NCC Early Learners values the uniqueness of each child and strives to explore the potential and possibilities that they possess at this age, especially in the area of art, music and languages. We are also committed to increasing our children’s awareness of indigenous Australia.

Art

Each day children engage in art experiences with an array of creative materials, stunning art and craft pieces are delivered home to families to share. Our early learning centre encourages children to act with increasing independence and endurance, and engage in ways to explore and be imaginative and creative.

Music

We are proud to be one of the early learning centres that promotes a range of activities. Music is an integral part of our every day and children have opportunities to learn songs, play with a variety of instruments from other cultures and dance with free expression. Through songs, games and activities, concepts of pitch, beat, rhythm and volume are introduced. They also work as a group to learn words and actions to songs which contribute to our end of year performances.

Foreign Language

Three of our NCC Early Learning Centres offer the opportunity to learn a foreign language. It is our intention to offer a foreign language in all of our centres.

French

(Available at Buderim and Nambour)

If you have eaten off a menu, admired your silhouette or come to attention, you are using words originating from French. We know that learning a foreign language from a young age supports academic achievement because it improves cognitive development, memory and problem solving skills. There are also cultural benefits to studying a language, expanding our children’s horizons beyond their own cultural experience. NCC Early Learners Buderim and Nambour offer introductory French as a part of our Kindergarten progra. Why French? French is the one of the Romance Languages, and its origin, like English, lies in Latin roots. Many words from the French vocabulary have become part of our everyday use of English.

Spanish

(Available at Withcott, Toowoomba)

Once a week, here at NCC Early Learners Withcott, we have a teacher from Fun Languages come in and teach Spanish. The teacher runs a short morning meeting session of about 20 minutes for each age group and focuses on basic language concepts such as key or commonly used words and phrases. Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world and the early years are the best to learn a second language. This is a fantastic experience for the children to not only broaden their language skills but also enrich their cultural awareness and exercise the languages part of their brain (which is essential to developing strong maths skills). Best of all, it is lots of fun!

Indigenous Studies

It is our intention to increase indigenous cultural and historical awareness from a young age, including incursions from local Elders. At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-indigenous peoples for all Australians’ benefit. At NCC, culture is a vital part of our programs, and this is demonstrated in many in our  Indigenous program, including art, storytelling, books and NAIDOC week and Elders visits.

Each day we acknowledge the land we live on and teach the children to care for the environment. Understanding the importance of our history is something that NCC early learners encourages and is supported by community elders and partnerships with Narragunnawali Learning platform that fosters a higher level of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders histories, culture and contributions.