Religious Understandings & Spirituality Framework for Kindergartens

Catholic Kindergartens in the Diocese of Rockhampton respect and nurture the spirituality of all children within our care. Children are innately spiritual.  Their spirituality is an important part of their self-discovery and learning.  In Kindy students have a natural curiosity about their world, and their desire to make sense of it provides a platform to construct and review their learning through interactions with others, experimentation, scaffolding, explicit teaching and practice and play in the classroom and beyond.  This helps them make sense of a world that is outside their immediate experience, as they connect new knowledge with what they already know or believe.  

Although from diverse backgrounds, with differing life experiences and levels of development, students share many characteristics.  Most students are:

• naturally trusting and accepting;

• self-focused;

• developing an ability to empathise;

• developing their sensory, cognitive and affective appreciation of the world through exploratory and creative learning;

• gradually developing an image of God that is influenced by the significant adults in their lives;

• imitating the religious gestures and behaviours of others;

• assimilating some of the values and beliefs of their parents/carers; and

• developing a natural sense of wonder and experience the sacred through nature using their senses.

Educators find ways to explore spirituality in everyday activities. This helps children to develop their own sense of spirituality and experience it in ways that are meaningful to them.  Incorporating spirituality, faith and cultural traditions into children’s everyday activities helps them grow and develop as part of their community.