Director's Report

Welcome to Livingston 2025. Firstly, a big thankyou to all our families for being flexible whilst the Livingston Street building was being repaired. We are so happy to be back in the building and even better, earlier than planned!It certainly feels calmer and is definitely not as loud. Most of the children coming into kinder in the morning are happy to leave their parent and join in the kinder program. Some children may find this difficult, and your child’s kinder teacher will work with you to support your child with this separation. You are welcome to come into the kindergarten with your child at drop off if you would like. Again, talk with your child’s teacher to discuss if this would be beneficial for your child. You are also welcome to come and spend time with your child in the session if you have a valid working with children check. These are free for volunteers, and you can apply here:

  https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply

Hopefully families are enjoying viewing the photos from their child’s group that are being uploaded to the School Stream App. This provides a great opportunity for you to engage in conversation with your child about their day at kindergarten their friends, what they learnt etc. If you haven’t already- download the app, choose Livingston Kindergarten and we will approve you and assign you to your child’s group. 

This year we have been allocated School Readiness funding and allied health sessions from the Department of Education for all groups. 

The funding initiatives we have applied for are additional staff at various times throughout the week. A higher staff-to-child ratio in kindergarten, means more educators per child and leads to enhanced social-emotional development, improved individualised attention, and better supervision, ultimately contributing to a more positive and effective learning environment. 

The Allied health do not work directly with individual children but support staff with possible strategies, resources knowledge etc. They will also be organising online information sessions for families on a range of topics. More info will be sent soon. We are in the process of setting up a family library which has been made possible through a grant from Bayside council in 2024. The mostly fiction books will mainly focus on body safety, resilience, emotional intelligence, diversity etc. The library will be in the foyer, and we hope to have this up and running in the next few weeks and we will be adding to this continually. 

Always striving to be community minded Livingston Kindergarten is also restarting the Community pantry. This shelf in the foyer will be a place where families can donate pantry items and also take a pantry item when needed. 

How it works…….Parents can take food items from the pantry when picking up their children, perhaps an ingredient they’ve run out of that they need for dinner that night, and in return, parents can contribute something left over from their own pantry the next day. The communal pantry includes basic food staples such as pasta, pasta sauce, cans of tuna, breakfast cereals, biscuits and crackers. This helps children make community connections and fosters a sense of belonging to community groups and opens up conversations about helping others, sustainability, recycling and reducing waste. Take what you need….Share what you can. 

Finally a big thankyou to Jade in Waratah group (Maintenance officer) for organising and running the working bee on Sunday. Jade and all the volunteers have done a wonderful job cleaning up the yard and planting herbs and plants for the children to care for and hopefully use in cooking etc.

Thanks Louise