Kookaburra Kindergarten

Kookaburra Kindergarten’s large playground area and creative play spaces invites children to touch, observe and explore the natural world. Emphasising activities such a climbing, ball sports, and gardening which develops children’s motor skills. Socialising under the shade of our beautiful old trees, children love to play and interact with one another.

Our kindergarten features:

• Planned and intentional indoor spaces
• Large outdoor space
• Sand boxes
• Gardening beds for vegetables and herbs
• Play area with climbing equipment
• Recycling area to encourage sustainability and caring for the environment

Activities are designed to help children get in touch with nature! Children love to get their hands dirty in our veggie garden and interact with our pet birds and fish. Every year we invite reptile handlers and an animal farm to our centre. Our children foster a relationship of respect and stewardship for the environment through our key sustainability activities and initiatives.

• We promote sustainable living and encourage children to develop everyday sustainable practices such as recycling.
• We go on fun and exciting excursions to places including the local primary school, library, Edwardes Lake Park and Bundoora Park.

Children can also look forward to different educational and entertaining interactive workshops, including:

• Responsible Pet Program
• Reptile handlers
• Visitors from the local school
• Soccer Time Kids (a program for cognitive learning and development of gross motor and social skills)
• Singing and dance classes
• Drama ToolBox (includes costumes, drama, puppets, props, role play, music, movement and dance)
• Activities to meet the needs of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners

Children also participate in the Darebin Best Start program, an early years initiative to support families and caregivers to provide the best possible environment, experiences and care for children aged 0-8 years old.

We understand the importance of healthy eating in children’s early development. That’s why we provide highly nutritious food full of diversity and flavour made from fresh and homegrown ingredients. Children will never miss out as we can accommodate all kinds of dietary and cultural food requirements.

• We grow our own produce to harvest herbs, vegetables, and fruit
• We work sensitively with parents and families from a range of cultural backgrounds to ensure cultural foods meet standards requirements
• We offer progressive snack and lunchtime to empower children to ask for what they want and when
• We educate children and their families about healthy eating and nutrition

We foster a strong sense of community at our centre! Parents are encouraged to take an active role in their children’s early development through various activities and initiatives. Teaching children the importance of building community relationships plays an important role in developing their feelings of belonging and security.

Parents often participate by:

• Celebrating significant cultural festivals and days with us
• Volunteering their time to provide support and resources for our programs
• Assisting with fundraising
• Participating in our Parent Partnership Group (positions are elected at the annual meeting of our kindergarten parents)

We celebrate diversity! Our families come from a wide range of different cultures and backgrounds, speaking many different languages. Importantly, we can have all forms of communication translated for families who speak languages other than English.

We are fortunate to have staff who speak a range of languages including Kurdish, Urdu, Hindi, Italian and Japanese, and we often have tertiary students on placement or volunteers who can speak one of our community languages.

Our educators are equipped with the skills to provide safe and nurturing environments to all children and are experienced in working with children who live with a range of physical and intellectual disability.

*Due to additional Government Covid-19 funding for 2021 only, kindergarten fees have been reduced to $0 for 4 year old children and $44 per term for 3 year old children.

4 year old kindergarten

$466.00 per term

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 9.15am - 2.15pm

3 year old kindergarten

$444 per term

1 x 5 hour session per week on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday 9.15am – 2.15pm