School Readiness Funding - Approved Programs (Victorian Kindergartens)

"As an Early Childhood Teacher, I am pleased to provide a strong recommendation for the School Readiness Funding (SRF) menu item Nurture in Nature.

Our education team has had the privilege of engaging in the SRF menu item Thrive Package, including attendance at the ‘Campference’ Teacher Nature Conference. This has been some of the most powerful, engaging, and meaningful professional learning we have experienced within the early childhood sector.

The strength of this program lies in its hands-on, practical, and deeply reflective approach. The learning is not purely theoretical; rather, it provides educators with tangible strategies and real-world applications that can be immediately embedded into daily practice. This has enabled our team to confidently and authentically integrate nature-based pedagogy into our kindergarten program.

Through our participation, we have observed a significant positive impact on children’s wellbeing, particularly in the areas of social and emotional development. Children demonstrate increased confidence, improved self-regulation, deeper engagement, and a strong sense of connection to the natural environment. These outcomes strongly align with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF), particularly in supporting children to become strong in their social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing .

Nurture in Nature has also strengthened our team’s capacity, knowledge, and confidence to deliver meaningful, developmentally appropriate, and inclusive nature-based experiences. The ongoing mentoring, professional learning community, and reflective practices embedded within the program have supported us to implement our learning with greater depth and intentionality.

Importantly, this program aligns closely with our service philosophy and values, particularly our commitment to in-nature learning and holistic child development. It has supported us to move beyond surface-level outdoor play and towards rich, intentional, and sustained nature connection experiences for children.

We highly value the structure of the program, including its combination of self-paced learning, mentoring, whole-service professional development, and access to a broader professional learning community. This comprehensive approach ensures that learning is embedded across the entire service, rather than isolated to individual educators .

Nurture in Nature is an exceptional and high-impact SRF investment. It builds educator capacity, strengthens pedagogical practice, and most importantly, delivers measurable and meaningful outcomes for children’s wellbeing and development.

I strongly encourage colleagues and other services to consider this menu item as part of their School Readiness Funding planning.”

“Our service has a philosophy, and I have a pedagogy of nature play, but how do I inspire others to be passionate about this type of teaching and practice? How do I inspire children, families and community?

Nurture in Nature's SPROUT and GROW programs on the School Readiness Funding (SRF) Menu have helped us engage with our families and community in meaningful ways and inspired our team to implement more intentional and engaging nature-inspired teaching and learning for our children. We have built on our professional knowledge, engaging with new strategies and tools, and have grown our understanding of the positive impact of nature on young children's lives.

Through SRF we have also engaged in a number of additional Nurture in Nature Menu items, including attending Campference Teacher Nature Conference in 2024 and 2025. We were invited to present about our implementation and embedment of nature pedagogy to 2026 Campference participants.

Our practice has further been strengthened and supported in an ongoing capacity, deepening and embedding our learnings through Nurture in Nature’s Professional Learning Community, Treehouse Educators.

Throughout our engagement with Nurture in Nature since the beginning of 2024, they have provided and supported us with invaluable opportunities for developing professional partnerships and deepening and strengthening our connections and network with other Early Childhood Educators. This has provided us with flexible and accessible opportunities to participate in both online and in-person programs.

The Nurture in Nature team has continually shown their commitment to deeply understanding the unique needs, wants and challenges of our service, as well as understanding and supporting our children and families, beyond simply just delivering their SRF item programs.

Nurture in Nature’s SRF Menu items have guided us to better understand how nature impacts children's social, emotional learning, as well as helping them develop in many different areas, including language, literacy, numeracy, dramatic play, and connecting to Country and First Nations people and culture.

They have challenged and supported us not only to extend our knowledge, but to implement with greater intentionality and deepen our reflective practice.

We also widely and enthusiastically share how we are implementing our learnings from Nurture in Nature with other Early Childhood Educators and Services beyond our own. Over the past year I’ve presented at an Early Childhood conference and several networking events (in my local area and further afield) about our nature pedagogy journey and the positive outcomes it has had for children and in our teaching practice. Nurture in Nature has been a huge part of that journey and educators I speak with are inspired and excited to learn that Nurture in Nature’s programs are accessible through SRF.

We have loved being involved in Nurture in Nature and can't wait to explore the next steps in the program in the years to come.”

"I absolutely loved Nurture in Nature’s ‘Strong Foundations for Social and Emotional Learning Through Nature-based Play’ Course that is part of the SPROUT Package.

It’s been such a rich and engaging learning experience! The depth of research-based content and the university-level coursework have been truly impressive. The abundance of resources has been phenomenal, and I’ve found myself deeply immersed in the learning.

The course has been amazing to participate in as an individual educator, enriching my teaching practice whilst helping me with engaging strategies and resources to support children, families, and my fellow educators.

It would be POWERFUL to enrol your whole team and use it as the base for your staff meetings and PDs for the whole year. By the end of the year you will have the whole team on board demonstrating and explaining practices, embedding skills that fulfil several QIP and RAP goals. The team will be able to see real growth and proudly celebrate their journey.

Through this journey, everyone will experience a deepened sense of Belonging, Being, and Becoming, aligned with nature and the understanding that our well-being is intrinsically tied to the health of the natural world.

With my deep connection to nature-based play and passion for learning, I’ve found this course to be an incredible way to activate ‘community’ as a verb—empowering teams with meaningful projects that align perspectives and foster collective growth.

Social and emotional learning skills are essential for success in school, and nature-based play provides invaluable opportunities for children to develop and practice these skills."