The Benefits of a Quality Kindergarten Program at C&K

Is your family wondering whether attending kindergarten is the right choice for your child? While not mandatory, attending kindy offers extensive benefits and opportunities for learning and growth. Read on to understand why attending kindy is highly recommended amongst early childhood professionals.

What is kindergarten?

In Queensland, kindergarten is a part-time educational program for children in the year before they start prep at school. It is delivered by a university-qualified Early Childhood Teacher (ECT), and is typically offered for 15 hours a week, over 40 weeks a year. To make kindy accessible to more families, the Queensland Government is funding Free Kindy for eligible children – that’s 600 hours to explore, play, and learn, for FREE.

What are the benefits of kindy? What do children learn?

There are numerous benefits to be gained from attending a government-approved kindergarten program at C&K. Our program develops your child's physical, social, cognitive, language, and emotional abilities, and plays a key role in ensuring a smooth transition to school. This looks like:

• Learning in a small classroom environment. Groups consist of the same children, the same age as your child, led by the same educators each day. Each group usually has no more than 22 children, allowing for meaningful interactions and strong friendship bonds in an environment that isn’t overwhelmingly busy. Children become familiar with following a daily schedule, transitioning between activities, and understanding classroom expectations.
• Building independence and confidence. Children are encouraged to develop life skills, preparing them for the challenges they will encounter in a school environment. What might seem like small tasks, such as learning how to open and close their own lunchbox or apply their own sunscreen, are major steps toward building your child’s autonomy.
• Developing early reading, literacy, and numeracy skills. Learning opportunities are skillfully planned by your child’s ECT to introduce these concepts through play, keeping children engaged, curious, and excited about learning.
• Strengthening social and emotional skills. Children learn to express their feelings, understand others' emotions, and navigate social situations with guidance from their ECT. Through group activities and collaborative play, they develop empathy, learn to share and take turns, and build emotional resilience.
• Enhancing physical development and coordination. Both fine and gross motor skills are developed through purposeful play activities, such as drawing, building, climbing, and playing ball games. These activities help children develop the coordination and body awareness they need for tasks like writing, using scissors, and participating in sports.
• Fostering creativity and imagination. Kindy provides dedicated time and resources for artistic expression, dramatic play, and creative problem-solving. Children explore various materials, engage in open-ended projects, and are encouraged to think imaginatively, which helps them develop conviction in their own ideas and creative abilities.

What if traditional kindy hours don’t work for my family?

Want your child to experience kindy but need more than 15 hours of care a week? Select C&K kindergartens offer an extended hours program. The extended hours program commences from the end of the core kindergarten program, and continues the children's learning into the afternoon until 6pm or later. Holiday programs are also available.

Don’t have a kindergarten with extended hours in your area? C&K childcare centres also offer government-approved kindergarten programs led by an ECT. Most centres are open from 6:30am to 6pm (depending on location) and provide flexible booking options, with wrap-around care before and after the core kindy program.

Ready to enrol?

Find your nearest C&K centre to book a tour, or complete an enrolment form to join our waitlist.