Our Mission Statement
St. Lawrence Co-operative Day Care Incorporated (SLCD)’s mission is to provide a high-quality and nurturing child-centred program that reflects the needs of the individual child. Our enriched program reflects the diversity of our community.
Our Philosophy
SLCD believes children learn through play. Play is the cornerstone where children have the opportunity to explore and learn through materials in addition to taking risks in a safe environment. Play facilitates the whole child’s development, including social, emotional, physical, cognitive and creative abilities. For children’s play to be meaningful, the experiences must reflect each child’s skills and needs.
We strive to provide care for all children in an environment that embraces:
- Inclusivity and diversity
- Honoring and respecting all children’s beliefs, culture, language, and experiences acquired from their family and community
- Promoting health and well-being
- Fostering the children’s exploration, play and inquiry as a key goal
- Capturing and documenting our classroom practices
- Supporting all children in learning the ability to self-regulate so children feel comfortable and confident
- Fostering the children’s health and well-being indoors and outdoors
- Forming trusting relationships with children and their families
- Provide everyone with a sense of belonging
- Children learn to:
- care about other people
- understand other’s feelings
- cooperate and share
- how to express their opinions
- conflict resolution
- develop self-competence, self-worth and self-regulation
As a Co-operative, families, teachers and management are required to maintain open and ongoing communication with each other and to participate in the children’s learning and development. We see families as experts who know their children better than anyone else and have important information to share. We value and engage them in a meaningful way. Families are expected to abide by the centre’s By-laws and contribute to the ongoing development of the daycare centre. Parents are also encouraged to share information with teachers, participate in the curriculum and volunteer in the program as needed.
Our Strategies
Our strategies are guided by the work done on Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years (“How Does Learning Happen”). We understand that learning and development happen within relationships among children, families, educators, and their environments.
We understand that for children to grow and flourish, the four following foundational conditions need to exist:
- a sense of belonging
- a sense of well-being
- opportunities and support for engagement
- opportunities and support for expression
We will adopt the following 11 strategies to create these conditions:
- Promote an environment which is healthy, safe, and supports the general well being
- Promote an environment which ensures good nutrition and safe food preparation
- Support positive and responsive interactions
- Encourage the children to interact and communicate
- Foster exploration, play and inquiry
- Provide child-initiated and adult-supported experiences
- Plan for and create positive learning environments and experiences
- Incorporate indoor and outdoor play, active play and quiet time
- Foster the engagement of and communications with parents
- Involve local community partners
- Support others in relation to continuous professional learning