Hakuna Matata follows recommended Early Year Learning Framework.

We focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) Education, Literacy, Numeracy and basic life skills.

Our Program is designed to:

• Help children take increasing responsibility for their own care, learning and development
• Assist children to continue learning with an enhanced sense of self-worth, identity, confidence and enjoyment
• Contribute to children’s strengths and facilitating them to share these to the larger groups
• Explore useful and appropriate ways to find out what each child wants to know and inquire into
• Be creative and innovative in evaluating each child’s individual way of learning
• Challenge social norms that initiate or promote inequality and unfair behaviours and practices

Learning Lions (Babies: 6 weeks – 2 years)

Our Learning Lions are 6 weeks-2 years group, who dare to “be, belong and become”. The learning process begins at birth. In our centre, we value that care and attention is given to creating a calm, safe and nurturing environment in the Lions room. Routines such as feeding, resting and nappy changing are significant elements of the daily program and provide consistency and continuity. These experiences offer positive opportunities for learning and time for sensitive and social engagement.

Our program provides:

1. A responsive, supportive and enriching environment that develops each child’s emotional well-being, social skills and independence.
2. Opportunities for pretend play, musical experiences, foundational maths, language and literacy and physical development.
3. Group care with an above standard staff-child ratio .

We want infants and their families to feel at home in Hakuna Matata. We value family centred practices and collaborative partnerships with families, so they contribute to the sense of community we strive for. Our friendly and cooperative staff aims at providing continuity of home environment in its daily engagement with the children.

Families and staff need to communicate openly and regularly to ensure:

• Your child’s emotional and care needs are met.
• Effective planning for your child’s growth, development and education.
• Infants, as learners, explorers and unique individuals are well supported while their need for investigative and experimental learning is emerging

Motivated Meerkats (Toddlers: 2 – 3 years)

Our motivated meerkats are 2-3 year olds, who are motivated to look for their individualities and develop and explore their identities to build strong relationships with the world around them.

Two to three-years old children are energetic explorers and experimenters, curious about the world around them and eager to find out how things work. Their need for investigative and experimental learning is profound.

They also have an increasing ability to express ideas through their different ‘languages’. By languages we mean symbolic communication such as drawing, clay work, painting, puppetry, socio-dramatic or pretend play, singing and block construction, and verbal ability aided by their use of gesture and body movement. We carefully observe these ‘languages’ to interpret each child’s understanding and to assist in planning a rich and challenging curriculum.

Our program assists children to:

• Develop competence through building confidence in themselves and their autonomy and understanding of themselves.
• Develop empathy for others in an atmosphere of trust and respect.
• Manage emotions that arise from their difficulties in communicating and solving problems.

We also focus on:

• Planning a range of experiences to support children’s cognitive, creative, social, emotional, language, physical development and individual learning styles.
• Learning through play and exploration through hands on experiences.
• Providing opportunities for small group play, one to one engagements with an adult, and time for each child to play and explore independently and collaboratively with their peers.
• Developing constructive relationships both with adults and peers.
• We encourage families to be an active part of their child’s day, sharing ideas and aspects of home culture and routine that can help to enrich our program.

Passionate Parrots (3 – 5 years )

Our passionate parrots are 3-5 year olds, who are passionate to discover the endless possibilities to learn and develop in their own way , at their own pace.

Three to five year old children are rapidly developing a more complex understanding of concepts and are highly motivated to explore and set challenges for themselves, their friends and the teaching team.

We encourage children to:

• Problem solve, be independent as initiators, investigators, explorers, creators in their unique individual ways..
• Ask questions, listen to and respect the ideas of others and to develop their own hypotheses on a range of ideas and concepts.
• Develop a spirit of cooperation, empathy and a caring and responsible attitude towards everyone.

Our program focuses on:

• Fostering confidence, self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, communication and respect for others
• Developing relationships, self-expression, collaboration and self-help skills.
• We believe these characteristics and behaviours are essential for children in their transition to school and lifelong learning.

Our curriculum focuses on:

• Daily integration of the visual and performing arts, science, mathematics, language and literacy development, communication and problem solving.
• The individual child in the context and experiences of the group, and within family and community, providing them with challenges or reinforcing their existing knowledge.

We also:

• Support and guide children in decision-making about indoor and outdoor experiences they wish to explore.
• Work with the children in both large and small groups and on a one to one basis.
• Scaffold and encourage children to represent their ideas through various symbolic means such as drawing, painting, clay work, physical movement, storytelling, writing, socio-dramatic play and discussions.
• Provide children with uninterrupted time on their own, or to engage with friends throughout the day in a relaxed environment.