Mitchell Early Learning Centre
Mitchell Early Learning Centre
Mitchell Early Learning Centre is a community based education and care service, licensed to care for 70 children. We welcome children of our local community, Charles Sturt University staff and students, and children of distance education students who attend Charles Sturt University residential schools. We currently cater for 11 children per day in the 0-2 age group, 14 children per day in the 2-3 age group, 20 children in the 3-4 age group and 20 children in the 4-5 age group. Mitchell is staffed by a dedicated team of early childhood educators and we always operate above staff to child ratios.
At Mitchell Early Learning Centre (MELC) we believe a successful orientation process will reduce some of the stress and anxiety that children and families may feel when first beginning in an early learning environment. We encourage families and children to visit and become familiar with our service prior to commencement and we tailor the settling in process to meet the individual needs of each child and family. We seek to ensure the process is as smooth as possible through open, honest communication and constant discussions about how everyone is feeling.
At Mitchell Early Learning Centre we respect the right of each child to be in an early learning environment which is loving, nurturing, stimulating, fun and safe. At MELC we recognise that each child develops at his/her own pace. We ensure each child is treated as an individual and receives as much individual attention as possible. One of the ways we are able to achieve this is through our very high staff to child ratios.
At MELC our experiences and activities are designed to extend children’s knowledge and development and are planned using an emergent curriculum approach. An emergent curriculum responds to each individual child’s needs, interests, strengths and abilities and includes a “school readiness” program. Studies have shown that children develop a lifelong interest in learning (and learn more!) if they are presented with materials, resources and information they are interested in. Our program is flexible and stimulating and strongly encourages family participation – we believe that relationships are at the core of our work and that “it takes a village to raise a child” (African proverb).
Mitchell Early Learning Centre works within the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, which is a guide developed by the Federal Government for early childhood educators who work with children from birth to five years. The framework has been developed to ensure each child receives quality education programs in their early childhood setting. MELC seeks to be a model of best practice in the early learning community.
