Prepared for prep: Kindergarten and school readiness at Kool Kidz Childcare

One of the most significant transitions for families happens when your child starts school. It’s a huge step in your child’s development and equally impactful for parents. To ensure you and your child are ready for prep, we prioritise school readiness in our kindergarten program at Kool Kidz.

We spoke with Nicole, an Education Leader at our Coolaroo Centre, about how our Kindergarten Program prepares your child for school and our focus on emotional wellbeing.

Kool Beginnings for our Kool Kidz 

From age three, children transition from Early Education and Care or “daycare” to Kindergarten. Kool Kidz provides long daycare kindergarten, which is different from sessional kindergarten in a variety of ways, including:

  • We operate five days a week, 52 weeks a year (excluding public holidays), from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily, giving you more flexibility if you need long daycare hours or additional days.
  • A welcome pack that includes a Kool Kidz polo, a sun hat and a Kool Kidz backpack.
  • Five healthy meals (breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and snacks) are included and prepared by our in-house chef using fresh produce and ingredients.
  • Our play-based learning program is offered throughout the day during the full week, giving your child more learning exposure than the government-funded 15 hours.
  • Our fees include meals, excursions, incursions, sunscreen and everything your child needs during the day.
  • The Curriculum is tailored to individual children’s needs and  supports are available for children who need help with certain skills and building independence.
  • We provide additional educators above the required child-teacher ratio, and qualified Kindergarten Teachers lead all our kindergarten rooms.
  • We can link parents and children to Allied Health organisations such as psychology, speech pathology and occupational therapists and help with NDIS referrals.

Fostering a love for learning 

Kool Kidz Childcare School Readiness Program Blog 2

Our Kindergarten Program focuses on preparing your child for school. We do this by combining social and emotional readiness for school and academic milestones with our Kool Beginnings Curriculum.

The Kool Beginnings Curriculum is based on the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), which provides solid theory, principles, and strategies for how children learn and develop best.

At Kool Kidz, our program includes problem-solving, building self-help skills, emotional regulation, supporting children develop skills to interact with their peers, developing a routine, fostering a love for learning and curiosity, meeting friends, and developing friendships.

Basic skills such as opening a lunch box, putting it away, and taking care of belongings help your child prepare for prep, where personal responsibility is encouraged.

For those children who haven’t been in childcare, the focus can be mistakenly put on academics, but emotional needs are prioritised first to help your child build a strong foundation and are ready for learning.

Your local Kool Kidz Centre may host a kindergarten information night for new and existing families. During these informational sessions, we explain and show parents the importance of kindergarten and answer any questions you may have.

We will sometimes invite prep teachers from local primary schools or other specialists to discuss the benefits of school readiness, what they expect and what your child will experience in prep. They highlight the importance of emotional maturity over early academic learning. This provides families with a sense of ease and provides them with an understanding of how important kindergarten is prior to starting prep.

Preparing for prep

Our Kindergarten Programs are designed to be child led through their interests and goals but are also teacher led to ensure children are prepared for “Big School”They focus on group work, structured learning, intentional teaching, learn through play and following a planned routine to ensure your child can easily adapt to prep.

Following the Early Learning Developmental Framework, our Educators tailor the environment to foster exploration. Creativity, critical thinking, and STEM activities are also featured to encourage and build your child’s love of learning.

We have group time for literacy and language development, outdoor play to foster problem-solving skills and engage in risk-taking activities, and structured activities to promote sharing of space and materials, as well as encourage open-ended conversations.

Our Program teaches your child valuable life skills.

As children are learning social concepts and skills the role of early childhood professionals is key, we critically reflect with your child and challenge this type of thinking, “How do you think we can resolve this situation?” Instead of fixing a problem for them, we allow your child to start problem-solving and negotiating themselves with peers. This is a vital skill your child would use when starting school and every day life.

Our Kindergarten Educators are experts

One way our Kindergarten Program differs from other organisations is that Educational Leaders like Nicole support our educators and teachers with their Kindergarten Programs. Educational Leaders also help parents discover pathways to work with their children.

For example, educational leaders can help parents with developmental education, such as exploring learning schemas, schemas are a learning urge that a child has that can often be mistaken for challenging behaviour.

Another important part of our Curriculum is working on building your child’s resilience. Our goal is to teach your child how to think and reflect.

Aligned with our Commitment to Child Safety, we also teach children the importance of their personal safety.

There’s always time for fun

Our emerging programs and weekly incursions vary throughout the year and include sports, educational experiences and cultural events important to our families.

Special events such as book week, science week and lessons about insects, our natural environment and sustainability are huge hits with the children at Kool Kidz Coolaroo.

We also celebrate a variety of cultural celebrations such as Eid, Chinese New Year, NAIDOC Week and National Reconciliation, Diwali, Grandparents Day and themes such as history, human rights and even fun days such as Chocolate Cake Day!

At Kool Kidz, the Kinder children can go on excursions to museums, the library and other immersive locations so your child can learn to explore the world around them safely.

FAQs for parents

How do the kindergarten fees work? 

Our 15-hour per week program for four-year-olds and 5-to-15-hour program for three-year-olds saves you $2,101 per child, per year.

In addition to funding kindergarten for three and four-year-olds, the Victorian Government provides ‘needs-based’ funding to each Kool Kidz service to implement localised School Readiness Plans. School Readiness Funding (SRF) is designed to successfully prepare your child’s transition from kindergarten to primary school with a focus on education and emotional well-being.

The total fee depends on how many days your child attends kindergarten and your child care subsidy rate.

To find out your fee, visit our child care subsidy calculator here.

 

How do you measure growth and track development?

Each child has an individual learning plan that documents their learning journey. A number of tools are used to track each child’s learning including observations, summative assessments and parent teacher interviews. At the end of 4 year old Kindergarten, Teachers complete a Transition Statement which is shared with the child’s Primary School=

Our five areas of focus on the assessments are based on the Victorian Early Years Learning and Developmental Framework:

  • Identity
  • Community
  • Wellbeing
  • Learning
  • Communication

What do I need to bring on the first day of kindergarten? 

Since all meals are supplied, you only need to pack a water bottle and a change of clothes.

Does my child attend kindergarten on the same day every week, or can I change days? 

Yes, they attend the same days every week. However, services do provide families the opportunity for casual bookings via an app. For example, if your child attends on Monday and Tuesday, but you have an appointment or meeting on a Thursday, you can casually book for additional days on the app if there are any spots open. Conditions of this are dependent on different Kool Kidz Services and availabilities so make sure to check.

Visit our kindergarten page to learn more about our program. Find a Kool Kidz Childcare Centre near you.