CKP SEED
Community Kinders Plus has identified the need to provide our families with the opportunity to receive fair and equal education regardless of their financial and/or social status.
In 2017, the project saw Occupational Therapists offer free developmental screenings to all children at our Carrum Downs kindergartens. Some children needed further assessment and therapy to develop the skills they will need to do well at school. All of the children who took part on the project have had better learning opportunities at kinder to develop their physical and social and emotional skills; they too will be more than ready to continue their learning in the coming year.
Families, teachers and specialists working together in this way is a groundbreaking way of working and we hope it will grow in the coming years. We have been lucky enough to present our discussions and finings throughout Australia and internationally at Early Childhood conferences.
Please take the time to watch a short film to learn more. If you or anyone you know is able to help us raise funds to support the continuation of the project, please get in touch. emma.boag@ckp.org.au
PLANNING AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
All of our teachers and educators are trialing new documentation and planning procedures throughout 2017.
Teachers are required to make curriculum decisions that contribute to each child’s learning and development outcomes in relation to their identity, connection with community, wellbeing, and confidence as learners and effectiveness as communicators, as per government regulations.
Every child attending a CKP kindergarten will have an individual record of their learning and development which is used to set targets and to plan; it is assessed as part of an ongoing cycle of planning, documenting and evaluating. It looks like this:
SO…WHAT ARE CKP DOING ABOUT THIS?
The above kindergartens have teamed up with their local schools to help children develop better oral language skills at home, at kindergarten and in their foundation years at school. Both kinder and school teachers are attending training to look at how they can get better at teaching children the necessary skills. Local primary schools will be running sessions for families and their kinder children to look at how oral language skills can be developed at home. By all working (and talking) together with our children, they will develop better skills and their potential for success at school will be enhanced.
MONASH UNIVERSITY ORAL LANGUAGE PROJECT
Bentons Square Kindergarten, Hastings Preschool, Mornington Park Preschool, Somers Preschool, Tyabb Preschool, Wallaroo Preschool
These kindergartens are working with a PhD student from Monash University with the aim of improving the outcomes of oral language for all children.
MONASH UNIVERSITY OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY STUDENTS
Community Kinders Plus sponsors students who are studying to become occupational therapists. The students work with the staff to devise projects that will improve the outcomes for our children in the areas of physical development and social and emotional development.
Research
We have a reciprocal relationship with Monash University. Some of our teaching staff have taught alongside lecturers to teach our future teachers. We have a number of research projects running at a number of our kindergartens. If they happen at your kinder, permission will be sought and information will be provided.
Families are an important part of this process; you are your child’s first and most important teacher. Your teacher and educator will be asking you about your child because you know them better that anyone else…families will also been asked to have a chat about your child’s learning and development half way through the end.
This is what you will see when you ask about your child’s learning at a CKP kindergarten:
If your child is three years old, or is four, attending a three year old group, the teachers and educators will be gathering and planning from the following information:
- Skills in personal, social and emotional development, language development, understanding of the world and physical development
- Observations of learning and well being
- Self portrait
- Transition statement
If your child is four or five years old, attending a four year old group, the teachers and educators will be gathering and planning from the following information:
- Skills in personal, social and emotional development, language development, understanding of the world and physical development
- Mathematical knowledge
- Observations of learning and well being
- Self-portrait and name writing
- How the child sees themselves as a learner and what they would like to learn
- Transition statement
Northern Peninsula Oral Language Project
Baden Powell Preschool, Banyan Fields Kindergarten, Delacombe Park Preschool, Frankston Preschool, Montague Park Preschool, William Road Preschool, Bowerbird Preschool, Kananook Preschool, Riviera Preschool
We know that oral language (what children say, how they say it and what they understand) is a key factor in how well children do at school with their reading and writing and how they feel about themselves as learners.
We also know that many children start school with low levels of oral language.
This means that they struggle to learn well and don’t reach their full potential. Children who don’t have good oral language development when they start school will face considerable challenges at school.