Trusting Children to Learn Through Real Experiences—Part One
By Rosie Pupo
For the final professional placement of her teaching degree, Rosie spent a month with our Muruduwin preschool group. Rosie also brings extensive experience from across the early childhood sector in her role as Nominated Supervisor at Inner West Family Day Care.
During her time with us, Rosie engaged deeply with our approach to risk in children’s everyday play, routines and rituals. She was both inspired and challenged by how children and educators navigate risk, responsibility, and decision-making together. Through observation, discussion and critical reflection, Rosie explored the teaching strategies that support risky play, reviewed our risk-benefit assessment processes, and examined the reflective practices that underpin our work. Drawing on her many years of experience, she carefully considered what she observed and, in the process, began to reassess her own perspectives on risk and play.
In this two-part blog series, Rosie shares her reflections on the play experiences, rituals and practices she encountered, and how children and educators engaged with risk in meaningful ways. In Part One, she explores E&D Annandale’s approach to excursions, citizenship and sustainability, and the role these experiences play in supporting children’s agency, confidence and connection to their community.
Children do not learn responsibility by being protected from every risk; they learn it when trusted adults support them to meet real challenges safely. One of the most significant reflections from my Early Childhood Professional Practice unit was observing how children were trusted and supported to engage with authentic experiences, reflecting Cooke and Francisco’s (2021) discussion of educators’ risk-taking practices in high-quality early childhood education. At Explore & Develop Annandale, educators did not simply remove every potential risk. Instead, they demonstrated a strong image of the child as capable, competent and active in learning (Rinaldi, 2012), balancing safety with meaningful opportunities for children to develop confidence, judgement, responsibility and agency.
My observations led me to wonder: when does risk education begin? I learnt through reflection that it does not begin at one prescribed age, as children’s learning and development progress across milestones, experiences and contexts. The Early Years Learning Framework promotes responsive, child-centred practice that recognises children’s agency, capabilities and individual learning pathways (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022), while the developmental milestones resource supports educators to consider children’s learning and development in relation to their age, experience and context (ACECQA, 2018).
From infancy, children learn about cause and effect, challenge, consequences and decision-making through everyday experiences. Opportunities should be age-appropriate and responsive to each child’s development, experience and context. Professional risk-taking in early childhood education requires courage, judgement and deep knowledge of children. It asks educators to move beyond simply avoiding risk and instead make thoughtful decisions about when challenge can strengthen learning (Cooke & Francisco, 2021).
During my placement at Explore & Develop Annandale, I observed this philosophy in action through everyday experiences that were purposeful, supervised and connected to children’s real lives. Children handled glassware, walked through the local community, climbed in natural environments, used real tools, sewed, managed turn-taking on the tyre swing and participated in carefully guided rituals involving fire safety. These examples showed me that managed risk is not careless practice; it is intentional pedagogy that helps children develop responsibility, confidence, problem-solving and respect for themselves, others and their environment.
| Risk education begins when children are supported to make choices, understand consequences and practice safe decision-making. – Cooke & Francisco, 2021- |
The service’s philosophy extended beyond the centre and into the wider community (Explore & Develop Annandale, 2024). Children regularly participated in community walks and excursions, reflecting the Reggio Emilia view of children as capable, competent citizens who learn through relationships, participation and connection with place. Morning meetings provided opportunities for educators to listen to children’s voices and include their ideas when deciding where the group would go. This aligns with Rinaldi’s pedagogy of listening, which recognises children as active contributors to community life rather than separate from it (Rinaldi, 2001). Through meetings and community experiences, children developed a stronger sense of belonging and learned how to participate responsibly within their community (Edwards et al., 2012; Rinaldi, 2012).
Community walks and excursions created meaningful opportunities to teach road safety, awareness of animals, local places and environmental hazards, and respectful interactions with community members, such as waving at the café owners and local tradespeople. Children practiced walking safely with a partner, noticing seasonal changes such as bottlebrushes flowering in spring, observing what was happening around them and recognising where their peers lived. These were not separate lessons removed from real life; the community itself became an active curriculum resource.
Children at Explore & Develop Annandale don’t wear high-visibility vests during community walks but do have a discreet tag with service details and prompted an important reflection on high-visibility purpose. Are they used primarily for visibility, to identify children as part of a service, or as a form of service branding? In the practice I observed, educators supported safety through clear instructions, partner systems and close supervision, rather than relying on vests alone. This challenged me to consider why children are often expected to wear high-visibility vests in public spaces, and whether vests genuinely support safety in a particular context or unintentionally position children as separate citizens of the community.
The outdoor program further reflected the service’s commitment to supported risk in natural and community environments. Children climbed trees, scrambled over rocks, explored bush areas, moved through and participated in bush play. Their learning also extended beyond the centre as they walked through the local community, travelled under bridges and over bridges, crossed roads, responded to weather conditions and visited parks they had come to know deeply over time. These experiences supported strength, coordination, balance, spatial awareness, problem-solving, resilience and confidence (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022). They also invited children to notice, name, revisit and care for the natural places that had become part of their shared learning history. (Cooke & Francisco, 2021).
Educators were not passive observers. Their active supervision was intentional and responsive. They moved with the group, positioned themselves for clear sightlines, scanned the environment and adjusted to changing conditions, including traffic, the weather and council workers cutting down trees. The educator’s presence gave children freedom to explore while keeping appropriate safeguards in place. Natural, open-ended spaces offered learning possibilities beyond fixed playground equipment. Instead of the equipment directing the play, children created games, negotiated ideas, collaborated in dramatic play and used imagination and social understanding to guide their learning.
Sustainability was also supported through children’s participation in repairing, reusing and maintaining resources rather than automatically replacing them. Under close supervision and following a risk-benefit assessment, children assisted with authentic tasks such as sanding timber, using hand drills, tightening screws and helping to restore damaged materials. These were not token experiences created only for children to watch from the side. Children were invited into real work, with real tools, real purposes and real consequences (Cooke & Francisco, 2021). This positioned them as active contributors to their environment rather than passive consumers of resources. They learned practical skills while also developing an understanding of resource conservation, waste reduction and environmental responsibility. Through participation in repair work, children experienced citizenship in action by contributing to the care, usefulness and sustainability of their shared environment.
Another example of skilled teaching was the children’s ongoing access to sewing experiences throughout the day. With guidance from a skilled educator, children used a real sewing machine, larger scissors, needles and carefully selected fabrics to repair materials and create individual book bags. Children were involved in the process from beginning to end: choosing fabric, observing how the machine worked, managing materials safely, watching the needle move, and contributing to the creation of something useful and personal (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022). Sewing experiences supported children’s fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, concentration, persistence and problem-solving as they learned how fabric, thread, tools and machinery worked together.
Using real equipment introduced genuine risk, as supported by Cooke and Francisco (2021), but it was carefully managed through close supervision, clear expectations, modelling, gradual participation and the educator’s understanding of each child’s readiness. Rather than removing tools because they were sharp, powerful or unfamiliar, educators used the experience to teach children how to handle them with care, focus and respect. Sewing therefore became more than a practical task; it supported creativity, sustainability, responsibility, confidence and children’s meaningful contribution to their learning environment.
The repair and sewing experiences showed that risk can support learning when it is purposeful, assessed and respectfully guided. Children were not simply allowed to use challenging materials; they were taught how to think carefully, listen, observe, wait, handle equipment safely, follow expectations and make decisions. These experiences reflected the Reggio Emilia view of children as capable contributors to their environment (Cagliari et al., 2016). By helping to mend resources, reduce waste and create useful items, children saw that their actions mattered. Managed risk became a pathway to competence, responsibility and belonging, showing that children can participate in real work when adults know, trust, prepare and support children (Cooke & Francisco, 2021).
Rosie’s reflections don’t end here. In Part Two, she delves deeper into how risk is woven through everyday practice, from children’s use of real tools and materials to the ways educators balance challenge and safety. She also reflects on how her experiences at E&D Annandale have reshaped her thinking and will influence her work moving forward.
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Cooke, M., & Francisco, S. (2021). The practice architectures that enable and constrain educators’ risk-taking practices in high quality early childhood education. Early Childhood Education Journal, 49(6), 1073–1086. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01112-x
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