Our Program and Approach
At KU Bradfield Park, childhood is celebrated. When they play, and explore, children's imagination and curiosity is sparked – they enjoy learning, and are inspired to continue learning more.
Our play-based program intentionally provides opportunities and activities based upon the Early Years Learning Framework, for your child to discover and pursue their own interests and strengths.
We have a holistic approach to teaching and learning, and recognise that children’s physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural and cognitive development are all linked and are of equal importance.
We believe that children’s sense of wellbeing and belonging is developed through sensitive and responsive interactions, relationships with educators and through reciprocal communication between educators and families. At KU Bradfield Park, we believe that families are children's most influential teachers and therefore we place great emphasis on working in close partnership with all our families.
Our program offers children the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of learning experiences and activities, each specifically designed to promote children’s confidence as capable, active participants in their own learning. Children are presented with a range of activities including gardening, arts and crafts, music and movement, physical play, block building, sand and water play, science experiments, early numeracy activities such as counting and measurement, and early literacy activities such as reading, drawing and writing.
KU Bradfield Park warmly welcomes back past students (and families) who regularly come to visit and value our strong connection with the local community.
We look forward to the opportunity of including your family in the life of our centre.
In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of specialisation.
At KU Bradfield Park, our specialisation is Relationships.
This includes relationships with our mother earth, relationships with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and relationships with wellbeing (social, emotional and physical).
We incorporate this into our program in several ways. Our excursions and incursions are designed to connect children with the community and provide ‘hands on’ opportunities to extend their learning. We strive to create awareness about the natural environment and this supports our embedded sustainability practices within the centre. The children are involved in growing fruit and vegetables in our large garden, looking after our worm farm, taking care of the fish in our fish pond and learning to care for living things. We use technology as a tool to enhance learning and introduce children to early robotics and coding to develop their understanding of technology. We believe that healthy minds live in healthy bodies, therefore physical activities and healthy eating is also actively promoted. A sense of belonging is developed through participating in physical experiences, and we have our own sport teacher who runs a daily sport program using our wide range of sporting resources and equipment.
We feel that the children benefit from this specialisation, because it fosters a strong understanding and awareness of their relationship with themselves, with the world, towards their peers and within the community and the natural environment.
Our centre has been independently assessed by the Department of Education NSW under the National Quality Standards, and are proud to be rated as Exceeding the National Quality Standard.
However what matters most is what our families think...
“KU Bradfield Park has been awarded high ratings across all domains of the National Quality Standards, that as a parent, I witness each day in the service. This includes the engaged, personalised interactions of all staff (teaching, chef and administrative) with children and their families, attention to additional support that may be required, and the respect and celebration of difference amongst families and children. The programs are thoughtfully prepared to encourage learning and enjoyment through play, as well as to equip children with skills they need for transition to school. In these ways, I believe the service is making a significant contribution to bringing on children who are competent learners, caring individuals, as well as socially and environmentally aware citizens.” - KU Bradfield Park parent
“The commitment and energy of the staff to the education and wellbeing of the children is unwavering. They are constantly seeking new experiences, activities and areas of learning for the children, guided by the children's own interests and through play. Our son loves telling us about the latest activities he's done at preschool and he is very proud when he explains how his idea was pursued or what his achievements were. We also appreciate the involvement we have had as parents. Despite the inevitably rushed drop offs and pick-ups in the working week, the weekly diary updates of the children's activities, the family events at the centre and the parents' social nights have all helped us make friends, settle in to Ku-ring-Gai and feel part of KU and local community.” – KU Bradfield Park parent
Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within relationships and interactions between children and staff, and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting, homelike learning environments for children – whatever our setting.
KU Bradfield Park is an early childhood service catering for 53 children located in West Lindfield, in Sydney’s leafy North Shore, situated close to Lane Cove National Park and Queen Elizabeth Park.
Our playground is designed to allow children to explore nature and discover the natural environment. We want children to be able to dig in the mud, climb trees, discover and learn about insects and enjoy connecting with nature. The many experiences we offer enable children to immerse themselves in the natural elements of their surroundings and feel inspired to create, imagine and play. Our playground also sparks all senses, especially around our fish pond and our own vegetable garden.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU Bradfield Park, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.