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Melton Montessori joins 2024 Excellent ranks
Freya Lucas
Jul 05, 2024
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Melton Montessori Early Learning Centre has been awarded the Excellent rating by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), recognised for celebrating culture and diversity, inclusive partnerships, a positive workplace culture, and practices and environments that enhance children’s learning and growth.
The Excellent rating will remain in place until May 2029. One of the core examples of exceptional practice noted by the assessors was the service’s outstanding commitment to its staff through strategic financial investment.For example, the service financially supports its educators to implement initiatives that celebrate diversity, share their cultures, and connect with each other on a regular basis.
The children were invited to collaborate with their educators and leaders to develop a set of guidelines that accompany the service’s policy on inclusion. These are written in language that children understand with illustrations of their reflections of inclusion, identity and kindness.
The educators worked with children to develop lyrics and music for a song and video to accompany the guidelines. These resources are used across the service and ensure a shared understanding of the service’s values and goals for inclusive practices for all children, educators and families.
Another example of exceptional practice observed was the number of initiatives the service has implemented in direct response to its vulnerable families facing challenges. For example, it implements a Clothing Exchange Program (CEP) to ensure families’ immediate needs are met and improve children’s outcomes. Families and educators are encouraged to donate or exchange children’s items that are in good condition, and the service washes, sorts, wraps and labels the items. This encourages families to engage with the program and creates a judgement-free space where they can find what they need.
The service has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to nature pedagogy underpinned by strong philosophical considerations and in direct response to its context. The service developed its Bush Kinder Program (BKP) after an extensive consultation process with families, responding to families’ feedback and concerns about safety.
The service invested extensive time, research and training for its staff into the program’s development. In response to its community needs, the service purchases, organises and resources materials and items to ensure that all children, including infants, are well-equipped to participate in all-weather play at the BKP site. For example, families experiencing financial insecurity are supported to equip children with the appropriate clothing through a variety of ways, including the provision of the CEP wardrobe and purchase of extra clothing items and gumboots when necessary.
The BKP is a centre-wide program with a carefully planned schedule that gives each child a weekly opportunity to participate. To further support the broader early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector Melton Montessori Early Learning Centre implemented the service led Bush Kinder Mentoring Program, with the aim of inspiring and contributing to the broader community of early childhood education by showcasing its practices and by mentoring other services to establish and implement their bush kinder programs.
Learn more about Melton Montessori Early Learning Centre here. For information about the Excellent rating please see here.
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