School Program

The Program

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® Early Years Program focuses on equipping children at one of the most significant times in their lives for establishing foundations in social and emotional learning (SEL). The world of a young child is egocentric and they are frequently not able to see beyond the limits of their own experiences and understanding. Conflict and emotional distress can often occur when they come against others who see, want, look, think or behave differently to them.

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® Early Years Online Program is a proactive and educative program to teach children skills in resilience, solving conflict, letting go of grudges and getting help from adults. Without a consistent and explicit skills based approach to dealing with conflict, vulnerable children are more susceptible to conflict becoming bullying and experiencing the mental health issues associated with it. The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® Early Years Program was developed to address the growing concern of increasing numbers of suspensions in Prep and Year 1 and the cost of time and resources for parents and schools when the skills are not understood, taught or modelled consistently.

The early years of a child have been called ‘The Imprint Phase’ and are a critical time in experiencing both positive and healthy realtionships and behaviour from the family and educational communities that influence them. If ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, then part of the goal of the BRIDGE BUILDERS^® Early Years Program is to equip the village to empower the child!

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® Early Years Online Program has been designed to integrate the principles, practise and learning outcomes in the Early Years Learning Framework of Australia, promoting skills in Belonging, Being and Becoming. The 12 lessons aim to integrate and address the five learning outcomes that are:

• Children have a strong sense of identity
• Children are connected with and contribute to their world
• Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
• Children are confident and involved learners
• Children are effective communicators

Below are some of the methods we use to immerse the skills:

"It is not enough to say that children learn these things from the way we treat them and the modelling we do. They also need to be taught in a planned way, as with other subjects. And in addition they need to be taught as teaching opportunities (teachable moments) arise, especially in the early years. For example we know that four and five year olds are interested in making relationships with their peers. We can teach relationship skills... They need us to teach them how to manage feelings and relationships."

Pam Linke
Early childhood and parenting consultant
Early Childhood Australia
A voice for young children.

BRIDGE BUILDERS^® could have incredible benefits at every level of your school and school community.

Contact us now to empower your school.