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Hi there, is kinder/pre school the same in NSW as it is in Vic?
do they run a 3 year old program and then a 4 Year old program? when is the cut off? is it dec 31st or april?
how old are kids when they start school?
any other info i need to know? thanks so much :)
G, in NSW< they have 3yo and 4yo preschool. It is non mandatory for them to attend, but the Govt recommends that in the year before they start school that 4yo's do a minimum of 2 days per week. Where I live, 3yo's attend a maximum of one full day per week, which is from 9am to 3pm. From 4yo they can attend a max of 3 days per week from 9am to 3pm. DS2 is only attending 1 day per week this year in his year before school. The age cut off is July and they must be at school the year they turn 6. So for our September boys, they have to be at school next year, but for your Feb boy, he can be held back another year. My Feb boy started school the year he turned 5, so he was still only 4 for the first few weeks of school, but I could have held him back another year so he would have been nearly 6 when he started.
Thanks so much hun. That's exactly what I wanted to know. Still think I will hold j back, even though the cut off is July, so he will turn 6 in the first year of school.
So is there usually waiting lists? Do u need to put their name down early?
Ginger- Trillian pretty much covered it but Yes you definitely need to put their names down as early as you can. Community run pre-schools are very hard to get into and the children who go to long day centres already will have priority to access pre-school program run at LDC before new enrolments IYKWIM.
Where are you plenning on moving to in NSW?
It depends. When I had DS1, we only ever sent him in that year before he started school, so he only had one year at preschool, but during that year, the towns population exploded because of the mine starting operations and it became harder to get kids in and preference was given to children/families who were already in the system basically so we had to start DD1 the following year as a 3yo. We probably would have done that anyway, but it also guaranteed her a place in 4yo kinder. Same again for DD2. When it came time to enrol DS2, things had exploded again as there are so many young families here now that there was no guarantee that you could even get your 3yo a place for 1 day a week and they were only accepting enrollments from children who were already 3 - so if they were January onwards babies then they had to go on a waiting list for a place. You probably remember me talking about not being sure if he will get in or not?
So if I were you, I'd be calling some places in the area and find out if there are waiting lists etc and if there are, put him on them now. Even if you don't relocate till later in the year, then you still have him on the list and if you don't need it because you are moving later (when he will be starting school next year anyway), then call and let them know. It really depends on the area and the services they have available to you. Where we are, there is only one preschool and a childcare centre so if you can get into one of those, you're pretty snookered.
Ginger - if you google 'NSW government preschools' the first link has the list of government places. None close to you, best bet is to track down a community run centre. We had Miss K's name down in March last year, but she only got in for this year (is just doing one day, but they offered her 2). The preschool lady told me last year that their enrolments really depend on what the current thinking is about holding kids back, they had very few spaces last year because so many were being held back from school until they were 6. The news tonight had a study saying that holding kids back made absolutely no difference by the end of 1st grade though.
thanks girls
i'll give them a call after holidays and see what the go is