Director's Report

Hi Families.

We are now halfway through Term 2 and all of the groups are settled and the children are busy engaging in the programs. We were lucky this year that we could have celebrations for Mother’s Day at the kindergarten and it was great to see the Kinder full with families for those events.

Early childhood centres are regulated by the Department of Education and there are standards and regulations that are in place. Livingston Kinder was recently assessed and rated Exceeding in all 7 of the National Quality Standards which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff and committee.

At this time of year, Four Year Old Group families are beginning to think about schools for 2022 and it prompts the question “Is my child ready for school?”.  There are many organisations that advertise specific School readiness programs.  School readiness is not a set of skills that children can learn just before starting school.  Independence, persistence, concentration, enthusiasm and curiosity are dispositions that children start to develop from birth.  Kindergarten provides children with opportunities to build on these dispositions, developing the skills and abilities that will enable them to settle readily and confidently into school.

A few examples are:

Collaboration and cooperation - Working together on a block construction.

Confidence - Joining in discussions during group time/special helper/what’s in the box?

Respect for others - Listening to others' ideas and opinions, respect for diversity and taking turns. 

Fine motor experiences - Cutting, sewing, using tongs, making things with playdough, drawing. 

Literacy - Writing experiences in the role play areas, discussions about letters, writing name labels, listening to stories, exposure to print.

Numeracy - Playing board games, weighing experiences, counting games, measuring experiences.

Science - Experiementing with magnetics, cooking and planting seeds.

STEM - Problem solving, questioning  and teamwork. 

Independence - Looking after own belongings/lunch/toileting/choosing own resources. 

Here is an article from the Australian Government with further information.

https://www.learningpotential.gov.au/articles/is-your-child-ready-for-big-school

The teachers in all groups are in the process of organising specific times for parents to have a chat about their child’s time at Kindergarten and their development.

A reminder - We have a recycling station set up in the foyer for batteries, textas and plastic bag tags.  We also have our community pantry for our community to use just inside the second door.