NQS 3.2.1 Inclusive Environment - Outdoor and indoor spaces are organised and adapted to support every child's participation and to engage every child in quality experiences in both built and natural environments.
NQS 3.2.2 Resources Support Play-Based Learning - Resources, materials and equipment allow for multiple uses, are sufficient in number, and enable every child to engage in play-based learning.
... a lack of intentional and meaningful contributions to both the indoor and outdoor environments.
Paige EL Notes.pdfPaige (EL) Progressive Notes
Our previous educational leader made some notes and reflections on our current environments.
Paige (EL) reflected on the service's environments and found that they lacked intention and meaning. Her progressive notes details actions she took to support the rooms with the environment set up.
Evidence on left - click top right arrow to expand.
We seek to create engaging, beautiful and meaningful environments that reflect children's voices and contribute to the children's sense of belonging.
Learn about intentionality
Reflect on how to be intentional with out room and outdoor environments
Define indoor play and outdoor play
Create vision boards for our environments based on reflections
August 2025
Our environments are meaningful and engaging
Observe in practice:
Images of the children engaged in play are present throughout the environments
Environments reflect children's voices
Children are engaged and interested in their environment
Educators change resources and their room to meet the needs of their children
Sight Documentation:
Educators engage in critical reflections surrounding indoor and outdoor environments
Educators utilise the physical environments and resources used box in the programming diary
Educational Leader - Sinead Leong
Room Leaders:
Tessa – Koalas
Esther – Possums
Renee – Wombats
Jess – Emus
Sarah - Kangaroos
Carol (EL) introduced the interactive sheet and outdoor baskets (brought in by old EL Paige) during the room leader meeting. These were designed to ensure environments were meaningful and engaging.
Yard meetings were hosted to improve the overall quality of the outdoor environments. Within this meeting standards were discussed for the set up of the yards as well as supervision.
Evidence on left - click arrow on top right for larger view
August 2023 Yard Meetings.pdf
The outdoor baskets were proving to be ineffective. As a team we needed to explore other options for outdoor program and environments, however the new programming method was a priority. We will retouch this later in the year.
March Schema Challenge - as part of the Schema challenge rooms were required to create a learning wall display which displayed the activities completed and images of the children.
09/04/24
Lead educators and Leadership team began engaging in discussions on the outdoor environment. The first meeting was a beginning discussion on outdoor environments, and how to incorporate children's voice and meaningful experiences into the outdoor environment.
30/04/24
During the room leader meeting, we discussed in depth what is indoor vs outdoor play, specifically looking at the kind of play we would like to encourage and make spaces for outside. This stemmed from the reflections made the previous week about removing tables from the yard to allow for big body movements. Room Leader were split into two groups: Senior Yard and Junior Yard, and they did mind maps of their ideas of Indoor and Outdoor play as is developmentally age appropriate.
The centre critical reflection book posed the question 'What is OUTDOOR play?' to all educators to begin the cycle of reflection.
07/05/24
Educators in their yard groups: Senior Yard, Junior Yard and Babies, made vision boards for their yards using their reflections and mind maps as guides for the vision of outdoor environments and outdoor play.
Outdoor program.pdf11/06/24
EL proposed a number of outdoor program templates at the Room Leader Meeting. Room Leaders discussed the pros and cons and decided on a template that they felt was child-led and simple to use.
Evidence on left - For a larger view click the arrow symbol in the right hand corner
11/06/24
EL asked educators to plan their programs not in experiences but in environmental changes (e.g. adding more materials to 'construction corner' to promote fine motor play - smaller materials; changing home corner into a doctor's office to support child interest).
Sinead (EL) asked educators to think about this but we will explore this more as we progress through our slow pedagogy journey. Sinead completed an example program to figure out how it would work.
Sinead (EL) example program, informed by slow pedagogy and planning for environment and self-sufficient experiences.
Our goals for Meaningful environments:
environments are structured in a way to promote agency and independence
every part of our environment reflects children's learning and interests
environments are planned for on the program with a variety of independent, small group and large group pay with ranging levels of adult interaction
25th February 2025
I, Susana, our outdoor enthusiast, and Karen, the director, sat down and discussed ways to implement a new outdoor program in the yards. Across the service, there was no consistent flow of what educators had been planning and executing from indoors to outdoors. Upon opening the centre in the morning, educators could not effectively set up experiences or activities linked to any program as they couldn't find what the educators wanted for the day. This is where, as a team, we decided to come together and reflect on what we could put in place for the outdoor program to run effectively.
As you can see in the photos attached throughout our meeting, we talked about what the program would look like, how they would execute it and what areas they would need to program for and ensure that they were able to link and effectively connect to the indoor program.
Evidence: Outdoor program
1st April 2025
After some time for the outdoor program to take full effect, I had our outdoor enthusiasts reflect on how our teams achieved this program to its full extent. The senior yard as a group reflected that dividing the categories would have provided more clarity on the program; however, after trailing this, they weren’t able to still portray the program the way it was meant to.
We also had discussions with the junior side on their reflection on the outdoor program. They, too, feel like there are too many boxes and a lot of double handling. They would like things to be simplified and easier to branch off and extend on and more fluid learning.
Once discussed with the team, we brainstormed some different ideas of ways we can amend the program to be able to produce the desired outcome. One idea that was discussed was having a whiteboard outside, changing the paper program to display differently (options attached). The other challenge that the team had with the program was the nature play section; they all felt that this section felt somewhat contradictory given the yard's lack of areas with nature for the children to explore.
In addition, we will trial these two templates over the next two weeks, one for each and reflect on these before we trial the whiteboards.
Evidence: Outdoor program amendments 1
Evidence: Outdoor program amendments 2
Tayah (EL) brainstorming for the program that will be implemented
Tayah (EL) Brainstorming how we will reflect on the program
Evidence: Reflection from the outdoor enthusiast regarding the outdoor program
Our kindergarten class (Kangaroos) proudly participated in a Sustainability Challenge and emerged as winners! The children created a beautiful butterfly using recycled paper, showing creativity and environmental awareness. Along the way, they also explored the habitat and life cycle of a butterfly, learning how nature works and how we can help protect it. They created their own homes for the insect from collecting natural items on their Bush Kindy walks, to then understanding why insects are so important to our eco-system. What a fun and meaningful way to care for our planet!
Collection of natural loose parts on bush kindy
Creating bug hotels with those natural loose parts
Learning about butterflies and their life cycle and creating one our of recycled paper
Butterfly create from recycled paper