The 10 guiding principles behind everything we do in Clarkson
Most early learning centres in Clarkson will tell you they are play based. It is a true description and a fairly useless one, because it says nothing about what actually happens when your two year old hurls a shoe across the room, or when two children reach for the same red truck at the same second.
Those small moments are where learning is either built or missed. At Safe n Sound Clarkson our educators work from ten guiding principles that sit behind every one of those decisions. They are written for our team, but they were designed with your child in mind, so here is what each one means in practice and what it is teaching while nobody is announcing a lesson.
1. Behaviour is a message, and we read it before we respond
Every action a child takes is communication. Before an educator redirects, they pause and ask what the child is actually after: connection, a big feeling with nowhere to go, or a hypothesis about what happens when the tower comes down. Our educators use a three second rule, a short pause to reflect before they react, so the response lands on the need rather than the noise. Children who are understood in these moments settle faster, and they carry that expectation into every relationship afterwards.
2. Children who can name a feeling can manage it
We treat emotional vocabulary as core curriculum, which sounds academic until you hear it in the toddler room. "You look frustrated that your tower fell." "I feel calm when I take a deep breath." Naming a feeling gives a child somewhere to put it, and it is the first working tool of empathy. This is what sits underneath the word resilience when we use it in our Kindy program.
3. We coach through conflict instead of refereeing it
When two children want the same thing, the quickest fix is for an adult to decide. We do the slower thing. "You both want the red truck. What could we do?" The children then have to listen, propose, compromise and land somewhere they can both live with, which is negotiation and self advocacy in miniature. It takes longer on the day and saves years later.
4. Questions are answered with let's find out together
We honour a child's questions as seriously as their ability to follow an instruction. "How?" and "Why?" get met with curiosity rather than a closed answer, because the child who keeps asking at four is the one still asking at fourteen. You will hear our educators say "let's explore it together" a lot. It is deliberate.
5. We praise the effort that went into the drawing
"What a pretty picture" tells a child that the outcome is what counts. "You worked on that for a long time with so much focus" tells them the persistence is what counts, and persistence is the part they can repeat tomorrow. Praising process is how a growth mindset gets built, one comment at a time, across the Nursery, Toddler and Kindy rooms.
6. The world comes into the room every day
Cultures, family structures, abilities and traditions turn up in our books, our play and our conversations as a normal part of the day. Children who grow up with difference around them treat it as ordinary and interesting, which is a much stronger foundation than a single lesson in a single week.
7. I wonder is the phrase you will hear most in our rooms
"I wonder how the caterpillar feels inside its chrysalis." "I wonder what happens if we build the bridge this way." Modelling open ended thinking teaches children to hold a possibility in their head before they commit to an answer. That is the skill behind considering someone else's viewpoint, and it starts far earlier than most people expect.
8. Your child is watching how the adults speak to each other
The tone in a room sets the emotional climate for everyone in it. Our educators speak to children, to families and to each other with warmth and patience, because that exchange is the model your child is copying. If you want to know how a centre will treat your child, listen to how the adults talk when they think the day is going badly. You can meet our team on a tour and hear it for yourself.
9. The room teaches when no adult is speaking
We treat the environment as the third teacher. Shared building areas invite children to work together, cosy nooks give them somewhere to retreat and reset, and open ended materials leave the decision about what something becomes with the child. A room set up this way says explore, create and work alongside each other, without an educator needing to direct traffic. Being a small, family-run centre in Clarkson means we can change a space quickly when the children show us what they need from it.
10. We tell children who they are becoming
"You are a problem solver." "You showed real kindness when you helped Sam." "That was your idea, and we all used it." Naming a child's strength out loud is identity work, and children who see themselves as capable behave like it. This is the thread that runs through our World Ready approach, from six weeks through to the year before school.
Using the same language at home
Families across Clarkson, Merriwa, Mindarie, Quinns Rocks, Butler, Ridgewood, Kinross and Tamala Park tell us the shift that makes the biggest difference at home is the pause. Wait five seconds before you step in, unless someone is about to get hurt, and use that time to watch and prompt instead of fix. Swap "stop that" for "what is our plan here". Name the feeling before you solve the problem.
None of it is complicated. It is just slower than fixing, and the payoff shows up in a child who tries the zip again on their own. If you would like to see it running in the rooms, you are welcome to book a tour and visit us at 2 Dewar Mews.
Frequently Asked Questions
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They are ten practice principles that guide how our educators speak to children, design the rooms and respond to everyday moments. They cover reading behaviour as communication, building emotional vocabulary, shared problem solving, curiosity, praising effort, everyday diversity, open ended thinking, respectful tone, the environment as a third teacher, and helping children recognise their own strengths. All ten are published in full on our learning and curriculum page.
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School readiness prepares a child for one milestone, and these principles prepare them for what comes after it. Skills like naming an emotion, negotiating with a peer and persisting through a hard task apply in a classroom, a friendship group and a workplace. Our World Ready approach still covers the practical readiness that families expect before Kindy.
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All of them, from six weeks to five years. The language changes as children grow, so an educator naming a feeling for a one year old sounds different to an educator facilitating a negotiation between two four year olds, but the underlying principle is the same across our Nursery, Toddler and Kindy programs.
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No. Our curriculum reflects the Early Years Learning Framework and the WA Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines, and the ten principles sit alongside that as our own practice standard. The framework sets the learning outcomes and the principles shape how our educators get there day to day.