Senior Toddler

The Senior Toddler room facilitates a wide array of investigative play opportunities for the children to begin forming more detailed and concrete understandings of the world around them.  We prioritise sensory exploration while introducing early scientific exploration methods and engaging the children in an array of early literacy and numeracy experiences.  

Our program is child-led and informed by the Early Years Learning Framework to ensure that each child’s strengths, interests and development are planned for.  The children, being the eldest members of our Junior Side have extended opportunities to take on leadership roles within their play and to co-construct their learning and the learning of their peers through collaborative play. 

We are blessed to be surrounded by the most amazing natural spaces both inside our own fence line and also within the wider St. Michael’s College community. We make the most of this by offering children the opportunity to engage in regular visits to Nature Play Sites located on the grounds of St. Michael’s College. Here they are able to spend time exploring, investigating, creating and playing in nature.  This regular and extended time helps the children to build a connection with their environment and, in turn, creates an innate desire to care for it.  The children become responsible and passionate advocates for our world and the natural environment with which they are connected.

In order to enable children to truly take the lead with their own learning and exploration, Senior Toddler runs a free-flow, open door program with the Junior Toddler room.  This not only enables the children to choose the spaces they want to play in but also allows for connections between the children and a network of educators, along with the opportunity for them to build relationships children of varying of ages.  This results in a strong sense of identity and their sense of belonging, security and community being strongly and actively supported.  The educators in both rooms work collaboratively on our curriculum to ensure that every child is accessing a high quality, open-ended and child-focused program and environment.