Is free Kinder actually free?

[Hedgehogbrown]

We are looking for a spot at Kinder for our 3 year old. We only think he needs a couple of half days up until lunch time, as that what sessional Kinder supposedly is, and he is 3! He doesn't need to be there all day. All the Kinder's near us are long day cares, so they only enroll for two full days. That's not funded is it? They say we can pick him up whenever but the rest of the day we would still need to pay for. I don't get it. I think we'll just have to wait until he is 4 because I don't even think this obsession in Australia with institutionalizing children from a young age is healthy.

Hi OP,

My DS is 9 now so I'm going back a few years! At the time 3 & 4 y/o kinder was free in Victoria. I didn't bother with 3 y/o kinder. I was home most of the time and I'd heard from other local Mums that it wasn't worth the bother.

He went to 4 y/o kinder. It was a kindergarten attached to the local primary school. (Not local to us- we live rural so it was the next town) and yes it was free.

I'm not sure but I'd guess that "free" kinder doesn't cover day care centres. Only 'registered' kindergartens.

I agree that they don't need it so young. But I thought since he'd being going to primary school the following year it'd be worth getting him somewhat used to some structure & routine.

Mind you, this was in covid times and he'd been stuck at home since age 2.5. So I figured a bit of socialising with kids his own age would be a good thing.

HTH X

Thanks for the response. Yes sessional is a bit thin on the ground near me. It's all long day care, which we don't need or want to pay for.

I’m a bit confused. Doesn’t help that my experience of this was a few decades ago and things may well have changed (hopefully).

My experience was NSW and then there was kindergarten (called preschool in NSW as Kindergarten is the first formal year of school here at 5/6yo). They took kids from 3yo BUT I don’t recall anything ‘sessional’. If they were not preschools within a long daycare centre they ran 9am-3pm just like school and the kids were expected to do that as it’s meant to be preparing them for school. The preschools within the long daycare centre cares ran 9am-3pm with the preschool program but then took care of the kids otherwise outside these hours if parents were working and needed the longer care. It’s only 6 hours and taking kids in/out during would be disruptive all round, no? Obviously not talking about kids with SEN who need modified programs and approaches.

We had ‘free’ kinder but it was restricted really as I only knew of it either in disadvantaged areas, or otherwise the facilities offering free had a priority list where vulnerable kids were too and they filled up quickly so essentially if not vulnerable you couldn’t get a spot and had to go to one you paid for. That was then in NSW, not sure if the same now or what our other States/Territories do for this age group.