Australian Kindy

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Hi all, just passed our visa medicals for Australia so looks like all systems go for the move! When we move we’ll have dd1 aged 3.5-4.5 and dd2 1.5-2.5

Can anyone tell me about kindy? What age do they start/how often do they go/are they usually attached to a school/how much do they cost? Are they like nurseries here or more school-like?

Thanks all!

Here in Perth they start kindy at 3/4 depending when their birthday is. The cutoff is the 30th of June so any kids that are 4 from the 1st of July to the 30 th of june will start that February. They are usually 2 days one week and 3 days the next. They are school hours and play based learning. The kindys can be attached to the school or can be community kindys. The school ones in the public schools are zoned the community kindys aren't. Some of the private schools do more days.

If your daughter is 4.5 she is more likely to be in Preprimay then kindy depending on her birthday. That is full time school.

Kindy is different in every state.

What state are you moving to? Most kids go to long day care until school age in NSW. There is a preschool program, but it's not publicly funded, so not everyone attends any form of early childhood education before school. The preschools tend to run 9-3 two or three days a week.

In NSW, first year of school is called kindergarten. Very confusing!

They start in Kindy at age 5. Some go to pre-Kindy from 4. There is an organisation called 'Ku' and I believe they are the biggest and funded by the government, but that might just be NSW.

Depends on the state, I’m in NSW, the year begins at the end of January, they need to have turned 5 by 30 June of the starting year

Need to know what state, as the definition of 'kindy' differs from state to state. In Queensland kindy is the year pre-school and kindies are either attached to schools or privately run. In Queensland the first year of formal schooling is called Prep.

In Victoria there is 3 year kindy and 4 year kindy. The first year of school is Prep. You can do kindy through daycare or privately. The hours vary. My girls will be doing 2 full days of 4 year kindy (there is also the option of 3 half days at their kindergarten. It can be hard to get into some kindergardens and where I live places have already been allotted for next year.