collaborate with fellow project sites;
  • conducting a small group inquiry project the service in partnership with APS;
  • presenting The Language of Ochre: Making connections at an exhibition celebrating children’s learning at the University of South Australia (UniSA) and as a research presentation at the 2019 Biennial Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange (REAIE); and, 
  • referencing their project work with making children’s thinking visible and supporting educators to identify how quieter children in small groups have a strong impact on group learning and culture sharing.

• In May 2018, the service commenced a research project with UniSA titled Children learning to live together in a diverse community: Culturally responsive pedagogy in Reggio Emilia inspired early learning settings. This resulted in:

• • increased use of small groups and multimodal literacies which provided greater equity across group discussions. AP acknowledges prior to the research, male children and children from the dominant culture would control group time discussions and experiences;
  • children listening to and questioning recordings of their group interactions. This led to children self-identifying who spoke the most, who spoke on behalf of others, whose voices were missing and whether this was fair;
  • children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experiencing increased participation and communication and children’s increased  engagement with peers who have a different cultural background to their own; and, 
  • increased across peer group play and skill recognition. This includes children asking peers for ideas or help who they had previously not acknowledged or engaged with.

• presenting locally and interstate
• providing professional development sessions onsite
• contributing to research publications and projects.