Our Curriculum

Play is the most effective vehicle for enabling children to interact with the planned kindergarten environment at their own developmental levels and rates. Play and learning go hand in hand.

For children, play is active learning. The play activities you will see in the kindergarten program, both indoors and outdoors, are thoughtfully planned to encourage individual children to explore alone, alongside others and in small groups. Our program encompasses the new Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. It provides experiences to assist each child to learn and develop in five areas (“outcomes”). These being:

• Children have a strong sense of identity (Identity)

• Children are connected with and contribute to their world (Community)

• Children have a strong sense of well being (Wellbeing)

• Children are confident and involved learners (Learning)

• Children are effective communicators (Communication)

Learning Through Play

Learning and development occurs as the children are engaged in their play at a wide range of experiences.

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While playing alongside others, your child is learning complex social and emotional skills – taking turns, sharing ideas, expressing needs and feelings, coping with disappointment and success, and making sense of the world by acting out experiences. They will develop the abilities to make choices, think, reason, solve problems, ask questions, explore and create in order to understand. In all of these experiences your child is strengthening and extending their understanding and use of language. They are listening, communicating, expanding and developing vocabulary and sentence structure.

Develop Important Skills

Communication, collaboration, conflict resolution and respecting others’ rights are very important skills, not just for now or school, but also for life. Research shows that successful learning is closely linked to the ability to display confident social skills. In all of these experiences we place strong emphasis on building a strong positive self esteem. Each child’s ideas are valued and respected. We encourage them to express themselves and take responsibility for their own work and ideas. A child who feels good about themselves is not afraid to make mistakes or have a go at something new, different or challenging.

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Our emphasis is on process – the process of choosing, handling, shaping and manipulating materials, discovering, creating, persevering and completing. We want children to adapt to situations when things don’t go as planned and we want them to experience satisfaction in what they have accomplished. We encourage children to try a range of experiences and develop confidence in areas they may not readily choose.

A complete copy of the “Victorian Early Years Learning and Development framework”, can be read on the Dept. Education and Training (DET) website.

We hope this will assist you in understanding the wide range of skills and development we aim to foster within each child through our program and the support we provide to each individual child to help them learn and develop at their own individual rate and in their own individual way.

2020  Session Times

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Kurboroo Kindergarten is open five days a week, Monday to Friday. It provides five 4 year-old sessions and two 3 year-old sessions a week.

3 Year-Old Session Times

Our Education Team:

• Wallabies: Julie Atkins (Educator) with Di Lisle (Assistant)

4 Year-Old Session Times

Our Education Team:

• Koalas: Lisa Waters (Educator) with Marion Smith (Assistant) and Kylie Warburton (Assistant)

• Possums: Zoe Marks (Educator) with Angela Willey (Assistant) and Maddie Fullerton (Assistant) 

3 Year-Old Session Fees

Under the current government funding schemes for Early Childhood Education, 3 year-old kindergarten or playgroups receive no funding. Please be aware that kindergarten's 3 year-old sessions are solely funded by parent/family contributions and rely on prompt payment of fees to meet the operational costs. All parents/guardians must pay fees and the Kurboroo Committee of Management (The Committee) has the discretion to withdraw service for non-payment of fees, as per our Fees Policy and Enrolment Policy.

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Fee Structure for 2020

$1500.00 per annum with a $50 Maintenance Levy (refundable upon attendance at a working bee during the year)

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Throughout the year there may be excursions/incursion that are not covered by the fees.  These are to be paid for by parent/guardian as required. In order to secure a place in the program, a deposit of $100 is payable upon receipt of an offer. This money will be deducted from the first installment and the balance of Term 1 fees of $275 must be paid at the Annual General Meeting, to be held in November. Second, third and fourth term fees of $375 are payable prior to the beginning of each term. Please refer to the full Fees Policy for more information.

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Fee Subsidies (3 year old program)

The following three year old children are eligible for a free kindergarten program:

• Children known to Child Protection (including children referred from Child Protection to Child FIRST) or

• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children

4 Year-Old Session Fees

The Department of Education and Training (DET) provides per capita funding as a contribution towards the cost of providing the preschool program for four year olds. The DET, in conjunction with government, review the funded hours and the funding provided per child on an annual basis. The service is responsible for all other costs.

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Fees are necessary because there is a shortfall between the level of government funding and the costs of operating a viable preschool. Please  aware that 4 year-old kindergarten sessions do require family/parent financial contribution and rely on prompt payment of fees to meet the operational costs. All parents/guardians must pay fees and the Kurboroo Committee of Management (The Committee) has the discretion to withdraw service for non-payment of fees. Please refer to the full fees policy for more information.

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Fee Structure for 2020

$1700.00 per annum – subject to government funding; with a $50 Maintenance Levy (refundable upon attendance at a working bee during the year)

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Throughout the year there are likely to be excursions/incursion that are not covered by the fees. These are to be paid for by parent/guardian as required. In order to secure a place in the program, a deposit of $100 is payable upon receipt of an offer. This money will be deducted from the first instalment and the balance of Term 1 fees of $325 must be paid at the Annual General Meeting, to be held in November. Second, third and fourth term fees of $425 are payable prior to the beginning of each term.

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Fee Subsidies (4 year old program)

The kindergarten fee subsidy provides eligible concession card holders with access to 15 hours per week of our 4 year old kindergarten program free of charge.

To be eligible for the kindergarten fee subsidy, the family or child must have one of the following:

• Health Care Card

• Pensioner Concession Card

• Temporary Protection/ Humanitarian Visas 447, 451, 785 or 786

• Asylum seekers on Bridging Visas A – F and Refugee and Special Humanitarian Visas holders 200- 217

• Resolution of Status (RoS) visa, Class CD, subclass 851

• Department of Veterans Affairs Gold Card.

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The card must be sighted by the Fees Officer, or a designated representative/s of Kurboroo Committee of Management, prior to the start of the kindergarten year.  The fees will only be reduced in the terms for which a current card or visa is valid.  If the valid concession card/visa expires during the year, the onus is on the card holder to provide the newly issued (valid) card to the Fees Officer or a designated representative/s of The Committee if they wish their fees to continue to be reduced.

Note – If you pay fees for the full year and your Health concession card is not applicable in the second, third or fourth term, an invoice will be issued for the full fees for the remaining terms.

Concessions are also available for the families:

• with triplets or quadruplets

• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander