Our Program and Approach
At our centre childhood is celebrated. When they play and explore, children's imagination and curiosity is sparked – they enjoy learning, and are inspired to continue learning more.
At KU Bel Air, we aim to provide an inclusive, safe, stimulating and caring environment for children. Our environments serve as a special place for children to be children and enjoy their childhood through curiosity, exploration, creativity and imagination.
Our play-based program intentionally provides opportunities and activities based upon the Early Years Learning Framework, for your child to discover and pursue their own interests and strengths. We believe that children are confident, competent, and resourceful learners who are capable of constructing their own knowledge of the world around them.
At KU Bel Air, we are proud of our reputation within the local community of providing rich education and care that concentrates on individual children in a family-focussed and supportive way.
Our centre is a welcoming and nurturing space where each child is immersed in a rich tapestry of educationally interactive experiences – a space where children are supported to be their own, unique selves, growing and developing a sense of belonging and empowerment.
Our program offers children the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of learning experiences and activities, each specifically designed to promote children’s confidence as capable, active participants in their own learning. Children are presented with a range of activities including gardening, arts and crafts, music and movement, physical play, block building, sand and water play, science experiments, early numeracy activities such as counting and measurement, and early literacy activities such as reading, drawing and writing.
We greatly value the strong relationships between our staff, children and families, and we look forward to the opportunity of including your family in the life of our centre.
We Focus On
In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of focus.
At KU Bel Air, we focus on inquiry based learning.
We support children to see themselves as constructive contributors to the learning community through conversation, decision making and project work. Through observation, listening and intentional teaching, we work collaboratively to make new discoveries and re-visit past theories with the children. This leads us to informed decisions when considering the provision of materials and future experiences, and shows the children our genuine respect for their thinking, allowing them time to re-visit ideas and understandings.
We incorporate inquiry based learning into our program through activities that invite hands on learning experiences such as inquiry based projects, open-ended creative experiences, investigative manipulative construction as well as through the three sciences – environmental, biological and physical. We feel that the children benefit from this focus because these learning and play experiences invite participation, inquiry, research and exploration from the children which helps drive their learning. This makes learning more relevant and encourages children to develop critical thinking skills.
Our Quality
Our centre has been independently assessed by the Department of Education NSW under the National Quality Standards, and are proud to be rated as Exceeding the National Quality Standard.
However what matters most is what our families think...
“All staff are absolutely fantastic and very accommodating and welcoming.” - Bel Air parent
“KU Bel Air Preschool was recommended to me and I very quickly discovered why. The staff are all amazing, dedicated and passionate.” - Bel Air parent
Our Environment
Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within relationships and interactions between children and staff, and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting, homelike learning environments for children – whatever our setting.
We believe it is essential to provide environments indoor and outdoor which are welcoming, nurturing and inclusive. We endeavour to create learning spaces that are exciting, beautiful and infused with natural materials that inspire spontaneity, collaboration, relationships and connects children with their natural world.
Our playground is designed to maximise the use of the natural environment and allow children to play and explore as they would in their own backyard. We offer stimulating activities that arouse children’s curiosity and encourage them to choose from a variety of planned experiences, expanding their learning potential. Our playground includes natural elements such as sand, water, grass and mud.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU Bel Air, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.