Kindergarten Routines

4.1 Our Kindergarten Day 4.2 What to Bring to Kindergarten 4.3 Kindergarten Uniform 4.4 Kindergarten Routine 4.5 Birthday Celebrations 4.6 Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) 4.7 Extra Kindergarten Activities 4.8 Excursions 4.9 Environmental Awareness 4.10 Family Involvement 4.11 Communication with Parents and Families 4.12 Concerns and Complaints [Grievance Procedure]

4.1 Our Kindergarten Day

Classroom Organisation

The full time and part-time Kindergarten classes cater for 22 children, aged three and a half to five years. Each class has a qualified Early Childhood teacher and qualified Teacher Aide to provide the educational program.

Hours of Operation

The Kindergarten opens at 8:30am and the program begins formally at 8.50am. Parents can leave their children anytime from opening or may choose to play with their children until the teacher calls the children together on the carpet. The program finishes at 3.15pm. As outlined below, the care required outside these times is available outside School Hours Care (OSHC). Term times and attendance days are outlined on the calendar, given to each family.

Arrival and Departure

The children must be brought into the Kindergarten and signed in by a responsible adult. KIOSKS are located outside each classroom for the electronic sign in / sign out of each child. Children in OSHC will be cared for by the staff of this facility and handed to the teacher when Kindergarten begins. Teachers will sign children in and out if they attend Outside School Hours Care.

Persons Authorised to Collect Children

Children must be collected and signed out of Kindergarten by an adult. At the time of enrolment, you must provide the names, addresses and telephone numbers of authorised nominees.

It is your responsibility to notify the kindergarten of any changes in this authorisation. The Kindergarten requires that all authorised persons collect your child (other than parents) show identification.

4.2 What to Bring to Kindergarten

The children need to bring several items with them each day to Kindergarten. Please send these along in a named bag that your child can manage to open and close themselves.

Snack and Lunch is named, in separate containers

Parents are requested to pack healthy foods for meals at Kindergarten. Please do not send lollies, chips or chocolate. As Early Childhood Educators, we will be encouraging the children to develop an awareness of food that is nutritious. The children's food will be kept in the fridge so that healthy foods will remain fresh. We will also be developing the children's awareness of the environment and teaching them to reuse and recycle and would prefer that you send a rubbish free lunch and morning tea. Please remember to supply a spoon for yogurt and a fork for fruit if required.

We would also prefer if morning tea is packed in the small bag provided for ease of storage in our refrigerators.

Lunch may be packed in a standard lunch box.

Snacks are packed in the drawstring bag guven to families on Information Night or Transition Morning.

Please Note:

We request NO Insulated lunch boxes as these cannot be stored in the fridge.

Food that requires heating must be heated at home and stored in a small, insulated flask.

For the wellbeing of all children and particularly those with allergies, Kindergarten has a NUT FREE POLICY. No nuts or nut by-products are to be included in the children's lunchboxes or morning tea bags.

There is NO TUCKSHOP at Kindergarten.

Named water bottle

The children will be accessing their own water bottles throughout the day. During the first week, please check to ensure that your child's bottle fits in the carrying container located on the kitchen bench.

A change in Uniform clothes and underwear

Please store these clothes in a small cloth bag (or similar - NO PLASTIC BAGS PLEASE) inside your child's Kindergarten bag. This will keep them clean until needed. Your child will need spare underwear and a spare pair of uniform shorts.

A wet bag

Please provide a wet bag to store any wet clothing in. Wet bags enable us to continue to minimise our use of single-use plastic bags in our environment.

Hat

The JPC bucket hat is compulsory for all children. Please ensure that your child's hat is named. Hats will remain at Kindergarten in the children's lockers until the end of their week with us.

Sheets in a named bag

The mattress size is 130 x 55 x 5cm and a fitted cot sheet covers the mattress. A top sheet, small pillow, and cuddly can be included if desired and also fit inside the sheet bag. The sheet bag usually has a drawstring so children can independently take out their sheets. Please ensure your child's name is marked on both sheets and outside the sheet bag.

4.3 Kindergarten Uniform

The children are required to wear a compulsory Kindergarten uniform each day. This includes:

• Navy JPC Kindergarten Shirt
• Burgundy PE Shorts (or culottes for the girls if they wish)
• JPC bucket hat
• JPC sports socks accompanied by predominantly white joggers.
  

The Kindergarten uniform is available from the Retail Shop at JPC. Please also ensure that all items are clearly labelled.

4.4 Kindergarten Routine

Parents are requested to assist their children with some basic routines each day.

• The food and drink containers for the day should be placed on the kitchen bench each morning on arrival to be placed in the fridge by a staff member.
• Sheets contained in a child's own sheet bag will need to stay at the Kindergarten for the days of attendance and be placed in the children's lockers until rest time.
• The named hats will remain in the children's lockers for the days of attendance to be easily accessible to the children yet remain separated to avoid cross-infection.
• Parents are requested to take their child's belongings home on the last day of the week's attendance to make space available for the other groups' requirements.
• Parents are required to sign the attendance register on the KIOSK on arrival and departure each day. The KIOSKS are located outside each room on a stand.

An Example of a Kindergarten Day

4.5 Settling into Kindergarten - Staggered Start Program

Starting Kindergarten can be a big step for a young child, and for this reason, we make a few changes to the normal program for the first week.

During the first week, a staggered start enables the children to settle happily in smaller groups and become familiar with their teachers and friends. It also allows teachers to spend more time with individual children to feel happy and secure in their new environment.

To enable a smooth transition into Kindergarten, parents are encouraged to stay with their children in the mornings until they feel they are settled. If work commitments prevent this, parents need to settle their child with a staff member before leaving. When parents are ready to go, you are asked to talk to the staff members so that your child can be supported if necessary.

Children usually adjust to a new environment quickly, so parents can adapt their length of stay as their child becomes familiar with the environment.

Here are a few suggestions that may help to promote your child's positive feelings toward Kindergarten.

• Talk about starting Kindergarten as a sign of your child getting bigger, a reward for growing up as such
• Encourage evidence of independence, so your child feels proud about doing things for themself
• Provide appropriate opportunities for your child to speak to other adults so that confidence and self-expression are developed
• Be positive and excited about this new stage in your child's life because children also sense these emotions and develop these feelings
• Talk to your child about some simple scenarios so that they have some strategies ready - e.g. What do you do when you need to go to the toilet? Who could help you at Kindergarten?
• Place something in the sheet bag or lunchbox that may please your child when they find it - e.g. a funny picture, a photo, a note the teachers can read.

4.5 Birthday Celebrations

Birthdays are a very important part of a young child's life. Please feel welcome to join us to celebrate your child's special day. Parents may choose to bring along cupcakes to share with other children to mark this special occasion. We find that individual cupcakes or ice blocks are ideal and efficiently organised by the staff. As a note, ice blocks are more inclusive if there are any children with allergies in the class.

Any parent who does not want their child to eat the cakes during the year must advise the class teacher in writing to be aware of this requirement.

4.6 Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)

Outside School Hours Care is provided in the Kindergarten building for the children. Care is available from 7.00am to 8.30am and 3.15pm to 6.00pm each day of the term.

Care will also be available during school vacations for Kindergarten children. This program will operate from 7.00am to 6.00pm in the holidays.

The child/adult ratio for these care periods is 1:11 (1 adult with 11 children).

The Head of Outside School Hours Care coordinates the organisation and facilitation of this program.

4.7 Extra Kindergarten Activities

Optional lessons (at your own cost) are available for the children in a variety of activities. Separate providers and parents who facilitate these activities must complete the appropriate permission forms to authorise their child's participation. Please see the notice board in the Kindergarten foyer for further details on the following extra activities.

• Kindy Dance - Experiences in Kindy Dance foster the love of dance and movement.
• Intro Tennis - During these sessions, children are developing ball handling and coordination skills as an introduction to tennis.
• Kindy Bounce - Is a sports program incorporating the basic skills of basketball

4.8 Excursions

Visiting performances and on-campus excursions are organised throughout the year. These are experiences designed to support and extend the children's learning within the classroom. Parents are invited and encouraged to attend any of these events. Information is distributed to parents before these occasions and written permission for each child to attend must be given by parents or guardians.

4.9 Environmental Awareness

The program will also develop awareness in children for recycling and reuse. Sustainable practices are encouraged, such as rubbish free lunches, composting, recycling of materials, use of a worm farm and water tank, and saving power where and when we can.

4.10 Family Involvement

We Value your Input

To offer the best developmental program possible to our children, it is essential to have valuable input from parents who are, after all, the first teachers of our children to support and reinforce the educational program.

We appreciate any relevant information you can share about your child with the teacher. This enables the staff to understand your child's and family's needs better.

We have an 'open-door policy'*, which means you are welcome to visit and spend time with your child throughout the day once the classes have settled in for the year. A compulsory roster is not practised at our Kindergarten, but the teachers will display a timetable for requested help to provide a rich and varied program for the children. Any parent help is greatly appreciated and can be rostered or impromptu. Parent helpers may be involved in various tasks such as interacting with small groups playing and making games, cooking and helping with art experiences, and general tidying in the classroom.

The sharing of interesting occupations, talents, traditions etc., by parents and grandparents are also beautiful additions to the program. Please speak to the teachers if you would like to visit and share your talents with us!

Parent participation assists the teachers tremendously, but it also allows parents to understand the developmental process and gives each child great satisfaction to see that their parents are interested in what they are doing.

There are many other opportunities for you to participate in your child's education apart from regular classroom visits. In our school calendar, you will see outlined such activities as Parent/Teacher Meetings, Back to Kindy Afternoons, Mother's Day celebration, 'Under-Eights' Week, Book Week, Grandparents Day etc. During the year, you will be advised when these opportunities occur to be able to participate in the full academic and social life of the Kindergarten community.

Just as children have rights to high-quality care and education, so too [do] parents have the rights to be involved in all aspects of their children's school lives.

Gandini in Hill et al 2005

*The Centre reserves the right to restrict access to the premises where necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to health and safety (such as in response to COVID-19). Any restricted access to premises will be communicated in advance to parents and details on the centre's management plan(s).

4.11 Communication with Parents and Families

Communication between the teachers and parents is an essential component in fostering strong partnerships with our families. Teachers aim to communicate informally with parents regularly to share stories and experiences about their child's time with us in Kindergarten.

Regular Parent/teacher discussions are also an essential part of understanding a child's development. This allows the correct learning experiences to be established for each child. Please feel free to discuss your child's progress with their teacher at a time convenient to both teacher and parent.

In addition to these incidental contacts, arrangements are made for more formal interviews during the year. Parent /teacher discussions occur during Terms One and Three.

Kindergarten children will also receive a written Transition Statement at the end of their year.

We also communicate information to our parents and families through emails, SeeSaw, on our Kindergarten noticeboards and the LCD screen in the Kindergarten foyer. Please take the time to read these notices regularly.

4.12 Concerns and Complaints [Grievance Procedure]

If you have any concerns relating to the care of your child, a staff member, or another child, please see the Head of Early Education, Mrs Leanne Zammit.

Parents and children will not be discriminated against or suffer any repercussions if they make a complaint. The rights of all in the Kindergarten are respected and no visitors or parent/s may reprimand staff or other children.

We hope that all concerns of parents can be satisfactorily met. However, if you are unhappy with the result of the complaint handling, further assistance can be received from Miss Lindsay McQuattie, Deputy Principal - Head of Primary School at JPC. After discussion with the parent, the Head of Early Education and Primary School Head will investigate the complaint, focusing on the issue of concern, and working towards a resolution that meets the needs of everyone involved.

The Office of Early Education and Care can also be contacted if a parent has any further issues that they would like to discuss and resolve.