Experience Yaluk Burron on Wadawurrung Country

YALUK Burron Early Learning is located in the small town of Ballan on Wadawurrung Country.

It’s a place where families feel welcome, safe, have a sense of belonging and, each day, they have an amazing opportunity to experience Aboriginal culture through community, language, displays of local artists’ work, native plants and natural resources/materials and food.Inside there are five rooms; each learning environment is personalised to cradle the sense of belonging for our families attending the service – birthday charts, family photo walls, and child-led play experiences.

The qualified educators proudly make the displays, consulting the community to ensure First Nations perspectives are respectfully embedded each day.

Educational programming is based upon the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VELDF) and the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning (8Ways). Our team of educators provokes thought, scaffold learning, engage participation and guide educational outcomes intentionally through play-based learning.

Play provides all children with an opportunity to discover, experience, explore, create and imagine. Children can ask questions, solve problems, complete tasks and participate in critical and reflective thinking, expanding their thought and learning processes.

Each learning environment is personalised to cradle the sense of belonging for families attending the service.

Eight ways further embeds through story sharing, learning maps, non-verbal, symbols and images, land links, deconstruct/reconstruct and community links.

Ngarrwa Dja is held on Country, where the children can connect to the land in a natural setting, and is similar to the popular European-based Bush Kinder, which has been in practice for over 10 years.

However, teaching and learning on Country has been a traditional child-rearing and educational practice for our Indigenous Australians for over 60,000 years. Ngarrwa Dja is a program designed by the BADAC Early Years team and is already in practice at our sister services Perridak Burron and Yirram Burron.

Yaluk Burron’s indoor/outdoor policy allows children more time outdoors, which has been proven to reduce anxiety and stress, improved cognitive development, and strengthened physical skills alongside improved emotional wellbeing. The yard has two age-appropriate spaces where nature is our playground. With an array of native plants, a bush tucker garden and easy-to-navigate paths, the children are encouraged to care for their bodies and the vegetables we grow.

The water pump station, climbing fort, framed sand pit with large boulders, curves and a yarning circle embrace First Nations perspectives, and reinforces nature’s ability to act as a third teacher, helping shape the minds of curious learners.

Educational programming is based upon the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework and the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning.

Yaluk Burron is for children, coming together and being a part of a community – a safe, fun and caring environment which bolsters school readiness through meeting developmental milestones from as early as six weeks.

Families feel comfortable, because it’s a place where their children learn lifelong skills.

Wadawurrung Language:

Yaluk Burron – river children

Perridak Burron – platypus children

Yirram Burron – morning children

Barnong – ring tailed possum

Yaluk – river

Kuwiyn – Fish

Garrang – blue gum

Parrwang – magpie

Ngarrwa Dja – learning on country

BADAC – Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative.