SOEL celebrates over 50 years as a family-owned business in WA

Schools of Early Learning (SOEL) is a WA family-owned child care & early education provider. Founded in 1974, SOEL is recognised as one of the driving forces in the adoption of educational programmes in child care across Australia.

Fifty years ago, SOEL began as a vision rooted in passion and dedication. Our founder, Bernadette Giambazi, envisioned a place where children could learn and thrive in an environment that nurtured their curiosity and creativity. This unwavering commitment to early childhood education has laid the foundation for what SOEL has become today.

SOEL’s Unique Learning Programmes

SOEL’s unique learning programmes focus on fostering children’s creativity, critical thinking, and social-emotional skills. Guiding our educators on the floor, our expert Pedagogy and Training team’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of early childhood education and care has been instrumental in ensuring that we continue to provide the highest-quality education and care to every child in our care.

Our learning programmes are shaped by careful observations of each child, with staff documenting individual learning experiences through retellings, photographs, videos, and audio recordings to showcase each child’s individuality, interactions, and relationships. Educators predict where children’s interests may lead and how they may be expressed while identifying the skills and knowledge they require. All our programmes align with the Early Years Learning Framework and its intended learning outcomes.

SOEL’s Approach to Early Years Education & Care

We understand that children are strong, capable, and resilient researchers. We are caregivers and co-researchers who collaborate with families to provide a safe environment for the children’s exploration to take place.

We provide beautiful and well-thought-out environments that create opportunities for the children to develop their thoughts and understanding. They can express themselves through any of the Hundred Languages of Children, such as drawing, sculpture, dramatic play, movement, and music. Additionally, the children actively participate in creating and caring for these environments.

It is vital that children feel they have ownership over their own space and learning so they feel confident and comfortable. We facilitate this by planning routines, activities, and projects around the children’s own sense of time and rhythm.

While our practice is primarily influenced by the Municipal Schools of Reggio Emilia’s approach to early learning, we believe children benefit most from drawing perspectives and insights from various disciplines, philosophers, and pedagogies from both Australia and abroad. This includes research into children’s rights and advocacy, an anti-bias approach and attachment theories such as Circle of Security and Phoenix Cups.

SOEL’s Atelier Studios

Each SOEL centre is designed around a unique Atelier Studio, where children learn, research and express their ideas through various creative mediums and high-quality resources. These creative spaces are essential to our learning programmes, enabling individual development and encouraging participation in collaborative projects. Through these experiences, children acquire the necessary skills for independent learning. The resources and physical environment are thoughtfully curated to entice exploration, wonder, imagination, creativity and play.

Our dedicated and experienced Atelier Studio Coordinators work closely with Room Educators to develop projects and programmes that pursue the children’s interests. These initiatives encourage exploration and provide high-quality, open-ended learning experiences.

Mealtimes at SOEL are designed to be slow and calming experiences. Our dining area is a central space in each of our centres, allowing the children to come together, share meals and engage in conversations about their world. Our dining room curriculum covers essential topics such as table manners, mealtime rules and limits, mutual respect, enjoyment of food, socialisation, conversational skills, food hygiene, and nutrition.

Our Executive Chef thoughtfully curates nutritious meal plans in collaboration with our centre Chefs. To ensure children receive the nutrition, variety and consistency they need, our meals and snacks are designed to meet WA Health Department Guidelines, Australian Dietary Guidelines and Food Standards Australia New Zealand standards. We also regularly seek feedback from the children to help inform menu decisions.

Meals are prepared using the freshest local produce, with organic fruits and vegetables chosen when available. For infants, we strictly follow the Australian Infant Feeding Guidelines, ensuring that all practices align with the National Quality Standard to maintain the highest level of nutrition, safety, and developmental care.

 General Information about SOEL

• Care for children aged 6 months to 5 years.
• Opening Hours are Monday-Friday, 6:30am – 6pm.