3 Year Old Kindergarten
Registrations for 2025 3 year old kindergarten will be accepted from 1 March 2024.
We warmly welcome you to The Grange Community Centre 3-year-old Kindergarten Program. Our collective vision is to provide the best care and educational experiences to the families in Wyndham, a home away from home for your little one. We can proudly say that our staff always go the extra mile to care for and nurture each child that walks through our doors.
Kindergarten is a powerful way to support your child’s learning and development and most importantly, it assists with the successful transition to school down the track. At The Grange Community Centre our 3-year-old program is delivered by a qualified early childhood teacher.
About us
When popping into our Community Centre, you will experience a world where children are inspired to explore, learn and grow. Our children enjoy delightful indoor and outdoor play areas, rooms equipped with the latest age-appropriate technology and learning resources.
We believe a child's early years are incredibly important and are deserving of exceptional learning environments and experiences that support development and growth. Our collective vision is to provide the best care and educational experiences to the families in Wyndham.
We are a community Kindergarten with a long and proud history of caring for children of all ages across our different programs. We are dedicated to providing a warm and nurturing environment where all feel welcome and valued and where all can contribute to the life of our Kindergarten. We value the support we can give each other over and beyond your time here. Kindergarten is a special place in the life of families where lasting friendships are formed for both you and your children.
Partnerships with families
Early childhood education is very much about partnerships between families and teachers. Through working together as a team, better understanding and relationships are developed between staff and families which, most importantly, will benefit your child. We recognise that you, the families, are the children’s first and most influential teachers. We know that each child is very different and you are the ones who know your child best. We invite you to offer suggestions, ask questions and discuss with us your child’s interests. This helps us to understand each child better and to teach more effectively.
Together, we can develop a Kindergarten culture where we celebrate diversity and honour differences in histories, languages and lifestyle choices of families. Together, we can help children appreciate that we are all connected and dependent on one another for our wellbeing and learning. When we value each other’s knowledge of each child, when we trust each other and when we participate in shared decision-making, we are actively engaged in promoting high quality education for our children.
Cost
The Victorian Government is providing financial support to services which allows sessional kindergarten to be delivered to families for FREE in 2025 in order for families to be able to access a high-quality kindergarten program in the two years prior to starting school. This funding is a contribution towards meeting the cost of the kindergarten program.
What are the session times
The sessional group will be for 15 hours per week; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the sessions will run from 9.00am to 2.00pm and your child will be expected to attend all three days.
o Monday 9:00am to 2:00pm
o Tuesday 9:00am to 2:00pm
o Wednesday 9:00am to 2:00pm
Eligibility
Your child is eligible to attend a 3-year-old funded Kindergarten Program if they are 3 or will be turning 3 years of age on or before 30 April in the year they start attending. Your child will be considered for a position once they have turned 3. Children who turn three after 30 April are only eligible to participate in the following year's 3-year-old Kindergarten Program.
Your child must be 3 years of age to commence 3-year-old kindergarten. If your child turns 3 between the start of term 1 and 30th April, they will not be able to commence kindergarten until their 3rd birthday.
Use the calculator on Sending your child to kinder | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au) and enter your child's birthdate to find out what year your child can start their first year or second year of kindergarten.
In Victoria, a child cannot attend more than one State Government funded free kindergarten program (first year or second year) at the same time.
Priority of Access
The Grange Community Centre knows that children who face a range of disadvantages are less likely to have access to early education and care than other children. We want to ensure that children who will benefit the most from access to early childhood and care are given the first opportunity to enrol at our Service. For more information, please refer to our Priority of Access Policy & Kindergarten Policy.
Our service has 30 places for 3-year-olds available.
In accordance with DET Kindergarten Funding Guide, services must first apply the Priority of Access (PoA) criteria and, following this, they may then apply locally developed criteria. This helps to ensure that children who are vulnerable, disadvantaged or who have a disability are supported to access a kindergarten place.
In addition, eligible children residing within the early roll-out LGAs will be prioritised for access to Three-Year-Old Kindergarten in those areas. This means that these children must be allocated a kindergarten place before applications from families living outside the LGA are considered. Children who are eligible for Early Start Kindergarten funding continue to have PoA to a place in a 15-hour week kindergarten program, regardless of where they live
