Our long day care centre can offers a full day of education and care, including a kindergarten program. For 2023 the Government has announced a $2,000 Free Kinder subsidy if your child attends a Kindergarten within a long day care program (which is how we work). Over the past decade, the Victorian Government is investing $5 billion to introduce funded Four-Year-Old Kindergarten. Funded Four-Year-old Kindergarten is now available across Victoria, which means an extra year of playing, learning and making friends for Victorian children.
So in 2023, if you enroll in Goannas for a funded kindergarten place, you will receive $50 per week during school terms (approx 40 weeks) to offset your daily funded kinder fee. Further information can be found at https://www.vic.gov.au/give-your-child-the-best-start-in-life.
Our teacher-led kindergarten program is integrated with additional hours of education and care. This means the Kinder program is part of the overall childcare program and runs within the Centre hours of 8am. to 6pm. (We recommend that children have at least 2 days booked if they are doing kinder here.)
The program is delivered by a team of staff that includes two qualified Early Childhood teachers plus experienced Educators in our well-equipped and resourced environment. We operate over ratio within the Centre and are able to provide additional staff to cater for any special needs within the group.
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.
We have a small group size: a maximum of eighteen children with a minimum of two adults. The hours are flexible to meet your needs – just book the hours for which you require care and have no further stress about meeting kinder hours.
As the kinder program is integrated into a whole day program, your child will have additional experiences in a range of daily living skills – eg. 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.
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 Mon, Tues, Wed. 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 kinder program follows the Daylesford Community Childcare Centre philosophy and as such focuses on the holistic development of each child within a nurturing Care environment. Within the Childcare setting, the pre-school program is part of an integrated strategic approach that nurtures and educates children from 0 to 6 years. Your child will benefit from the combined professional expertise of a large staff that work together to provide high quality care and education.
We recognise each child is unique and has different learning abilities. Considering this, our broad goals for each child include:
- Social and emotional skills
- Independence & interdependence
- School readiness
- Understanding and accepting diversity
- Critical thinking skills
- Well-being
- Looking after ourselves and one another
- Looking after our kindergarten environment, our bush kinder environment, the broader community and environment as a whole.
We aim to support all children to begin to understand these concepts and skills. We acknowledge that some things come naturally to some children and other things take a life long of learning! These goals encompass Belonging, Being and Becoming which underpins the Early Years Framework for Australia. (2009).
Please feel free to pop in and see the staff in Goanna room at any time. We will be happy to talk with you, discuss the program and answer any questions you may have.
Daylesford Community Child Care Centre Inc 