14/07/2022
Department of Education & Training (DET) vision for two years of funded Kindergarten for 2023 and beyond.
With the announcement of two years of kindergarten or “Pre-prep, as it’s being referred too, in the two years prior to starting school” we’ve had lots of question about how the multi-age groups are delivered & the advantages or disadvantages this presents.
To be honest, we don’t see any disadvantages & at Cooraminta we have been delivering this model for quite some time.
The big advantage we see for 2023 and beyond is the capacity Cooraminta has to offer the younger children in this group the full 15 hour free of charge.
Many centres won’t have the capacity to offer this option, we also offer the parents a choice of days during the week and long or short hour days.
At Cooraminta we acknowledge that all children develop at their own pace and our priority is to ensure that our high-quality standard of education and care is maintained and we have the capacity to cater for all children.
The multi-aged groups will bring together all of our children aged between 3 and 5 years and will offer the children unique opportunities for learning and development.
To make multi-aged groups work effectively we are required to offer a wide variety of flexible play-spaces. The children will be supported to access resources, materials and experiences to match their interests and skills while being challenged to extend their capabilities.
The main benefits for multi-age groups will be:
• Older children will learn to become leaders.
• Younger children will look at the older children as role-models and will learn from them.
• Older children spending time with younger children will help them to develop resilience, empathy and understanding.
• Children and teachers will have the opportunity to work together for more than one year, which enhances continuity of learning and the forming of positive relationships between children and teachers and children with their peers.
• Helping the younger children to settle in, the older children will support the younger children to feel secure.
• Older children like to help the younger ones, this helps them to feel worthwhile and important. Their confidence will grow.
• The children will mix freely and will be encouraged to work and play together. They will learn the joys of co-operation, which leads to a strong sense of community.
• Children will be invited to join a variety of interest based educator led activity groups such as garden club, cooking club, science club, art class etc.
