Early Years Learning Framework

Fundamental to the Framework is a view of children’s lives as characterised by belonging, being and becoming. From before birth children are connected to family, community, culture, and place. Their earliest development and learning take place through these relationships, particularly within families, who are children’s first and most influential educators. As children participate in everyday life, they develop interests and construct their own identities and understandings of the world.

BELONGING:

Experiencing belonging – knowing where and with whom you belong – is integral to human existence. Children belong first to a family, a cultural group, a neighbourhood, and a wider community. Belonging acknowledges children’s interdependence with others and the basis of relationships in defining identities. In early childhood, and throughout life, relationships are crucial to a sense of belonging. Belonging is central to being and becoming in that it shapes who children are and who they can become.

BEING:

Childhood is a time to be, to seek and make meaning of the world. Being recognises the significance of the here and now in children’s lives. It is about the present and them knowing themselves, building and maintaining relationships with others, engaging with life’s joys and complexities, and meeting challenges in everyday life. The early childhood years are not solely preparation for the future but also about the present.

BECOMING:

Children’s identities, knowledge, understandings, capacities, skills, and relationships change during childhood. They are shaped by many different events and circumstances. Becoming reflects this process of rapid and significant change that occurs in the early years as young children learn and grow. It emphasises learning to participate fully and actively in society.

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity

• Children feel safe, secure and supported
• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and agency
• Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Children develop a sense of connectedness to groups and communities and an understanding of their reciprocal rights and responsibilities as active and informed citizens
• Children respond to diversity with respect
• Children become aware of fairness
• Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of well-being

• Children become strong in their social, emotional and mental well-being
• Children become strong in their physical learning and well-being
• Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health and personal safety

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

• Children develop a growth mindset and learning dispositions such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
• Children develop a range of learning and thinking skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
• Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another
• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
• Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media
• Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
• Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking