From kindy to Prep.

In Queensland, "kindergarten" is a specific, regulated year, not a room name a centre can use loosely. Sunbird's kindergarten program is delivered by Talei, a teacher registered with the Queensland College of Teachers, under the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline, for fifteen hours a week over forty weeks. It runs inside your child's normal long day rather than as a separate session you drive to, and Queensland kindergarten funding is applied to eligible children in their kindergarten year.

Junior kindy is not the kindergarten year

Children move through junior kindy, for three to four year olds, before the kindergarten year itself, for four to five year olds in the year before Prep. Junior kindy follows the Early Years Learning Framework, the same framework as the nursery and toddler rooms. The kindergarten year follows the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline and is taught by a registered teacher. Different framework, different qualification, different room. Ask to see the program plan and Talei's registration on a tour if you want to check the difference yourself.

What the program actually covers

Five learning areas run through the year: identity, connectedness, wellbeing, active learning, and communication. In practice that looks like the block construction project that ran for five weeks in one of our films, where children drew a tower before they built it and argued about whether the roof would hold. Readiness for Prep is not a set of worksheets. Talei's programming works on separating from a parent for a full day, holding an idea for longer than a minute, managing a lunchbox, and asking an adult for help, which are the things a Prep teacher actually needs on day one.

The transition to school statement

Every child in the kindergarten program leaves with a transition to school statement, written by Talei and sent to their enrolling school with your consent. It summarises what a child can do across the five learning areas and flags anything the receiving teacher should know early, from a hearing referral to a particular strength. Queensland schools use it to help place children into classes and to plan the first weeks of Prep, and a school reading a properly written one gets weeks of head start on a child they have never met.

What we do in term four

School visits and Prep readiness sessions run in term four: practising the walk to a classroom, trying a school bag and hat, and talking through what a full school day feels like against a long day care day, which runs on a very different rhythm. The transition statement is written and sent in term four as well, once there is a full year of observation behind it rather than a first impression.

Funding, without inventing a number

Queensland kindergarten funding is applied to eligible children in their kindergarten year and reduces what is charged for that portion of the day. Child Care Subsidy applies to the daily fee as normal on top of that. We will show you what both do to a sample invoice before you enrol rather than print a combined figure here, because eligibility and rates are set by the Queensland and Commonwealth governments respectively and both can change.

Read the kindergarten program service page or call (07) 5550 0150 and ask Talei your question directly.