Lady Gowrie Red Hill Community Kindergarten

Red Hill Kindergarten is a warm, caring environment with high quality early childhood education that has brought generations of families back to the centre since its beginnings in 1956. As a community kindergarten, Red Hill Kindergarten is a great way to engage your child in their local community.

Red Hill Kindergarten provides children with a high quality early education through a play based curriculum within excellent facilities. We offer a play based program in recognition of the importance of play in children’s lives. Our core educational goal relates to children following their own interests and building on their interest areas.

At Red Hill Kindergarten, an environment is created in which:

·      there is joint ownership of space and reciprocal decision-making

·      children can access materials, investigate how things work and explore puzzling questions

·      relationships of mutual respect and trust are established

·      children and adults collaborate to solve problems

·      children’s ideas and opinions count and we can find a solution that suits everyone

·      adults contribute knowledge from their own experience to enrich, challenge and extend children’s learning.

Kindergarten Program
The educational program which forms the foundation of the kindergarten is based on a set of goals which demonstrate an understanding that children grow, develop and learn at different rates and thus, promotes children’s development and skills at their own pace.  Observation of the children and assessment of their individual needs and interests form the starting point for program planning.  Within this framework, each child’s self-esteem, self-reliance and competence are nurtured and developed through a variety of developmentally appropriate activities.

The program provides experiences that foster physical, social, emotional, intellectual, expressive and receptive language development.

A balanced daily routine includes:

·      indoor and outdoor learning;

·      quiet and active times;

·      individual, small and large group activities;

·      child-initiated and adult-initiated experiences;

·      care routines and transition times;

·      planned experiences and

·      spontaneous experiences.

This entire program is always flexible and responsive to children’s present abilities, interests and emerging skills. Children are cared for in an environment which is warm, secure and stimulating, allowing and encouraging them to explore and discover for themselves. This exploration is guided by teachers and educators to facilitate discovery, while the child is encouraged to be independent and enquiring.

We implement the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline as our curriculum framework. The Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline complements the national Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) while meeting all the requirements under the National Quality Framework. The EYLF has a strong emphasis on play-based learning as play is the best vehicle for young children’s learning. Throughout the Kindergarten year, children’s right to experience the joy of childhood is fundamental and learning is promoted through play.