Our Program and Approach
At KU North Ryde, we believe education is an active and ongoing process, whereby children learn from their interactions with their physical and social environments. Young children have a natural curiosity, enabling them to master new skills, acquire knowledge about the world and develop attitudes and values.
In our program, our focus is on the child. Children are actively involved in exploring, investigating, thinking and communicating. Our educators take the time to observe and assess each child, planning the program to suit the abilities and interests of both individuals and the larger group.
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.
At KU North Ryde, 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.
We aim to establish immediate rapport and a sense of belonging in our community, as families arrive through the front door.
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.
Our Special Interest
In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of interest.
At KU North Ryde our special interest is the development of strong fundamental movement skills. We believe that children with a high level of competence in a range of fundamental movement skills are able to confidently participate in a wide variety of activities. They also benefit from many physical, social and emotional health outcomes, in both the short and long term.
Opportunities to develop and embed fundamental movement skills into our preschool day is done in many ways, for example, linking arms with a partner and skipping in a circle, making up a hopping rhyme or engaging in a specific multi-sport skill program.
We are able to integrate fundamental movement skills into a variety of key learning areas. This enables the children to make better meaning of their learning and demonstrates what they have learned in several different ways.
As the children participate in these activities, they are also being exposed to a number of curriculum learning areas, such as maths, literacy, health and wellbeing and social emotional development.
We feel that the children benefit from this interest because we are able to see the children’s confidence grow as they learn new skills. We have seen children who are anxious and withdrawn become more resilient and open to taking risks. The joy on the children’s faces when they master a new skill is invaluable. In an age where children are less physically active, we feel that developing strong fundamental movement skills sets the children up for a better future.
Our Quality
Our centre has been independently assessed by the NSW Department of Education 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...
“It’s really lovely to find a preschool that feels like an extension of your home and family. You know you don’t have to worry about leaving your children, you know they are well cared for.” - KU North Ryde parent
“The staff are by far the best aspect. The kids love them because they show genuine interest and care for them, not just turning up and doing a job." - KU North Ryde 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.
KU North Ryde Preschool has been a part of the local community since 1967. 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, mud, leaves and twigs, and we also offer gross motor experiences such as climbing, jumping and physical play. We foster the holistic development of each child so they feel inspired to create, imagine and play.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU North Ryde, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2019 and we are proud to present it here.