At Ignatius Early Years we have taken a beautiful bungalow in a creek setting and the adjacent property, with an historic cottage, and redesigned the building and grounds to meet all the principles of effective design for early childhood settings.
The building is adjacent to Saint Ignatius’ Junior School on Queen Street, Norwood. There is easy access through a stairway from the back of the Early Years to the Junior School as well as footpath access on Queen Street.
The entrance to Ignatius Early Years provides a beautiful welcome for children, families and visitors. There are many trees full of bird life including rainbow lorikeets and other parrots. The creek provides the sounds of flowing water, frogs and ducks at varying times throughout the year. It is obvious from arriving at Ignatius Early Years that natural environments have been sought and are valued.
We believe the natural and constructed environments, both inside and outdoors, provide vehicles for learning and opportunities for teaching. Young children learn through interaction with their physical, social and cultural environments. Play is the integrative process that facilitates their learning and develops young children physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. The nature, content and qualities of children’s physical environments provide cues that elicit exploration and affect learning opportunities.
Environmental sustainability is increasingly being embedded into our programs and practices.
Our goals in promoting concepts of sustainable practice:
Awareness – develop an awareness of and sensitivity to the environment and potential solutions to the problems therein.
Knowledge – develop a basic understanding of the environment, its problems and our responsibilities in the stewardship of the earth.
Attitudes – help children to acquire social values and feelings of concern for the environment and inspire their participation in its protection and improvement.
Skills – help children acquire skills for solving environmental problems
Participation – help children develop a sense of responsibility and urgency to solve environmental problems.
“Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better”