How do we at Aurora inspire our children to face the future with essential 21st-century life skills that children should learn?
We take our cues from giants like Plutarch who commented a long time ago:
“The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.”
And more recently, Albert Einstein:
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”
Authentic learning happens when children are allowed to engage in the five Cs.
At Aurora Early Childcare we are not just teaching, but rather facilitating learning. Pupils enjoy and even get inspired and take the onus of their own learning.
In conjunction with our core values of Connect, Care, and Create Aurora focuses and believes strongly in the 5 C’s. Choice, Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking, and Creativity are at Aurora’s very heart, moving from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom to deliver high-quality teaching.
What’s different you might ask?
We’ve added choice, which encapsulates our philosophy of connecting and caring to the top of our list not as a skill for children to learn, but rather as a characteristic of the classroom.
Our educators remove themselves from the front and center, becoming more of a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage.
How do we achieve this and learn more?
Choice
“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” – Confucius
Learning in fun ways and learning by doing, is an integral part of our room structure. Children are free to choose their own learning pathways depending on their own various learning styles.
The freedom to determine their own learning journey inspires, motivates, and engages them in achieving benchmarks in line with the Victorian Early Years Learning Framework.
We allow children to make informed choices which enable them to reflect on the consequences of their choices, building their confidence and achieving their learning objectives.
Collaboration
Teamwork is key to form good lasting friendships that may carry on into their adult life. Studies have indicated that careers and businesses are going to be conducted on a global playing field. Today more so than before, it is vital to teaching our children the art of collaboration. As young as they are children use play to collaborate with their peers and educators to enjoy and make choices of their own learning. They also learn to make conscious choices that not only benefits them but also their peers and families at large.
We form partnerships and collaborate and work within the local community and play an important part of local government-run initiatives, to give real-life experiences to our pupils.
Communication
We have an open-door policy to communicate with parents and all caregivers this cascades down to our educators which ripples down to our children and our approach is to lead by example.
Children learn to articulate their thoughts and feelings with confidence. We encourage reading, through our extensive library and book corners in each room. Listening and reflecting are integral parts of life skills which our educators passionately follow. They practice and encourage the use of mindful vocabulary at all times.
Critical Thinking
“It is today we must create the world of the future.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Thinking out of the box – with the pandemic, we have all had to think out of the box especially with small children it can be rather challenging. However, Aurora has successfully pioneered its Digital Learning Program that has enabled parents to work with their children and our centre, to impart learning. We are passionate about being problem solvers and promote this in our practice every day.
Creativity
“Logic will get you from A to B, imagination will get you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein
Art, drama, physical exercise, and music form part of our curriculum to allow creativity to flow. Specialist teachers and experts in their respective fields provide sessions that promote creativity. We passionately promote the free flow of their expression and children have access to enrich their learning.
Have a trip to our centres: