Butterflies Room - Kinder Room
3 years to 4 years
Newport Lakes Childcare & Early Learning Centre acknowledges that every child has their own identity. As professional teachers and educators we will support your child's confidence, sense of wellbeing, safety and self-help skills, making their transition to Primary school a positive experience.
We gain inspiration from multiple early childhood philosophies such as' Reggio Emilia, Steiner and Vygotsky, creating programs that closely reflect our ongoing professional development and enquiry.
Following the regulations stated in Victoria your child must be at least three or four years old by 30th April in the year they start kindergarten.
Our emerging curriculum will be planned and delivered by a Bachelor Qualified Teacher trained in Early Childhood Education.
Our kindergarten program operates during the time our Kinder teacher is in the room with the children. We do not close during term breaks. All kinder hours are integrated into our long day care hours of 7:00am-6:00pm.
Free Kinder
The Victorian government provides Free kinder funding to support children to access kinder two years before starting school. The government funding for 4year old children for 15 hours is $2101.00 per child per year. This is divided up as a weekly saving and applied to your gap fee each week. For 3 year old the funding is $700.33 for 5 hours to $2,101.00 for children enrolled for 15 hours. The free kinder savings will be based on the number of hours per week your child attends.
Free kinder is for all families. You do not need to be an Australian citizen or eligible for CCS and we can apply for the funding on your behalf.
ESK funding (early start kinder)
Our centre supports ESK funding (early start kindergarten) that provides 15 hours of low cost fees, for three-year-old children per week. To be eligible your child must have turned 3 by 30th April in the year starting kinder and meet one of the following criteria-
- Be from a refugee or asylum seeker background.
- Identify as Aboriginal or Torres strait islander.
- Your family has had contact with child protection.
Our service can make the application for you on your behalf. The Funding is paid directly to us and divided up over the year. The weekly saving is taken off your weekly gap fee.
Pre-prep program
The Victorian government is supporting the change of Four-Year-Old Kindergarten to Pre-Prep with the roll out across Local councils over the coming years. The Hobsons bay council area will have full acess for all children by the year 2034. At the end of the full roll-out program hours will increase from 15 to 30 hours per week.
From 2026, between 16 and 25 hours of Pre-Prep will be available statewide to:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
- children from a refugee or asylum seeker background
- children who have had contact with Child Protection services
- children supported by Early Start Kindergarten or Access to Early Learning in their Three Year Old Kindergarten year.
Please see us for more information if you believe your child meets the above criteria.
Our program
We gain inspiration from multiple early childhood philosophies such as' Reggio Emilia, Steiner and Vygotsky, creating programs that closely reflect our ongoing professional development and enquiry.
We see each child as a unique individual with varying interests and abilities. The curriculum will be developed through incorporating the children's ideas, which also include some intentional teaching practices. Children learn through participating in play-based experiences, developing and learning at their own pace.
The activities and environment encourage positive personal growth, with children building on their knowledge and understanding on various concepts. Every year will be different with the inclusion of children's interests, community and world events.
We aim to create elements of the program that encourage every child's participation and meaningful engagement in our community and surrounds. Educators organise regular excursions to the Library, Local shops, train rides and Businesses as well as to some of our beautiful local parks.
One of our favourite regular excursions is to "Trugo Place" Age care on Mason Street. We have built a strong connection with the residents, our children and the residents look forward to spending time with each other, drawing pictures, singing songs, dressing up or playing board games during visits.
Our explore and move program consists of sporting games in the local park, where a variety of circuits are set up and children can participate in ball games, team sports and use their gross motor skills, while balancing, jumping, hopping, running and keeping active. The explore side of the program is a visit to Newport Lakes where the focus is learning about the animals and the natural environment.
Our program also supports the children's development and understanding of early literacy and numeracy skills, we plan and deliver a program to make learning fun.
Literacy skill development
- Phonemic awareness
- Alphabet immersion
- Aa-Zz and sounds.
- Spanish using the ELLA (Early Learning Languages Australia) program
We expand on our children's interest in language by providing a Spanish class daily, delivered by a Spanish Educator. The children learn songs, numbers, colours and foundation words during the class. The ELLA app is a digital play-based learning program, that provides fun interactive activities the children work through in Spanish. This is aimed to support play base learning and makes learning a language interesting and engaging.
