Dramas at pre-school....

Well, after some long thinking and major stressing we decided to pull Isabella out of her 'new' kinder and send her back to her 'old' kinder (where she attended 3yo kinder). Some of the issues we were having at the new centre don't look like ever being resolved, and after much discussion with the teacher, the council, and hubby we decided it was in Isabella's best interest to change.

The main issue we had was that the centre is actually a day-care centre first and foremost, and they run a kindergarten program in the 3-5yo daycare room. I was of the understanding that they emptied the room of daycare children while they operated the kindergarten... but they don't. So, effectively the majority of the children there are all in daycare while the 'sessional' kinder children arrive at their set times and 'join in'. Even though they have a teacher for kinder who is different from their carer it just feels like the children who are already there don't know the distinction between being at daycare or being at kinder. So as you can imagine, most of them are quite comfortable in their surroundings as they spend all of their day there.

Us sessional families (being the children who ONLY go to kinder sessions and not daycare) actually feel like we are at a huge disadvantage and are quite the minority group. Out of Isabella's class there are something like 20 kids who are in daycare and only 8 sessional. That is a huge difference and we can really tell the difference. We feel like intruders into the group! And we shouldn't be made to feel that way for kindergarten for goodness sake.

There was also hardly any structure. While the council set out guidelines for kinder teachers saying that they want the learning to be more child directed rather than too many organised activites, we felt that our teacher's interpretation of this wasn't what we were after. In the 5 or 6 weeks of term 1 we didn't notice any marked change in the way kinder was run. There was no new activities or variety and the tables all had the same activities on them that the daycare have EVERY SINGLE DAY. They didn't do a group story time - as the excuse was there were too many hyperactive kids from being there all day and they had lost their concentration. So therefore my child misses out on reading time because of the other daycare children who won't sit still long enough. There are quite a few other issues that worried me... not having snack time as a group, eating whenever they wanted to for however long they wanted. It just didn't feel like they were preparing these children for school in any way.

So needless to say, I am kicking myself for not looking into this further in the first place. But us parents were not told of the setup with the day care children. They all just presumed we knew! As I said to them, how would we know if we don't ever use daycare. So there are a lot of issues they need to sort out before next year or they will have the same problem of families leaving the centre. Already, 5 children have pulled out and gone back to stand- alone kinders.

This setup is great for those people who use childcare.... but we don't. So as a parent who chooses not to use daycare we actually feel like we are at a disadvantage going to this centre. Going back to a stand-alone kinder will be the best thing as all the children are on the same level... they all arrive and leave together. Isabella went back today for the first time and was right at home. She caught up with a few friends from last year and settled in perfectly. It is a huge load off my mind as I was really stressing over this toward the end of last term. Now to kick back and really enjoy Isabella's last year home with mummy before heading off to school!