Philosophy

Here at Footprints Erina, Footprints is not just a word, it’s basis of our philosophy. We chose the name Footprints to reflect our Christian beliefs and values, and underpin every aspect of our service’s policies, practices and approach to learning, development and wellbeing.

Firstly, the word Footprints reflects our individual, centre and community journeys with God. This is meaningfully echoed in the EYLF principles of Belonging, Being, Becoming.

Belonging: As a Christian centre we believe that everyone at Footprints Erina has been created by God in His image, and that they belong both to Him and to our community. We ensure that each family is respected and supported as collaborative partnerships are formed between the centre and home, to enhance each child’s inclusion, learning and wellbeing.

Being: Each child is supported to feel secure, confident and included, with their dignity and rights respected. Their current knowledge, strengths, ideas, culture, abilities and interests are recognised and celebrated. In this way each child is loved by us as God loves them, unconditionally, just as they are.

Becoming: Our educators and educational program supports and scaffolds each child’s learning and development, as evidenced in their developing identity, connection with community, wellbeing, confidence as learners and effectiveness as communicators. We believe that as promised in the Bible, and referenced in the beautiful Christian ‘Footprints’ poem, God journeys with each child as they grow and develop in these key areas, and with us as we support them as individuals.

The increasing size of the footprints in the logo represents the growth and progress of each child in our care, as we ensure their access, inclusion and participation in the program. To support this, we promote and ensure each child’s health, physical activity and safety. The increasing footprint size also reflects the growth and progress of our centre as we prioritise relationship building with each child and family as well as the continuous improvement of our centre, notably the quality of the education, care, programs and practices that we deliver.

The concept of the footprints highlights the beautiful loving, caring and nurturing relationships we intentionally cultivate – both holistically as a centre and individually as educators, between each child, with their families and with our community - resulting in each leaving footprints on the heart of the other. We ensure that our educators are highly professional and collaborative, offering each child continuity of care to support each child’s learning and development.

We also recognise that ours were not the first footprints on this land, and through this we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land we are on, the Darkinjung people. We honour and celebrate the land we are on with a flexible indoor-outdoor program in an environment which is inclusive, promotes competence, supports exploration and play-based learning. We also teach and embed environmental sustainability practices, with the aim of leaving only footprints, taking only memories.