frequently asked questions

North Star provides your child with a distinctive opportunity to benefit from Finland’s renowned education system.

Finnish early childhood education, celebrated worldwide, places a strong emphasis on viewing education from the child’s perspective. With decades of rigorous testing and exceptional learning outcomes, the Finnish education system amalgamates the finest and most contemporary educational philosophies, models, and practices, while maintaining a commitment to continuous development to meet the highest educational standards.

Research underscores that introducing new skills to children when they are developmentally ready results in productive learning, as opposed to frustration. The Finnish education system supports children’s learning and growth without subjecting them to the stress that can arise from pushing them to learn too much, too early.

For everyone, not just children, learning is most effective when driven by individual interests. The Finnish education system consistently achieves outstanding learning outcomes by fostering purposeful play and offering nurturing guidance from highly-trained teachers, making the learning process enjoyable and fruitful.

The first five years of a child’s life are the most pivotal for shaping future life outcomes, encompassing overall well-being, health, and academic achievement. Recognizing this, our founders embarked on a mission to bring Finland’s excellence in early education to the global stage. Drawing from their backgrounds in education science at the University of Helsinki and impact economics at the World Bank Group and the University of Cambridge, they have curated age-appropriate learning activities based on the latest pedagogical insights and developmental science. These activities now support and inspire numerous young learners worldwide. The FinlandWay® methodology is presently employed in a network of schools across five continents in five different languages.

Certainly, our centre adheres to the Australian Early Years Learning Framework as a guiding principle.

Moreover, we implement the FinlandWay® curriculum, a meticulously crafted daily learning curriculum developed by authentic education scientists and early childhood specialists. This curriculum is delivered through a play-based approach, ensuring that your child’s educational journey is both delightful and organic.

We offer a range of care arrangements to suit each families needs. Our Long Day Care and Approved Kindergarten Program run five days per week from 7am to 6.30pm.

We pride ourselves on our wide range of food options for all of our children. From allergies to strict diets and routines, we can cater to your child’s every need.

Our centre utilises StoryPark, an application that offers real-time updates from our educators regarding your child’s daily activities and what they are learning. All you need to do is download the app on your phone, and you’ll receive notifications every time your child sleeps, eats, or has a nappy change.

Furthermore, apart from Storypark, we keep you informed through various channels. We display notices and showcase children’s artwork at the centre, publish a monthly newsletter, and, of course, arrange opportunities for in-person discussions with the Room Leader and the Centre Director. Your child’s well-being and development are at the forefront of our communication efforts.

• All essentials from nappies, wipes and barrier cream to formula, cot linen and sunscreen
• Nutrition program and dietitian designed seasonal menu
• Every snack and meal, starting from breakfast, is prepared daily by our in-house campus chefs – cow and soy milks available
• Dedicated FinlandWay® early learning curriculum designed for nursery, toddler and preschool/kindergarten children
• School Readiness Program
• Health program to support your child’s physical health and emotional wellbeing supported by our health team specialists in Nutrition, Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy & Vision
• Stimulating outdoor spaces (with a focus on play-based learning & sustainability)
• Daily photo & diary updates via the Storypark app
• Excursions & community activities
• Qualified and passionate Educators

To allow payments to be processed efficiently our Service prefers Direct Debit. A weekly statement will be sent to parents to indicate the days and hours of care, the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) received, and the gap (out-of-pocket) fees required of the parents. The payment will then be processed according to the banking details nominated by the parents.

To secure your position, you will be sent a link to complete the online enrolment form and upload documents. The following documents will be required:

• Online child enrolment form completed and signed by both parents (unless sole custody)
• Photo or scan of driver’s licence, or other government-issued photographic ID of both parents (unless sole custody)
• Copy of your child’s birth certificate
• Any relevant documents relating to sole parenting documentation, medical plans, custodial orders etc.
• Current immunisation record from Medicare or the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR)

We have policies related to managing accidents and emergencies and these provide guidance for our staff to manage every situation appropriately. We document all incidents that happen and even in minor cases always inform parents at pickup time at the end of the day. Parents will always be immediately notified in case of serious incidents.

VIC

0-2 years 1:4
2-3 years 1:4
3-5 years 1:11

For information on the VIC Free Kinder Funding please visit our page

VIC Free Kinder Funding

To schedule a tour and gain further insights, please reach out to our centre. We have limited openings in our nursery, toddler, and Preschool/kindergarten programs. We strongly recommend early enrollment to secure your desired dates, confirm your specific needs, or add your child to our waitlist.

We extend a warm invitation for you to visit our campus at your convenience, where you can explore our facilities. Alternatively, you can register your child’s details via our inquiry form or engage with our Enrolments team directly. By doing so, you will stay updated with regular communications from our Enrolments Team, including information about availability, upcoming events, and other pertinent campus details. Your proactive engagement is vital to securing a spot for your child at our centre.

FinlandWay is based on Finnish early years curriculum and teaching methods, localised in your context. Our pedagogy is based on the latest science. Our pedagogy has three pillars:

• Play-based pedagogy: Children learn through playful, engaging activities instead of sitting on a chair and by the desk. Teachers guide and scaffold the play. There is also space for free, child-initiated play every day where children can use their own imagination and reflect on what they have learned that during the day.
• Phenomenon-based pedagogy: Instead of traditional subjects, different learning areas are studied through phenomena. For example, when children study water, they can paint with watercolours (fine motorics, colours), count the raindrops (mathematics), sing songs about water (music) blow soap bubbles and play with them (physical activity), draw umbrellas, bubbles and raindrops (geometry).
• Participatory pedagogy: In Finlandway, the learning is active and children participate in the decision making on an age appropriate level. For example, children can suggest themes and activities. Children participate in their learning documentation and work a lot in small groups. Many learning activities are also discussion-based which helps children express their thoughts, build their vocabulary and develop their thinking skills.

FinlandWay teachers go through an elaborated training programme covering all the aspects of pedagogy, learning documentation and how cultural aspects should be present in teaching.

FinlandWay school has a strong link to the Finnish Early Childhood Education system, but the goal is not to make our FinlandWay schools Finnish, but to combine the best parts of the local and FinlandWay system. It is important to consider also the local requirements and cultural traditions, which are important for all children around the world.

• In FinlandWay children will learn academic skills through play and phenomenon-based approaches.
• This means that the elements of different academic skills, such as sorting, comparing and sequencing for mathematical thinking or listening to the sounds of different letters and finding creative ways to form them, lay a foundation for the actual writing and counting.
• FinlandWay pedagogy will provide opportunities for children to learn letters, words, writing and reading through Playful activities, where self-regulation and resilience to practise the skill and keep going is more natural, because the activities are motivating, raising curiosity and exploration, and are based on imagination, play and interaction.
• For example, instead of requiring the children to write on paper, children can write letters on sand or on the back of their peers with their finger. This activity can be repeated daily. Teacher can say the name of the letter and show in air the shape and form of the letter. After a while the activity will become more challenging; the teacher can only say the name of the letter or draw the form without naming it. This way the children learn to focus on the different aspects of the letter symbols.

• Often the traditional way of teaching academic skills includes a demand for the children to sit still and be quiet. This is neither natural nor motivating for young children.
• Instead of rigorous worksheet activities, learning letters as a part of detective role play or learning to write numbers for price tags in a market place activity is very exciting for children. These kinds of activities also include a social element where children, under the teacher’s guidance, help each other and learn from each other, while building a positive self-image as a learner.

• Literacy is learnt through narration, storytelling and discussions. For example, each week begins with a storytelling day and the weekly activities connect to the story.
• Children are encouraged to create their own stories, recognize letters in their own name and count in different everyday situations
• Educators use the Finnish Storycrafting method with the children. This means that teacher writes down the story children narrate together as they tell it, without changing anything. Then teachers reads the story and children can change or continue the story. This method enhances children’s expression, creative thinking and feeling of inclusion.
• Exploring a phenomenon or playing something often includes elements of literacy and numeracy. In FinlandWay, teacher and children explore these together, while the teacher keeps in mind the learning targets of each activity
• What can appear to the outside as “just playing and having fun” can include several learning goals of literacy and numeracy when teachers are trained to enrich the play with these elements.For example planning and building constructions, counting the number of children present today or measuring something.
• Literacy skills can be supported in the classroom by using labels, exploring how spoken language can be transformed to a written form and back, as well as  creating  letters using different materials or even children’s own bodies.
• Teachers are encouraged to explore everyday mathematical concepts with the children, for example the calendar (day numbers, how many days are in a week/month, before/after, etc.) and the clock on the wall (numbers 1 to 12, 1-60, times fo the day, concept of a quarter, etc.).

In FinlandWay® we seek to promote a positive self-image as a learner and a sense of capability of each child. We understand that children develop at an individual pace. The overall aim of evaluation and assessment in the FinlandWay® System is not to rank children or compare them against their peers, but instead help to increase and develop the quality of pedagogy and through that, the wellbeing of children.

• In the FinlandWay system teachers document children’s learning processes in daily documentation on a digital platform with pictures and videos.
• The daily documentations will be delivered to parents via the FinlandWay app and they will always include the learning targets of that activity and some description from the teacher.
• After each learning period the teachers will assess each individual child and create a personalised learning report for them.
• The report includes all the daily documentation of that learning period organised by themes of the FinlandWay learning areas.
• The evaluation is not numeric, it has three levels; exploring, making connections and applying knowledge. For the child, this means that they are either practising something, doing it with little help, or being independent and creative with the skill.
• FinlandWay encourages self-reflection and positive feedback is constantly provided to each child.
• As teachers follow and document childrens’ progress daily, they are able to give them personal support and communicate more profoundly about their learning with the parents. This is also supported by working in small groups during the school day.
• Instead of competing, children learn to cooperate and support each other, when working towards a common goal.

Natural and social sciences are part of the FinlandWay curriculum through the exploration learning area. Children are provided with opportunities to carry out and test their own ideas, for example by building things out of different materials and testing how different devices work. The educational material and pedagogical activities mimic the real environment in the world and around the school and children are provided opportunities to examine and make interpretations and conclusions about both natural and social phenomena around them.

Children are encouraged to describe the solutions they have made. The children solve problems and celebrate successes together.  During a learning project, they would form hypotheses and test those, practising a research process on their age-appropriate level. The goal is that personal experiences help children to form understanding about scientific exploration.

Our Bellfield centre is approximately 5 to 8 minutes by car from Preston and Heidelberg West, depending on traffic. Many families choose us because of our calm learning environments, secure off street parking and close proximity to the Austin Hospital and Heidelberg medical precinct.

Yes. The FinlandWay preschool prepares the children for lifelong learning in any further education system. Each FinlandWay School around the world takes in consideration the national requirements for preschool education, following the FinlandWay methodology. This means that the children will learn the same things a child in a traditional local school would learn, and more, in a different way and with a strong emphasis on their social and collaborative skills.

Yes. North Star Early Education Bellfield welcomes families from Preston, Heidelberg West, Ivanhoe and surrounding suburbs. Our centre is only minutes away, with convenient access via Bell Street and Darebin Road, making drop off and pick up simple for working families.

Yes. North Star Wallan welcomes families from Hidden Valley, Beveridge, Kilmore, Mickleham and surrounding areas. Our location makes daily drop off and pick up convenient for families living across the Mitchell Shire region.

Our Wallan centre is only minutes from Hidden Valley and approximately 10 to 15 minutes from Kilmore, depending on traffic. Many families choose our centre for its calm learning environments and strong school readiness focus.

Our Mernda centre is only minutes from Doreen and approximately 5 to 10 minutes from Wollert and South Morang, depending on traffic. Many families choose our centre for its calm learning environments and strong school readiness focus.

Yes. North Star Mernda welcomes families from Doreen, South Morang, Wollert, Epping North and surrounding suburbs. Our location makes daily drop off and pick up simple for busy working families.

Finland’s Early Childhood Education and Care model (ECEC) has several underlying values: the rights of the child, intrinsic value of childhood, growth as a human being, equity, equality and diversity of families, and a healthy and sustainable way of living. In the Curriculum children’s social, emotional, physical and academic needs are met through a structured program and goal oriented activities. Finnish Early Childhood Education is part of the lifelong learning path that can continue all the way to the highest university degree and continues in the working life.

The child has a right to a high quality ECEC. The purpose of the Finnish ECEC is to meet the needs of a child today and to provide a child with tools for life-long learning. It acknowledges a child’s right to a safe learning environment, which ensures children’s wellbeing, participation and continually provides opportunities for play, learning and recess.

Finland’s National Core Curriculum for ECEC emphasises learning of transversal competences; cognitive, critical thinking and learning skills, cultural and social communication and expression skills, taking care of oneself in daily life, multiliteracy and ICT competence and participation and involvement competences. In practice this means that children are not expected to memorise learning items in order to survive later in primary school. Instead the value of education is found in the joy of learning and in the holistic wellbeing that it brings, as well as  in developing competencies to participate in society that the children already belong to today.