Nursery and toddlers: Our early learning approach from birth to 3

From birth to the age of 3, your child is a baby or toddler: a competent, curious young citizen, already exploring, playing, learning and connecting.  

When you enrol your child in a Nursery or Toddler program at Goodstart, our educators and environments facilitate outstanding care, education, and relationships, working in partnership with you at every step. 

Our Birth to 3 Practice Framework honours that you and your home learning environment have the most influence on their development and provides a guide for tailored programming, carried out by qualified teachers and educators at our centres. 

Nursery and Toddler programs at Goodstart 

During the first three years, children develop at a remarkable pace – physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively (acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses) and in their communication skills. 

This critical period represents a unique, once-only window where children's brains and bodies are extraordinarily receptive to experiences.  

It's during this phase that relationships, language, movement, exploration, and secure attachments form the foundations upon which future learning, wellbeing and citizenship are built. 
|M Research shows that high-quality experiences in these years underpin future learning and provides a solid foundation for development.  

So, we have developed our evidence-based Birth to 3 Framework specifically for this age group, specialising in the nuanced needs of infants and toddlers.  

Supporting babies and toddlers to grow and thrive

In our Birth to 3 approach, we: 

• Enable babies and toddlers to feel safe, valued and ready to explore by building warm, secure relationships with them. Stable connections make them confident.
• Recognise children as unique, capable learners who thrive when their interests, choices and voices are honoured. They're not passive recipients – they're active in their own learning.
• Know that from tummy time to exploratory movement, listening to stories and engaging sensory play, each moment is a learning opportunity. To support this, educators foster play-based, intentionally planned experiences in rich, enabling environments.
• Ensure our Nursery or Toddler program and environments respond to your child's pace and interests – whether they are just discovering movement as a newborn or bravely stretching themselves and making imaginative sense of their world.
• Use child-directed play, educator-supported interactions and intentional teaching to embed learning across all areas – from social-emotional, to language, physical, and creative development.
• Ensure that every child, regardless of background, ability, or culture, has access to high-quality learning and care tailored to their needs, by embedding inclusive practice.
• Uphold children's rights to dignity, agency and belonging by seeing them as young citizens already participating in their world.

Parents and caregivers: The primary teacher and our partner

You know your child better than anyone. Your role is foundational and irreplaceable. We aim to partner with you as allies for your child’s wellbeing by listening and aligning with you throughout our service. 

To support you and create a meaningful partnership between home and centre, we: 

• Design orientation and transition experiences that are gradual, flexible and responsive, recognising that starting care is a significant change for both your child and your family.
• Spend time with you at enrolment to understand your child's routines, preferences, interests, and aspirations. We honour and respect your voice in guiding your child's experience at Goodstart. 
• Embed cultural safety and inclusion by respecting your family's culture, language, dietary practices, and beliefs. We collaborate to make your child feel at home and valued.
• Provide easy-to-understand updates and collaborative planning, including resources to support your child at home, so you are always part of what's happening.
• Invite you to participate in observations, reflections, next-step conversations, and celebrations, and share your child's rhythms, strengths, and goals so we can write their story together.
• Build consistency and trust for your child and family through key educator relationships. These relationships form a bridge between home and centre, strengthening attachment, security and learning.

Together, we create continuity, so your child thrives at home and in-centre with consistency, familiarity, and trust. 

Enabling educators, resources, and environments 

Our educators are highly trained, reflective, responsive and committed to quality. We partner with you and your child to support optimal outcomes. 

Key elements of our practice include: 

• Relationships: Educators build authentic, connected relationships with each child, gaining deep knowledge of their temperament, interests, and ideas. That knowledge drives the learning experiences we provide.
• Enabling environments: Our spaces – both indoor and outdoor – are thoughtfully designed to invite play, exploration, sensory experience, movement and communication. Every moment, from routine care to free play, is a learning opportunity.
• Attentiveness and dialogue: We listen to children, observe keenly, ask questions, respond with intention and reflect on our practice. Through professional dialogue and ongoing reflection, we continually improve.
• Holistic teaching and learning: We see care and education as inseparable. For babies and toddlers, feeding, nappy changes, sleep and routine are rich learning moments.
• Programming, planning and assessment: Educators plan Nursery and Toddler experiences based on each child's interests, group goals, family input and community links. Observation and evaluation enable us to identify children's emerging strengths and determine their next steps.
• Safety and wellbeing: Ensuring children feel safe is foundational. We actively supervise, tailor support to each child's autonomy and ensure restful sleep, healthy eating, and secure care routines.
• Sustainability and citizenship: Even at this early age, children are encouraged to see themselves as part of a wider world – culturally, socially and environmentally. We embed practices that nurture respect, responsibility and curiosity about the world.

Typical nursery and toddler routine: What you can expect 

• A trusting welcome where your child is greeted by an educator who knows their name, routines and family story, to begin the day with recognition and warmth.
• A rhythm aligned with your child's home life, recognising that for babies and toddlers, predictability and connection underpin security and learning.
• Rich sensory, movement and communication experiences from tummy time, crawling, exploring textures, books, songs and outdoor discovery through to emerging walking, talk and symbolic play.
• Responsive care moments: feeding, changing, sleeping, and interacting become intentional teaching moments, where educators observe, reflect and extend children's learning.
• Mealtimes full of joy, communication, choice and explorative interaction – not just feeding, but a chance to develop autonomy, language and healthy habits.
• Restful, safe sleep and rest periods that support development, wellbeing and consolidation of learning.
• Regular communication with you: updates, observations, invitations to reflect together, and suggestions for how you might notice and extend your child's interests at home.
• A strong partnership between home and centre to ensure consistency, security and trust: your family's voice matters.

From birth to three years, children deserve high-quality, responsive, inclusive early education and care that will benefit their future learning.  

By prioritising your child, partnering with you, and enabling our qualified, passionate educators to plan Nursery and Toddler programs based on our evidence-based Birth to 3 Framework, we can deliver exactly that.  

Together, we build a secure, rich, playful, respectful, and empowering foundation for your child's lifelong learning, wellbeing, and participation. 

If you'd like more information or would like to book a tour of your local Goodstart centre, we’d be delighted to welcome you. Your child's most important years are here – let's make them count.