🟧 Quality Area 5 - Relationships With Children
      Back to home
      1. 🌳 Woodlands Parent Resources
      2. 📄 Woodlands Policies & Procedures
      3. 🟧 Quality Area 5 - Relationships With Children

      📙 Multicultural Policy (QA5)

      National Quality Standard (NQS) - Quality Area 5: Relationships with Children

      About This Policy

      Australia is a vibrant, multicultural country. We are home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures - as well as people who identify with more than 270 ancestries. This cultural diversity is central to our national identity.

      It is important that young children in Australia today grow up with an appreciation and respect for the diversity of cultures, races, and ethnicities that surround them.

      Early childhood education provides an ideal setting for children to learn about different cultures and form friendships with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

      By promoting an understanding of difference and diversity, early childhood educators can assist children and their families to build positive relationships with their local communities.

      In doing this, educators are fulfilling the requirements under the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) to cultivate ‘respect for diversity’ and exercise ‘cultural competency’

       

       

      National Quality Standard (NQS)

      Quality Area 1: Educational Program and Practice 

      • 1.1.1 Approved Learning Framework - Curriculum decision-making contributes to each child’s learning and development outcomes in relation to their identity, connection with community, wellbeing, confidence as learners, and effectiveness as communicators.
      • 1.1.2 Child-Centred - Each child’s current knowledge, strengths, ideas, culture, abilities, and interests are the foundation of the program.
      • 1.1.3 Program Learning Opportunities - All aspects of the program, including routines, are organised in ways that maximise opportunities for each child’s learning 
      • 1.2.2 Responsive Teaching and Scaffolding - Educators respond to children’s ideas and play and extend children’s learning through open-ended questions, interactions and feedback.
      • 1.2.3 Child-Directed Learning - Each child's agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world. 

      National Quality Standard (NQS)

      Quality Area 3: Physical Environment  

      • 3.2 Use - The service environment is inclusive, promotes competence and supports exploration and play-based learning 
      • 3.2.1 Inclusive Environment - Outdoor and indoor spaces are organised and adapted to support every child's participation and to engage every child in quality experiences in both built and natural environments.

      National Quality Standard (NQS)

      Quality Area 5: Relationships with Children   

      • 5.1 Relationships Between Educators and Children - Respectful and equitable relationships are maintained with each child.
      • 5.1.1 Positive Educator to Child Interactions - Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships that engage and support each child to feel secure, confident, and included.
      • 5.1.2 Dignity and Rights of the Child - The dignity and rights of every child are maintained.

      National Quality Standard (NQS)

      Quality Area 6: Collaborative Partnership with Families  

      • 6.1 Supportive Relationships with Families - Respectful relationships with families are developed and maintained and families are supported in their parenting role.
      • 6.1.1 Engagement with the Service - Families are supported from enrolment to be involved in the service and contribute to service decisions.
      • 6.1.3 Families are Supported - Current information is available to families about the service and relevant community services and resources to support parenting and family wellbeing.
      • 6.2 Collaborative Partnerships - Collaborative partnerships enhance children’s inclusion, learning, and wellbeing.
      • 6.2.2 Access and Participation - Effective partnerships support children's access, inclusion, and participation in the program.
      • 6.2.3 Community Engagement - The service builds relationships and engages with its community  

      National Regulations

      Children (Education and Care Services) National Law NSW

      Purpose

      All children have a right to feel accepted and respected. This is a principle set out in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international human rights treaty on the rights of children. 

      The Convention emphasises the importance of children developing connections to culture and community as a means of fostering a strong sense of personal identity and belonging. This idea is reflected in the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standard.

       By teaching respect for cultural diversity, educators will assist children to:

      • learn about their cultural background and develop a strong sense of self-identity
      • learn about and appreciate cultures and traditions other than their own
      • learn to enjoy and respect differences and recognise universal characteristics we all share
      • learn about racial prejudice and understand why it should be challenged.

      Scope

      This policy applies to children, families, staff, management, and visitors of the Service

      Implementation

       Leader of Teaching and Learning will:

      • Actively seek information from children, families and the community, about their cultural traditions, customs and beliefs, and use this information to provide children with a variety of experiences that will enrich the environment within the centre.
      • Work in partnership with families to provide care that meets the child’s needs and is consistent with the family’s culture, beliefs, and child care practices. Specific requests will be honored where practical to demonstrate respect and ensure continuity of care of the child.
      • Obtain and use resources that reflect the diversity of children, families, and the community and increase awareness and appreciation of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and multicultural heritage.
      • Be sensitive and attentive to all children, respect their backgrounds, unique qualities and abilities, will ensure that the centre’s environment reflects the lives of the children and families using the centre, and the cultural diversity of the broader community, and ensure children’s individual needs are accommodated at the centre.
      • Children with special needs will be provided with support so they can be included as equals within the centre. This may require the assistance of social, ethnic, or special needs services which the Centre will access in collaboration with the child’s family, and/or adapting the environment, routines, and/or educator arrangements in order to facilitate inclusion.
      • Aim to recruit educators and staff from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds that reflect the cultural diversity of the community wherever possible.
      • Ensure all educators and staff are fully oriented to the Centre’s Staff Code of Conduct and the ECA Code of Ethics (2006).
      • Will attend professional development that builds awareness of their own cultural beliefs and values, increases their cultural competence, and helps them to challenge discrimination and prejudice.
      • The centre will access the pool of bicultural support workers to assist communication with families from diverse cultural backgrounds and/or telephone translation services when required and provide brochures/information on aspects of the centre in languages that are spoken in the local community.
      • The centre will access additional support, assistance and resources for children with additional needs including children from diverse cultural backgrounds, children with high ongoing support needs (including disabilities), and children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.
      • Talk to the relevant child’s parents/guardians about any concerns and offer the family links to other support services within the community such as Inclusion Support Agencies; Community Health Services etc.
      • Work with families, inclusion support agencies and other specialists working with the child to develop individual support plans for children with additional needs.

      Educators will:

      • Treat all children equitably and encourage them to treat each other with respect and fairness.
      • Role model appropriate ways to challenge discrimination and prejudice, and actively promote inclusive behaviours in children.
      • Never be singled out, or made to feel inferior to or better than others. Educators and children will discuss incidents of bias or prejudice in children’s play or relationships with each other, to help children to understand and find strategies to counteract these behaviours.
      • Ensure parents/guardians are consulted in the development of holistic programs that are responsive to children’s lives, interests, and learning styles, and reflect children’s family, culture, and community.
      • Create opportunities as an integral part of their daily programs for children to learn about, develop respect for, and celebrate the diversity that exists in the centre and in the broader community by:
        • encouraging all families, children and other educators to share their experiences, skills, cultures and beliefs;
        • inviting community members to the centre to share their stories, songs, experiences, skills, cultures and beliefs;
        • Access and use a range of resources (including multi-cultural and multi-lingual resources) that reflect the diversity of children and families in the centre and in the broader community.

      📅 Policy Reviewed/Modification Dates

      ✍️ Modifications & Updates

      January 2020
      • Branding and formatting adjusted
      • Persons responsible amended to reflect service practices- not pertinent to policy delivery
      • Related Policy links added

      Feedback & Collaboration