On behalf of the team at Doveton College ELC, I warmly welcome you as you make your first contact with our service.

I feel very privileged to be the Director/Educational Leader at Doveton College ELC; an innovative and progressive service that seeks to put children, families and the community at the forefront of all decision making. I have over 30 years’ experience working within the field of education and still retain my original enthusiasm and commitment to the profession. Working with young children is an absolute gift, and one that provides educators with great personal reward.

I believe young children possess incredible potential and come to us as competent and capable individuals in their own right. They are equipped with a rapidly developing brain that is at the ready to form millions of new neural connections. The years between 0 – 5 offer a window of opportunity, often referred to by neuroscientists as a period of ‘transient exuberance’. It is within this period, that a child’s capacity to learn far overshadows their capacity to learn at any other stage during their lifetime. For this reason, our work as early childhood educators is of critical importance both to our children, and to society as a whole. The foundational work accomplished during the early childhood year’s, has been demonstrated to have an impact on children’s competency as adults of the future.

Early childhood educators are thoroughly trained in child development theory and are well equipped to identify developmental concerns in young children. Prompt and ready access to allied health services is critical for children who are in need of additional support in order to progress their development and learning. Evidence-based research from the field of neuroscience confirms that early intervention for young children experiencing atypical or delayed development results in the best possible outcomes for these children. Doveton College ELC is well position to provide ready access to allied health services. Children and families needing additional assistance are identified and supported by our team of educators with backing from the Doveton College onsite Wellbeing Team (social workers), Community Support Team, Monash Health (speech and occupational therapists), a GP, and Paediatricians.

We know young children are active, involved and energetic little learners who are inwardly driven to explore, discover and experiment within a world that is new and enthralling to them. They are typically learning optimists! However, they are by no means ready for the formalized, academic models of education we see at higher levels of the education continuum. Young children embrace learning in a holistic, ‘hands-on, boots in manner’ that can appear jumbled and disorderly to the untrained eye. But to early childhood educators, this represents the work of extraordinarily active little minds with incredible potential. Early childhood educators know how to harness this potential and guide children’s experiences in a manner that benefits the child’s learning and development without diminishing their love and enthusiasm for discovery.

Central to our work within the early childhood field is relationships, relationships, and relationships! We aim to build positive, reciprocal and respectful relationships with the children in our care, their families and the wider community. The best outcomes for children are achieved when the adults in their lives work within a partnership that respectfully acknowledges the important role each person holds in the life of the child. At Doveton College ELC, our goal is for all families to envision our service as their child’s ‘home away from home’. When families leave their children in our care each day we want them to walk away confident in the knowledge that their child is being cared for by educators who have their child’s care and welfare at the heart of their work.

A personal motto that has always guided my work with young children is, ‘children first, ALWAYS children first’.

Karen Green B.Ed. Grad.Dip.EC. M.Ed. Educational Leadership.