Educators
Registered Early Childhood Educators, Director Approval RECE (granted permission to replace a RECE by the Ministry of Education) and Educator Assistants (some of whom are attending a community college to pursue a career in Early Childhood) compose the dedicated team of educators employed at Duntroon Day Care.
At Duntroon Day Care we believe our educators are... "competent and capable, curious, and rich in experience. They are knowledgeable, caring, reflective, and resourceful professionals. They bring diverse social, cultural, and linguistic perspectives. They collaborate with others to create engaging environmentsand experiences to foster children’s learning and development. Educators are lifelong learners. They take responsibility for their own learning and make decisions about ways to integrate knowledge from theory, research, their own experience, and their understanding of the individual children and families they work with." How Does Learning Happen 2014
The Infant Program
In the Infant program our children range in ages from birth to 18 months. Our educator to child ratio is 1:3. We have an operating capacity of 10 infants. A fourth member of the staff team will support the infant program during outdoor play time, lunch time as well as during sleep time.
In the infant program, you will see educators playing alongside children at eye level, often sitting on the floor. This way of engagement invites educators to interact and communicate with the children using facial gestures, body language and close connectedness. The educators always strive to create a sense of closeness and belonging. Through consistent and gentle educator interactions, each child feels comfortable, valued, and most of all loved. Educators are always present fostering children’s curiosity and wonder. Infants love imitating adult behaviour. You will often notice infants caring for a doll. By modelling positive interactions, the educators are creating relationships amongst the children in the program.
In the program the infants are provided with play experiences that invite them to turn take. A simple game of “peek a boo” builds social interests and supports expression of emotion. Our goal in the infant room is to create an environment where each child feels comforted, feels safe and feels a sense of self.
Educators provide the children with a variety of play materials that invite them to problem solve e.g., through trial and error of pulling a string toy, leaves the infant feeling a sense of accomplishment, especially when it is reinforced by an excited educators tone of voice saying “you pulled the string, you made the car move!”
Toddler Program
In the toddler program our children range in ages from 18 months to 30 months. Our educator to child ratio is 1:5. We have an operating licensing capacity of 10 toddlers.
In the toddler program we use a play-based learning approach to foster independence and enhance social interactions. At this stage of development it is vital that children are provided with a variety of play materials that supports the child’s ability to explore cause and effect. Parallel play, playing in close proximity to peers with similar play materials without an exchange of ideas or things is very common in the toddler room. This is why in this program you will see an abundance of the same items. Toddlers’ expressive language flourishes at this stage of development. To support this development, the educators provide the children with opportunities to enhance their language growth, through songs, storytelling, rhyming, noticing what the child is doing and labelling words. Toddlers will also begin expressing emotions and feelings in language and pretend play. Duntroon educators are present in the child’s play to support this emotional experience, inviting the child to feel safe, sense of self advocacy, as well as beginning to develop feelings of empathy for others.
Preschool Program
In the preschool program our children range in ages from 28months to 60 months. Our educator to child ratio is 1:8. We have an operating licensing capacity of 24 preschoolers.
We believe that the preschool environment and space belongs to the children. Co constructing the learning environment with the children helps them feel a sense of comfort, freedom, as well as self efficacy. Our goal is to create an environment and program, where children are part of the decision making process. This process is to foster independence so that the children can make informed decisions as to their play and learning. Our shelves are housed with open ended, interesting and engaging materials, including loose parts that invite children to investigate all the different possibilities of exploration, play and inquiry. The outdoor learning environment offers an abundance of opportunities for children to problem solve and be innovative. Outdoor play is a huge component of the program we offer at Duntroon Day Care. Play and learning in the outdoors invites children to test their theories in the natural world not only with provided materials but with found materials as well. Observing seasonal changes leads to rich conversations, discussions and most of all further learning when educators and children think and wonder aloud, make connections, imagine and collaborate together.
When children are actively engaged in play, children are invited to act out their imagination, their thoughts, and ideas. Our pedagogical approach is to provide child-initiated play experiences, with adult supported interactions and engagement. Our belief about children and how they learn is reflected in the learning environments. As reflective practitioners, we strive to create learning environments that are fluid, flexible and meet the individual needs of all the children.
Duntroon Day Care understands that the program must be flexible to meet the individual needs of the children, so that each child can develop and reach milestones at their own pace.
At Duntroon Day Care we know that every experience in a child’s early life has an impact on their development now and in the future. Honouring this mindset, Registered Early Childhood Educators and Educator Assistants at Duntroon Day Care are committed to the principle that collaborating with families in partnership and cooperation are a key component to a successful program and will ultimately have a profound positive impact on the children’s well being and sense of belonging.
In addition, our centre prides itself on being inclusive, caring, accepting and most of all safe.