A grant to help our Kindergarten children learn outdoors
Hoppers Crossing Montessori Centre is thrilled to announce that we have been awarded the Bush Kinder Grant to deliver an enriching Bush Kinder program for our Kindergarten children in 2025. We are excited to share some of the key outcomes we aim to achieve through this program.
The Bush Kinder Grants Program is a Victorian Government (Department of Education) initiative that helps kindergarten services set up or expand nature-based learning, giving children more opportunities to spend time in natural environments such as local parks, bushland reserves, or purpose-designed outdoor spaces. Being part of this program allows us to extend our Montessori approach — which already values hands-on, self-directed learning — into the natural world.
In this post, we explain how it connects to the Early Years Learning Framework and how we keep children safe as they explore.
What is Bush Kinder?
Bush Kinder (sometimes called nature pedagogy or forest-based learning) is an approach that takes children out of the traditional indoor classroom and into a natural outdoor setting on a regular basis. Rather than following a fixed lesson plan, educators support children to lead their own exploration — investigating plants and insects, balancing on logs, building with natural materials, and noticing changes in the weather and seasons.
This child-led style of play sits comfortably alongside the Montessori philosophy already embedded in our program, which encourages children to follow their own interests within a prepared, purposeful environment — in this case, the natural environment itself.
Educators remain closely involved throughout each session: observing, asking open-ended questions, and helping children build their own understanding of risk, such as how to move carefully over uneven ground or handle natural materials respectfully. Every child engages with this style of learning differently, and the pace at which individual skills and confidence develop will vary from child to child.
How Bush Kinder connects to the Early Years Learning Framework
Our Bush Kinder sessions are planned and delivered in line with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF v2.0), which guides the educational program at every approved service in Australia. Time spent in a natural setting offers opportunities that may support each of the Framework’s five learning outcomes, including:
- A strong sense of identity — through opportunities to make choices, take on responsibility, and build confidence in a new environment
- Connection to and contribution to their world — through direct experience of the natural environment and conversations about caring for it
- A strong sense of wellbeing — through active, outdoor play balanced with quiet moments of observation
- Confidence as involved learners — through hands-on investigation, problem-solving, and curiosity-led exploration
- Effective communication — through describing discoveries, asking questions, and sharing experiences with educators and peers
These are opportunities the program is designed to offer, rather than guaranteed outcomes. Every child develops at their own pace, and the way each child engages with and benefits from time in nature will differ
Our approach to safety and wellbeing
Children’s safety, dignity and wellbeing remain our first priority whenever learning moves outdoors. Before each Bush Kinder session, educators complete a risk assessment of the location and activities planned, in line with our service’s policies and the Education and Care Services National Regulations. This includes checking the weather, ground conditions, and any specific hazards on the day, and adjusting or postponing a session where needed.
Throughout each session, educator-to-child ratios are maintained in line with National Regulations, and all educators hold current First Aid, Asthma and Anaphylaxis Management qualifications along with a valid Working with Children Check. Where sessions take place off-site, families are provided with information about transport, supervision and emergency procedures in advance, and consent is obtained in line with our excursion policy.
We also use these sessions as an opportunity to build children’s own risk-awareness — supporting them to recognise and respond to everyday hazards, at a level appropriate to their age and development, under close educator guidance.
Get in touch
We’re looking forward to sharing this new chapter of outdoor learning with our Kindergarten families throughout 2025. If you have any questions about the Bush Kinder program — what a typical session looks like, how it fits with our broader curriculum, or anything else — we’d love to hear from you. Contact our team or book a tour to find out more about how nature-based learning fits into life at Hoppers Crossing Montessori Centre.