Haven Newsletters

Our Kindergarten Program 2021

Registrations for our Funded Kindergarten Program will commence in August 2020.  We invite all families to confirm their details and requirements for our 2021 program.  We will then be have your places allocated to you by 11th September 2020.

All children on enrolment at Haven are already secured  a place within our funded program.  It is up to the family as to whether your requiring a place with us.  

So lets learn more about what your child will gain from their time in our Field Classroom.

 

Our program is based on;

  1. Children learn through play in both their learning experiences and their environment.
  2. Daily routines and meaningful experiences enhance children’s learning.
  3. Children develop every day in five main areas of development: health and physical development, social and emotional development, language development and communication, approaches to learning, and cognition and general knowledge.
  4. Literacy and language development are encouraged daily in the classroom.
  5. Opportunities for exploration and discovery encourage children to love learning.
  6. A strong classroom community—learning environment enables children to develop confidence, creativity, and lifelong critical thinking skills.
  7. The teachers use developmentally appropriate practices in the classroom and take advantage of teachable moments.
  8. The teachers adjust their teaching to meet the strengths, needs and interests of individual children.
  9. Positive reinforcement and guidance are necessary for building relationships with children.
  10. Parent partnerships are a key ingredient to Early Years Learning and School success.

A message from Our Teacher ;

The teachers and I are excited and proud of what we have planned for Kindergarten 2021.

We would like to highlight how important it is for your child to be at on time. Our Kindergarten day starts at 8.45 am, so we please ask that you are no later than 9.00 am.  If for any reason you arrive after 9.00 am, your child will be escorted to the classroom with management.  This will eliminate any distractions to the other children whilst learning. We work very hard on getting the group to come together and concentrate, so we  request that you help us by following this procedure. Having people coming into the room dropping off and doing a handover can be distributive to the class.  It is also to help families, get into the routine of School life.  Children will need to be dropped off by a certain time.  1 minute late, you need to get a late pass.  So, this is great practice for you.

Throughout the year we are aiming for the program to look like the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Group time one 9.30 am 

  • Acknowledgment song
  • Welcome song – to encourage relationships with teachers and peers
  • Days of the week
  • Weather/season/UV/month
  • Intentional teaching or children’s interests

Group Time two 11.45 am and three 2.30 pm 

  • More intentional teaching or child’s interests this allowing for us to fill the children’s toolbox with as much information as we can, whilst having fun and getting ready for when they enter school.

** Throughout the terms they will be flexible with the children’s interests however allowing for teacher initiation as well. Some of the programs we will incorporate are:

  • Jolly phonics (Beginning sounds) and cued articulation (cues and actions of how words are pronounced)
  • PALS social skills program – this program assists with social and emotional skills it helps the children relate to others, teach constructive problem-solving skills for social situations and promote the skills needed for the transition to school
  • Zones of regulations – Self regulation. Identify their feelings and level of alertness, understand how their behavior can impact others and build strategies to manage their feelings.
  • Show and tell – encourages children to practice active listening skills, communication and confidence talking in front of people.
  • We will be incorporating more incursions and excursions which we are super excited about and would also like as much parent involvement as we can.

So how does the program work

  • The Field Room operates 52 weeks a year.  This means we continue to run during term breaks.  We do however have a more flexible routine over this break as we have a holiday program in place.
  • As we have two teachers on the premise, we run our program over a 7.5 hour day.  This means that your days of attendance need to be at least 2.  We recommend though at least 3 sessions a week, to best help support your child's transition to school.
  • We continue to have our indoor/outdoor program, but the day is scheduled the same as school.
  • Our classroom is 22 placements
  • The importance of children having access to a funded program is of the upmost importance.  It means that their transition to School will be smoother than those not attending.  We like to ensure that we prioritize places so that all children can gain access to our funded program.
  • All funded children will not pay any additional extracurricular or excursion monies.
  • If you are registered for our funded program, you receive funding for your child.  This payment is made to our service directly.  You are just paying your normal gap fee.
  • You can only be enrolled in one program.  We will ask you to sign a consent form, allowing us to apply for funding.  If you have applied for council/community kindergarten then you will need to still sign the consent form for our program, but choose the non-funded option.
  • The children in our field room don’t have sleeps.  If you have a concern about this, please speak with Centre management or one of our team in our Forest or Field classrooms.
  • We have a no toy policy.   We  had conversations with schools about what we can do to help with the transition to school, they have highlighted, that toys being broken or lost is a problem, and if we can discourage this at the start of each Kindergarten year, then it will help them as children will not be in the habit.
  • Being able to use a toilet is not must. We do however recommend that if you can work with your child over the  months leading up to term one to be toilet trained/toilet use confident, this will help them settle in more comfortably. We would never exclude a child because they are in nappies, but we would like to have a conversation with any family that this may be a concern with.
  • We recently visited a service that had zero tolerance on parents talking in front of their children about how they are feeling and negative behaviours.  What they have found is that they have little to no issues with drop off, or challenging behaviours at their service.  They feel this is due to the positive impact of their words and how it affects them emotionally.  What we are asking is that if you need to discuss a negative topic, then this happens outside the classroom and not around the children. We are more than happy to have you message us through Storypark should you need to handover any sensitive information or a phone conversation.  The thing is that we need to allow children to thrive in a positive environment.
  • Whilst our program is created around play, the children are not off just playing. Also our team are not just babysitting. The program is based around the children’s interests and a scheduled intentional teaching program. You may often see teachers sitting back, but this is where all our observations of your children are taking place.
  • We have both Caila and Elis running the Kindergarten Program.
  • Council kindergarten is sessional days and times.  Doing your program with us allows your child to get a sense of a full day school program, on the days that suits your family requirements.
  • We will send more information out to families shortly, but in the meantime, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate in contacting us.