Our 4 year-old kindergarten program is a long daycare integrated program offering a full day of education and care.
The program is delivered in our Goannas room by a team of staff that includes two qualified Early Childhood teachers plus experienced Educators in our well-equipped and resourced environment. The Kinder program operates 5 days a week, integrated into the longer Centre hours of 8am. to 6pm. We recommend that children have at least 3 days booked if they are doing kinder here. We have a small group size: a maximum of nineteen children & operate over ratio enabling extra support within the group.
As the kinder program is integrated into a whole day program, your child will have additional experiences in a range of daily living skills – e.g. selecting and managing snacks and meals, independent toileting for a whole day, taking responsibility for a range of clothing throughout the day. Nutritious and interesting lunches are provided, plus morning and afternoon teas and cooking opportunities for the children.
For those children who have previously been in care with us (and this would be the majority of the group) this will be a secure and familiar environment, and not require the child to adapt to another ‘out of home’ situation with new adults, children and expectations.
Our program offers all that a stand-alone Kinder program offers, with the additional benefits of meeting and socializing with children of varying age groups. In this way we are able to foster caring skills and consideration of younger children, as well as the range of age-appropriate developmental experiences you would look for. If your child has younger siblings at the Centre they will both have the added security of feeling another family member is close by, as well as the convenience of ‘one stop delivery’ for you.
We offer Bush kinder, terms 2 & 3, one day per week, cycling through days to enable exposure for the whole group. The Bush Kinder Program is much loved and looked forward to by the children. Bush kinder offers the element of learning through experience and creating new opportunities for engagement with outdoor play & exploration.
We offer strong community involvement for the children with a variety of exciting and interesting excursions. We have well-established links with local schools and participate in their school orientation programs to build these relationships before formal education commences.
The Victorian Government provides funded Four-Year-Old Kindergarten, which means an extra year of playing, learning and making friends for Victorian children with a $2,000 Free Kinder offset. Within a long day care program (which is how we work) this means $50 per week offset to your daily funded kinder fee. The offset applies during school terms (approx. 40 weeks).
Further information about kindergarten in Victoria can be found at https://www.vic.gov.au/kindergarten
Daylesford Community Child Care Centre Inc 