Buninyong Uniting Kindergarten

Our town is home to beautiful natural surroundings, this beauty extending past the doors of Buninyong Preschool. Children express themselves through fun games and activities in our indoor and outdoor environments. We have a large outdoor area with trees, gardening beds, bush tucker garden and yarn circle.

Our kindergarten features:
• Inviting indoor and outdoor spaces
• 2 large outdoor play spaces, traditional and natural.
• Sandpits
• Trees and natural shade
• Gardening beds including vegetables, herbs and bush tucker garden
• Gross motor play equipment for activities such as climbing, skipping, throwing and catching
• Worm farm
• Orchid with apples, cherries, plums.
• Bike track
• Obstacle courses
• Climbing mountain
• Kinder pets
• Water tanks
• Dry river bed
• Cocoon swing chair

Our educators encourage children to play in an inclusive and respectful manner. Children at our preschool develop empathy for others, and we have a strong focus on developing their skills in problem-solving, negotiation and conflict resolution. We also teach the importance of caring for the natural environment.

This includes activities such as:

• We encourage recycling
• We promote sustainable living and encourage children to develop everyday sustainable practises
• We have a worm farm and encourage composting
• We take excursions that encourage children to care for the environment around them

We love to take the children out into the community to explore the world around them.

Excursions include trips to:

• Gym Sports
• The local botanical gardens
• Local schools
• Local park
• Buninyong Bakehouse
• De Soza park
• Dance Makers
• The wildlife park
• Lal Lal waterfalls

We have a strong partnership and continuity of learning program with our local school and take our children there to help them prepare for their transition to primary school. We also invite the prep students to come and visit our centre and interact with the children. Other incursions include:

• Emergency service providers
• Responsible Pet ownership
• Musicians
• Roo Keepers
• Dance Makers

We encourage and teach the children about healthy eating and looking after their own body. The Kinder promotes this by providing opportunities to participate in cooking, collecting fruit and veg
from the gardens, programs such as Kelly Sports.

At our kindergarten:

• We grow our own produce in our garden including herbs, vegetables, fruit)
• We practise and emphasise food safety
• We educate children and their families about healthy eating and nutrition
• We encourage children to make their own choices of what they eat.

We live in a small community. Imparting our shared values on the children is an important part of developing their sense of belonging which we believe is vital for children’s happiness. We encourage parents to be actively involved in their children’s development.

• Parents can participate when:
• We celebrate significant cultural festivals and days together
• We invite them to talk to the children about their job, hobbies and other interesting topics
• They volunteer their time to provide support and resources for our programs
• They assist with fundraising
• We have a Parent Advisory Committee (positions are elected at the annual meeting of our kindergarten parents)

Various people, groups or services within our community we engage with regularly include:

• Local primary schools
• Local emergency service providers and medical professionals
• Wellbeing practitioners
• Indigenous community members or groups
• Animal trainers or handlers
• Local business owners

We explore languages of other countries and cultures, teach elements of AUSLAN and encourage our families to share their languages spoken.

4 year old kindergarten

$445.00 per term

Red Group - Mon, Tues, Thurs 9am to 2pm

Yellow Group - Tues, Wed 8:30am to 4pm

Blue Group - Thurs, Fri 8:30am to 4pm

3 year old kindergarten

$148 per term (funded for 5 hours)

$483.61 per term for 6 hour sessions

Purple Group - Mon 9:30am to 2:30pm

Green Group - Wed 9am to 2pm

Orange Group - Fri 9:30am to 2:30pm