About Us
Park Street opened in May 1976 and the Victorian home that hosts the Centre was built in 1896 and is situated in a prime Brunswick location. Surrounded by generous landscaped gardens and wonderful outdoor play areas, the centre is within walking distance to beautiful parks and the Royal Melbourne Zoo, where the children visit for excursions. Park Street aims to be accessible to all families and sensitive and responsive to the cultural, social and linguistic needs of all members of the community. The Centre is a non-profit community cooperative. When becoming a member of the cooperative parent’s whose children attend the Centre are expected to be actively involved in the running of the Centre.
Park Street is registered for 44 effective full-time places for children aged from six months to five years; with children enrolled in a range of part-time and weekly arrangements. The Centre offers a fully funded kindergarten program run by an experienced and qualified Kindergarten Teacher.
OUR PHILOSOPHY ‘A home away from home’
Early development and learning takes place through relationships and particularly within the family. We believe it is important to share the responsibility of educating children with our families.
Our programs support the National Early Years Learning Framework and embody its central idea of ‘belonging, being and becoming’. Park Street believes that play is crucial to the development of children. It is the way they explore, discover and learn about their world, each other and themselves. Learning through play allows children to explore, experience, communicate, observe, reflect, create, collaborate, cooperate, problem-solve and imagine.
Our curriculum emerges from children’s interests within the context of our language-enriched play-based program, and we encourage inquiry-based learning with particular focus on nature. Children’s learning is extended through a combination of child initiated and adult guided experiences. Our programs encourage collaboration with adults and peers through guided participation and observation, as well as individual exploration and reflection. Our educators develop children’s learning by planning experiences, choosing teaching strategies and designing the environment to build each child’s skills, knowledge and understanding of the world.
Park Street believes that all children have the right to feel and be safe. Park Street places the safety and wellbeing of children as its highest priority. We aim to be a child safe and child friendly centre that ensures children both feel and are safe and valued. All children have the right to grow, develop, play, learn and work safely within our community.
We are committed to upholding the rights of the child and engaging children meaningfully in experiences that promote their desire for learning and spark their curiosity. We encourage the use of unstructured play materials such as paint, clay, mud, sand, water and blocks allowing opportunities for discovery and exploration. Our programs are designed to facilitate these processes and allow the children to work within their ability with freedom to challenge themselves. Our environments support the development of positive relationships and nurtures each individual’s sense of belonging, being and becoming. We also foster mutually respectful partnerships with families in the context of a culturally diverse community.
We acknowledge and value our own indigenous heritage and those of the wider community - locally, nationally and internationally. We will value and connect with people to create a sustained learning community.
We value the outdoor environment and believe that children benefit from experiencing the seasonal changes. We believe in encouraging the children to learn about the environment and develop a sense of responsibility for all living things.
We believe that children need a strong sense of wellbeing for good physical health, feelings of happiness and a positive sense of self. We believe that promoting positive mental health through physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing will make a significant difference to the lives of children.
We believe that children thrive in an environment that allows opportunities for them to practice skills and activities at their own pace in an environment that matches as closely as possible the warmth and care of ‘a home away from home.’ We believe that our Park Street community can best serve the children and our centre when we all collaborate and contribute to the physical, learning and social environments of Park Street.
We recognise and value the knowledge and commitment of educators and fully support their continuing professional learning. Educators will engage in critical reflection of the philosophy, ethics and practice to enrich decision making about children’s learning.
We believe communities are stronger when they are diverse and inclusive and that we have an important role to play in helping the young people in our care to understand their own place within the community and wider world.