[JenniCB]

Hi there,

Having just moved from WA I'm a little unsure of how schooling works here. I know that to start kindy your child needs to be 4 by the 1st January. But how many days is kindy for usually. When I spoke to Collegiate they really seemed to be pushing doing 5 full days. Is this normal or more than normal? Also, do many kids here do pre-kinder or just wait until kindy? We didn't have pre-K programmes in WA and once again, Collegiate have led me to believe that it is the norm.

I would really appreciate some help as I am having some anxieties regarding the whole thing.

Thanks,
Jennifer

[jala73]

Hi Jennifer,

It really depends on which school your child attends as to the number of kindergarten days a week. Some of the private schools (Collegiate, Friends) do have 5 day a week kinder, most of the catholic and public schools have 2 or 3 days a week of kinder. My child in kinder this year is doing 2 days a week as the school doesn't have the room to offer 3 days of kinder yet. By 2013, all public schools are supposed to offer 3 days a week of kinder.

Most schools offer a pre-kinder program. Some schools start this in first term, usually after Easter, but other schools may not offer it until term 2 or 3. In the public system parents stay with their children during pre-kinder sessions and the sessions are about 1.5 -2 hours duration, once a week. Not sure how pre-kinder works in the private system, however some children go to places like Collegiate Early Learning for child care before they start their Kinder year.

Hope that helps!

[liveworkplay]

As of 2013, every school has to offer a minimum 15 hours (I think?) of kinder. Anyway, it basically equates to 3 whole days. Most schools will offer 3. As PP said, some do more but it is not the norm.

There is no such thing as pre-kinder as such, although individual schools usually run a pre kinder program prior to entering kinder. Some are a couple of hours over a few weeks, others longer.

A lot of public schools have early learning programs which range from playgroup style, to music, art and library. These are for 0 to 4 year olds. Contact your local public school for more info.

[eidel]

Our state school has 2 and a half days of kinder each week and ran a prekinder session in term 3 only. There are also some programs called Launch into Learning where you can bring kids of any age (which is good if you have younger ones), but it's more like playgroup and you can't leave your kids there. No idea about the private system, but 5 days definately sounds like more than the norm. Our school has just moved from doing alternate 3 and 2 days per week.

[lustreless]

My DD is going 2.5 days per week but this is only because our school does a half day one of those days.

[Kahlea]

my 5 yr old is going 5 days
my 4 yr old will be going 3 days next year!