Criterion 1

Theme 1
Collaborative partnerships with professional, community or research organisations

Our genuine partnerships with professionals and the community are innovative, reciprocal, respectful and exceptional, as we work collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes for our children and families. We believe by investing in rigorous and authentic partnerships within our profession, the community and with a variety of research organisations, we are building capacity within our community of practice on behalf of students.


Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League Education Program

Lansvale Preschool has an exceptional and long standing reciprocal relationship with the under 20’s Players from the Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League Club. We have co-led the Bulldogs Education Support program by having players such as Danny Williams, Dale Finucane, James Clarke, Reed Mahoney, Jonty Timoti and Lachlan Lee working as part of our team of dynamic and exemplary preschool educators. They actively contribute to dance, art, music, fitness, storytelling and games to instil a love of learning in our youngest children. Most importantly, they share their passion and expertise in supporting the development of our children’s gross motor skills as well as championing a love of sport and physical activity. The diverse cultures and backgrounds of our children, families and wider community was a significant driving force for our partnership with the club. As a high proportion of our families are of Vietnamese and Chinese background and were not part of a rugby league savvy community. Many of our families also live in units with limited outdoor space and may not have frequent opportunities to engage in ball games or other sporting experiences. Additionally, our Bulldog educators provide our preschool with strong male role models and a masculine presence. “When successful partnerships draw on the skills and experience of early childhood professionals in diverse fields, they provide holistic approaches to supporting children’s learning and development” (Flotman, R., McKernan, A., Tayler, C. 2011). Early childhood is a critical time for establishing healthy behaviours and patterns that will carry over into later childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The health benefits of physical activity extend well beyond physical health, having a positive impact on the domains of motor skills, psychological well-being, cognitive development, social competence and emotional maturity.

Due to our successful partnership, our families now have more of an appreciation and comprehension of what Rugby League entails, allowing them to engage with the wider community. They have a greater understanding of the importance of the need to engage in physical activity with our young children to maximise their chances of becoming successful future learners. The players benefit enormously through reciprocal learning. They are exposed to the educational environment providing them with work opportunities, post their football career. More than ten players have gone on to study teaching as a result of participation in this program at LPS and beyond.

Canterbury Bulldogs Interview Danny Williams and Mark Diamond, Principal of Lansvale Public School Preschool - Audio Clip
Bulldogs Under 20s Working Hard Off the Fieldhttp://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2016/07/15/under_20s_working_ha.html Bulldogs players working at Lansvale Public School Preschool
Learning Support Team and External Agencies

Lansvale Preschool is committed to being a central link to information and support services within the wider community (Lansvale Preschool Philosophy, 2016). As we recognise that every child, regardless of their needs, has the right to fully participate and have the same choices, opportunities and experiences for them to reach their potential. By working in partnership with our children, families, community, and agencies, we are able to provide the resources to meet students’ additional needs. To ensure this occurs, our preschool actively engages with our exceptional Learning Support Team (LST). This team involves a school Counsellor, Principal, Deputy Principal (LST Coordinator), specialist teachers, social worker, speech therapist and occupational therapist. Our LST plays a vital role in supporting children and their educators by ensuring that observations and assessments are conducted, appropriate resources are secured and utilised and personalised learning plans are developed in full collaboration with parents. Additionally, our school employs a speech therapist and an occupational therapist through South West Kids Clinic. They work with our families by offering screening options to identify children who are at risk of delays in communication development and by providing techniques to support language development at home. Additionally, our speech and occupational therapist work with our children on a weekly basis, using a wide variety of techniques and strategies tailored to each individual child’s needs.

As many of our families come from low socio economic backgrounds, it is imperative that we provide this service as many would not be able to afford private therapy for their children and the waiting list from the local community health centre is usually very long. Additionally through an interdisciplinary approach we are able to develop comprehensive plans for intervention as we strongly believe in evidence based practices. The earlier additional needs are identified and an intervention program is started, the better the chance of improving long term outcomes for each and every child will be. By providing this exceptional service to our preschool children in partnership with South West Kids Clinic, we are able to ensure that our children with complex needs have equitable access to participation. We provide appropriate early intervention for children with diagnosed disabilities and/or developmental delays and those who are at risk of disability or delay, mitigating the factors that can place children at risk of poor outcomes. As stated by South West Kids Clinic “Our impact is life changing for children and families” (South West Kids Clinic, 2017).

Our Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist working with our Preschool children

The following speech notes from our Speech Therapist illustrates how Oscar who is diagnosed with selective mutism has progressed from being a non participate to an enthusiastic participant in preschool life allowing greater engagement.

Oscars speech notes PDF Speech screening report PDF
Working with our community language educators

Excellence is in the partnership with our community language educators to ensure a commitment to children that respects, reflects and celebrates culture and diversity. Working in partnership involves professional commitment and respect for one another’s roles, experience and expertise. “Culture is embodied in the ways in which people interact with each other in everyday forms of talk and through the written texts they produce” (Crozet and Liddicoat, 2000).

We understand the importance of ongoing reflection and have supported our community language educators to use reflective practice in their preschool role using their expert knowledge of language development. We acknowledge that educators coming into the preschool without an early childhood background and understanding of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) can be a daunting challenge. As a result, educators at the preschool prepared training materials for the community language educators so that they have a strong understanding of the EYLF and its effective implementation. Training was also provided on how to write comprehensive learning stories, observations and reflections. Community language educators at Lansvale confidently use the EYLF to analyse and extend on children’s strengths and interests. “Reflective practice is more likely to lead to change when it is undertaken collectively. Learning together with colleagues draws upon the diverse knowledge, experiences, views and attitudes of individuals within the group” (Anon, 2017). This results in our community language program responding to children to ensure comprehensive, holistic and continuous approaches to their education and care.

TAFE and University Students

We have developed authentic and genuine partnerships through our work with TAFE, Universities and other independent Early Childhood organisations. To be great teachers, we believe we need to be great learners too. By hosting a variety of students, reciprocal learning occurs. Our students bring fresh thoughts and ideas and show us the most contemporary ways of working. Consequently our educators are challenged to reflect on their practices and beliefs as our student teachers ask questions about our routine, ideas, lessons and reasons behind implementing the diverse learning experiences and spaces in our preschool.

An example of reciprocal learning is highlighted in the following example. The notion of writing ‘learning stories’ was first introduced by one of our university students in 2011 during her practicum at Lansvale Preschool. Our educators were not familiar with this contemporary way of documenting children’s learning but were intrigued by the effectiveness of this method and so began to research and learn from our student. Adopting this emerging practice allowed learning stories to more deeply map and reflect on children’s learning. As a result, all Lansvale educators are now using highly refined learning stories to celebrate children’s uniqueness with a range of stakeholders.

Moreover, we are confident that Lansvale Preschool is a centre of exceptional practice and we see it as our duty to give back to our aspiring educators so there is a positive culture of high expectation and expertise across the sector. Practical practicums are a critical component of teacher training as it provides teacher education students with an opportunity to apply both their content knowledge and their teaching skills in the setting. We inspire our students to see the possibilities available. We show them new ways of planning and documenting children’s learning. We challenge them to be creative and to think outside the box. Therefore we are implementing a responsive program that is reflective of the social and cultural context of the Lansvale Community.

We understand that student teachers learn through participation being deliberately directed by their associate teacher while also being allowed to experiment and take risks independently (Haigh, Pinder & McDonald, 2008). We embrace and encourage this in our work with the educators of the future. A recent TAFE student used Lansvale’s programming, observation and critical reflection methods in her assessments. Her assessor was so impressed with these approaches that she has requested that these methods be shared with other TAFE students. This further cements Lansvale Preschool as ‘champions’ for early childhood education. We believe that it is our responsibility to support our future educators by being inspiring role models, highlighting the importance of the 7C’s of learning (creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, Cross Cultural Understanding, computing and Career and learning self resilience- managing change, lifelong learning and career redefinition), promoting inclusive partnerships and reflective practice.

Western Sydney University

In our pursuit of exemplary practice at Lansvale, we are currently in the process of working with Dr Joanne Orlando from Western Sydney University who is a leading expert in the field of children’s technology. Dr Orlando has worked very closely with Apple and Google and she has also conducted a large body of work on Teacher Professional Learning nationally and internationally. She has been involved in research that focuses on the teaching, learning and social effects of children’s use of technology. The preschool is currently undertaking work related to ensuring that the use of 21st Century tools will enhance the curiosity and creativity of our children. Through our meeting and conversations with Dr Orlando, we have changed our pedagogical approach in the use of technology. We question the types of ICT tools we use to foster creativity and opportunities for problem solving. We use simple tools on the iPad, such as the camera and video functions focussing on off screen/on screen experiences throughout the day. Dr Orlando has inspired us to use the iPads as a portable device that can be integrated into other learning areas. We have had iPads on the Play doh table for the children to take photos of their play doh characters and make them come to life through the Chatterpix App. Our children also use the

iPads in the block corner where they are often taking photos of their own block creation and then challenging their peers to recreate the same structure. They have used Apps to create their own storybooks and to record their collections of letters and numbers in our environment. As a result our children now use our iPads as a portable tool to authentically help enrich their play navigated experience.

Munch and Move

We have maintained our partnership with Katie Trinh our Health Promotions Officer - Healthy Children Initiative from Sydney & South Western Sydney Local Health Districts. We are working with Katie to implement the Munch and Move program which is a NSW Health initiative that supports the healthy development of children birth to 5 years by promoting physical activity, healthy eating and reduced small screen time. Katie and her team has assisted us in modifying our healthy eating policies, planning programs that embed healthy eating and exercise into our curriculum. We work in partnership with our parents around the importance of promoting healthy habits. Our exceptional educators ensure that they continuously drive the Munch and Move values during group time, spontaneous and planned experience. For example during a cooking experience, we made kale, banana and passionfruit smoothies. The children picked the kale from the garden, tasted the smoothie and were excited to share their experience with their families. Our parents were surprised with the success of the kale in the smoothie and were keen to try the idea of incorporating kale and other vegetables in a smoothie.

As a result, our children and families are making more healthy food choices. Children are confident in choosing healthier options from their lunch boxes. They are proud to showcase their healthy lunch box to their peers and educators on a daily basis. Parents have commented that their children are more willing to try new foods. A parent even stated that her child, who never eats any fruit or vegetables, asked her to buy watermelon just so he could have a taste. Furthermore, parents were keen to try more innovative ways of preparing healthier snacks and lunches.

Ongoing connections through regular meetings, emails and phone calls keep us up to date with resources and training to assist educators to implement a fun, play-based approach to supporting healthy eating and physical activity.

Preschool Community of Practice

We actively pursue an ongoing Community of Practice with other local Public School Preschool educators. This activity aims at increasing our capacity to reflect and achieve currency around our teacher professional learning needs. We hold collegial sessions to enable professional sharing. These sessions are hosted by ourselves and our partner preschools and allow for us to refine our exemplary practice and inspire each of the settings to be the producers and receivers of practical content and commentary. Furthermore, we liaise often with these fellow educators through telephone calls, emails and preschool visits.

Opera House Initiative

The preschool has representation in a team of exemplary educators P-6 undertaking action research on Creativity through Leadership with the Sydney Opera House. Through this project Lansvale is assigned to a teaching artist from the Opera House who regularly meets with the team to explore the creativity framework. This group of educators are undertaking deep and ongoing professional learning in order to investigate the true meaning of creativity, so as to be able to unpack its impact on our quality learning environment for children. Preschool children and their parents are a key feature of this initiative. Due to an enhanced understanding of creativity, preschool educators have been introducing the creativity framework in partnership with the teaching artist. This includes, drawing and painting on a large scale, sound drawing, collage picture making, partner drawing and storytelling through natural materials. These experiences further provide children with opportunities to celebrate their uniqueness and diversity which enabled them to explore new ways of thinking and problem solving. It also challenged the children to express themselves openly, without rules, constraints or judgements. This innovative approach harnesses and encourages the disposition required for creativity and caters for the learning styles of our children.

Taking Professional Learning into the Preschool Classroom
Preschool children working with teaching artist from the Sydney Opera House to create a "Symphony of Blue"
Collaborative partnerships with our local community

Lansvale Preschool takes an active role in building genuine partnerships with the local community. We have actively collaborated with community organisations such as the local fire brigade, Police and Fairfield Council to our service. The learning that occurs through these visits is ongoing and practices learnt are embedded into our preschool program. For instance Fairfield City Council, has gifted our preschool recycling bins which our children use to put all their paper for recycling. Furthermore, they have encouraged our children to be responsible citizens by reducing waste through collecting scraps at home and preschool for our worm farm. Our local excursion to Canley Vale Nursing Home is an event that highlights how our children learn the value of giving to others. Our children develop positive attitudes towards the elderly and are more “prone to feel comfortable around those with disabilities and impairments of all kinds than their peers who lack such experiences” (Jansen, 2016). These visits help our elderly residents break up their everyday routine and rekindle relationships with the broader community. Consequently our preschool students are more community conscious and have developed a greater empathy with community members of all ages.