The first 60 months of a child’s life is more important than any other in terms of personal, social, psychological, emotional and physical skill development and growth, including 1000 trillion neuron connections in the 3-yr-old brain.

When you enrol your child with SOEL, you are recognising the value and importance of the vision, mission and values that have grown within SOEL for more than 45 years. You see the benefit for you and your family in our child-led, inquiry-based education and care programme.

This charter sets out the things that Parents and Guardians can expect from SOEL, and what SOEL expects in-turn to make the most of this partnership.

We commit to:

• Care for your child in a warm and loving way
• Express our duty of care to everyone in the SOEL community by balancing the physical environment, the needs of our staff, the EYLF, your child as an individual and as part of a group, and you as a parent
• Communicate regularly with you about your child and their day, in a clear and professional manner and respect the privacy of you, your child and their peers and families
• Advocate for children and early childhood itself, and honour the United Nations Rights of the Child
• Apply best practice and our professional judgement in all interactions with your child and strive for excellence in education and care
• Consider all of the children in our care to be capable and valuable individuals of the SOEL community in their own right
• Make the range of your child’s and their peers’ learning visible to you, the SOEL community and the public in general
• Provide regular formal opportunities for you to support your own skills around your child’s development and needs
• Have a clear process to be followed in the event you have a concern, and to address it in a professional and timely way
• Support and develop our educators’ professional identity

You commit to:

• Work positively and openly with your child’s educators, actively fostering a cooperative spirit of goodwill
• Acknowledge that we are experienced professionals and that the decisions we make are grounded in mature pedagogical practice, with outcomes set to find the best interests of all of the children in our care
• Seek information from the educator at the centre of any questions or concerns that you may have, as the first point of contact towards a solution
• Support the child’s settling process as outlined in the SOEL parent handbook
• Conduct yourself in an ethical, thoughtful and professional way when interacting with all SOEL educators and other staff at all times
• Respect the privacy of other people’s children by not discussing them with other parents
• Consider the opportunities for formal support and learning about your own parenting practices that SOEL provides
• Participate in the opportunities to see your child’s learning that SOEL provides
• Understand that we have a duty of care to all of the children, all of the time
• Advocate positively for SOEL, the maturity of its pedagogy and practice, and the professionalism of its educators in public
• Pay fees in a timely manner
• Respect SOELs operational hours