A fully-funded kindergarten programme within a long day-care setting
Fitting the hours of a sessional kinder programme into a working day is difficult for many parents. Some day-care centres offer long day-care for kinder-aged children, but don’t offer a kindergarten education programme. Glenferrie Early Childhood Centre offers the best of both worlds. We operate our kindergarten programme within our child-care centre, meaning your child can get a great start to his or her education, along with high quality before- and after-kinder hours care provided by our qualified Early-Childhood staff. This out-of-kinder-hours care also operates during school holidays, ensuring your child continuity of care with warm and familiar staff.
Our staff
Our kindergarten teacher Christine received her Bachelor of Education from The University of Melbourne. Prior to commencing at Glenferrie Early Childhood Centre, Christine taught for two years in a sessional kindergarten. She has completed a course with the Bastow Institute of Leadership on Contemporary Child Development Theory in Early Childhood Education, and received a scholarship for Early Childhood in long day-care in 2010.
Our kindergarten co-educators are Lauren, who holds a Diploma in Children’s Services, Megan, who holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Early Childhood Teaching, and Kylie, who holds her Certificate 3 in Children’s Services. Between them they also have several years of experience providing high quality child-care.
Our ratio of 3 adults to 25 children in the kinder room gives your child more one to one time with a teacher.
Our programme:
GECC runs an integrated pre-school programme for 3-5 year olds. We receive full funding for our four year old kindergarten programme from the State Government of Victoria. We follow the Victorian Early Years and Development Framework (as do traditional sessional kindergartens) and we provide a stimulating programme in order to achieve this. Most children spend longer at GECC then they would at a sessional kinder, providing us with more flexibility in programming.
Traditionally, a funded preschool programme could only be accessed at sessional preschools. These kindergarten programmes involve many structured activities which are all teacher directed. We implement an Emergent Curriculum in our kindergarten, in which the program is planned according to the emerging interests and needs of the children. This curriculum allows each child to develop and learn at their own pace, and engage in learning experiences in their own way. It enables us to extend each child’s individual development through open-ended experiences, and encourages children to engage in activities that have come from their own ideas. Our Emergent Curriculum kindergarten program aims to empower children so that they can become engaged and independent learners.
An Emergent Curriculum promotes all areas of a child’s development regardless of their age. Children who are in our kinder for two consecutive years are given the opportunity to develop a strong sense of identity and wellbeing within a safe and familiar environment. This is critical during the early years as children need time to prepare for the big transition into school without other major and unsettling changes. Experiences within an Emergent Curriculum programme can be varied regularly to meet the children’s needs and interests. However experiences may also stay the same for many weeks to give children an opportunity to master their skills. This flexible approach ensures that children are constantly learning and challenged throughout their two years in kinder at GECC. They leave kinder well-prepared and ready for the important and exciting transition into school.