Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill

Strong relationships are the foundation for confident, curious learners 💛

Goodstart’s key educator approach ensures every child is known, supported and feels safe - through consistent, nurturing connections with educators and meaningful partnerships with families. These bonds help build wellbeing, resilience and a true sense of belonging from day one.

Discover how this approach supports your child’s learning journey: https://brnw.ch/2

Did you know we invested $65.5M into our social purpose last year, a 14% increase on the year before? 👏 At Goodstart, we're proud of the impact we have on children, families and communities. As a not‑for‑profit, every dollar we earn is reinvested to improve outcomes – from high‑quality learning and educator development to extra support for children who need it most.
Because when we put children first, the impact goes further 💛

We recently had a full day bespoke workshop with . The day focussed on Nature Pedagogy, Risk Benefit analysis, Loose Parts play and work with tools. We loved the balance between practical, hands on training and theory, as well the opportunity to take our Nature Play mentors down into the creek area where we take children to play and see fresh play ideas and possibilities in our environments.

The research is clear 📚 reading aloud is one of the most powerful things we can do for our children.

When we read with a child, we’re doing far more than sharing a story. We’re building the foundations for language, confidence, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning.

Decades of research shows that children who are read to regularly:

💛 Build stronger language skills
Hearing rich varied language in books exposes children to far more words than everyday conversation alone. This growing vocabulary helps them understand, communicate and make sense of the world.

💛 Develop early literacy skills long before they learn to read
Through stories, children learn how books work – that print carries meaning, that pages turn left to right, and that stories have a beginning, middle and end. These early understandings make learning to read feel familiar and exciting.

💛 Strengthen phonological awareness
Rhymes, rhythms and playful sounds help children hear the building blocks of language.

💛 Grow their comprehension and thinking skills
Talking together about a story, predicting what might happen, wondering how a character feels, and connecting events to real life helps children develop memory, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking.

💛 Experience connection, comfort and joy
Shared reading fosters calmness, closeness, and moments of joint attention. These warm interactions support a child's sense of security and belonging.

Most importantly, children who experience positive, engaging reading moments from a young age are more likely to develop a genuine love of books - something that matters even more than early literacy skills alone.

Reading is simple, joyful, and sets children up for success in school and life.

Here is a list of some of our favourites below 👇

STANLEY!

Our big yard has a new friend with Main Character energy... Stanley the Bush Turkey has been busy boosting their nest outside our fence... it is so big it's like a volcano! Stanley is a regular visitor inside the fence, getting up to mischief each day. The children have made a book, and add a new page each day with Stanleys adventures.

Yesterday the children used wood rounds with long nails for Stanleys legs, and created clay creations of Stanley. Our natural surroundings provide many opportunities for projects and learning. We wonder what Stanley will get up to next?

We were recently invited to share some of our pedagogy with our friends at Semann & Slattery, reflecting on a practice that has been evolving at Goodstart Red Hill over many years.

Our intentional language approach is about slowing down, being purposeful, and recognising the power language has in supporting children’s autonomy, relationships and emotional wellbeing.

As Davinia shares in the article, “With slow pedagogy, everything is slowed down, including taking a pause before we speak to try and choose language that’s going to expand children’s window of tolerance versus shutting them down and giving them a no.”

We’re grateful for the opportunity to share our journey and the collective thinking of our team. We hope you enjoy reading about the small, intentional changes that have helped shape the calm, respectful culture we’re so proud of.

🔗 Read the full article below.

Powerful Pedagogy is out and in this edition we explore Intentional language at Goodstart Red Hill

To read this edition you can do so at https://semannslattery.cmail20.com/t/d-e-wljadd-yuiiudhjjl-k/

“Learning is not the transmission of a defined body of knowledge, what Malaguzzi refers to as a ‘small’ pedagogy. It is constructive, the subject constructing her or his own knowledge but always in democratic relationships with others and being open to different ways of seeing…Teachers as well as children are constantly learning. Learning itself is a subject for constant research, and as such must be made visible.”

Carla Rinaldi and Peter Moss

We were recently interviewed by our friends at Community Early Learning Australia about our practice of Safe Pedagogical Photography. We are happy to see this professional language being shared and adopted within the sector as more and more early learning professionals begin to reflect on children's rights in digital spaces, and what our ethical responsibilities are in this space.

Beyond happy snaps: Developing a framework for safe pedagogical photography Child safety reforms are prompting many services to rethink how they use photography to document and communicate children@s learning.In this article we share how Goodstart Red Hill uses safe pedagogical photography for meaningful stories of learning, while protecting children@s rights.

We’ve been engaging in some purposeful purchasing after reflecting on the impact visually busy rugs can have on a learning environment. We found that removing patterned rugs helped the space feel calmer, less cluttered, and more inviting for children’s play and engagement.

We are curious to see if we notice a difference in the children’s play and focus following this change.