Alderley Kindergarten

Our History & Community:

We are a community based, not for profit Kindergarten providing a nurturing and educational experience for children in the year before they attend Prep. Children have been taught and cared for at our kindergarten since 1948. The Centre is an incorporated organisation and managed by a Committee of parents, elected at the Annual General Meeting in February each year. Thus it is run by the community and for the community. All profits and moneys raised go back into the kindergarten to further upgrade and replenish resources and facilities. Parents are encouraged and welcome to contribute formally through the volunteer Management Committee, and informally as participants in our daily educational program.

Our Facilities:

Our facilities are well maintained and of excellent quality. We are very proud of our playground which is not only practical and conducive to high quality play but is also a ‘feast for the eyes’ – a sensory rich and aesthetically pleasing environment for children and educators to engage in play together. Our indoor areas are spacious and welcoming and have been recently renovated, giving us a wide open expanse for children to play and learn in a safe, supportive environment. As we have been developing and upgrading our resources for over 60 years we are an exceptionally well resourced centre.

Our Educational Program:

Our core mission is to provide the best possible foundation for a lifelong love of learning, of wellbeing and making a positive contribution to the world. We recognise that early childhood is the time where foundations are laid for future health, learning and wellbeing, however we also believe that childhood is a unique time of life to be valued and enjoyed, in its own right. We strive to provide a supportive, joyous and nurturing environment for the children and families of our kindergarten, one where they feel they truly belong. Our educational, play based program is based on current best practice in early childhood, underpinned by the Early Years Learning Framework, which emphasises the importance of belonging, being and becoming and the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines. We believe that children are naturally eager and curious to learn. They are confident in the most part about their own abilities, and have the ability to remain focused when motivation and interest are high. We believe that children are capable of making their own choices about learning and that experiences should be rich and personally meaningful for them. The process of learning is what is important, not the product and children learn best through engaging in purposeful, focused play that is relevant to them.

Our Staff:

We are in the enviable position at Alderley Kindergarten of retaining excellent staff for many years. Each of the Kindergarten’s two rooms are run by a tertiary qualified early childhood teacher and a qualified assistant who regularly attend professional development programs to further develop and extend their skills. Children enjoy the stability of the same teachers and the same group of children to interact with during their time at the Centre.

Extended Hours Care:

The Alderley Kindergarten After Hours Care Program (AHC) was established in 2008 to address a growing need for care after our sessional program. Many parents who work or study find it difficult to collect their children by 2.30pm. Some families simply cannot access sessional programs like ours because they are unable to accommodate the early finish time. In 2015 Alderley Kindergarten introduced Before Hours Care (BHC) to support the growing need to access care before our sessional programming begins. Our OHC Program provides more flexibility for parents to manage their work and other family commitments. The OHC program runs from 7:30am to 8:30am, and then from 2.30pm to 6.00pm. From 2019, After Hours Care will operate from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. From 2012 Alderley Kindergarten has offered a Vacation Care program available to all pre-Prep children enrolled at the Centre and any prep aged siblings who had been enrolled the previous year. The Vacation Care program, managed by our After Hours Care staff, is available for every week day of the school holidays until the end of Term 4.