Our Program and Approach
KU Children’s Services has been contracted by The Smith Family to deliver the Steps to Starting School project in the Tea Gardens and Tanilba Bay region as part of the Communities for Children initiative funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.
Steps to Starting School is a targeted program designed to give your child the skills they need to engage effectively with their school environment once they commence kindergarten.
The program is designed to be delivered to children aged 3 to 5 years, in a supportive, non-judgmental environment where you and your child will receive one-on-one support. Numbers are capped so please contact us for information.
KU strongly values the importance of play-based programs. Play-based programs incorporate choice for children, while enabling them to experience many of the organisational elements that are important at school. These include what happens in a day and understanding the time frame, patterns of interaction with adults and with children, expectations and knowing what other children, parents and educators expect, independence, making judgements about their needs and responses, choosing experiences, planning how to approach tasks and developing problem solving skills to complete tasks confidently.
The learning that occurs in play-based environments is often informal, gained as children interact, explore and try out different ways of doing things. Through the Steps to Starting School program, your child will also be encouraged to develop skills in an intentional learning environment, where a range of specialised tasks and activities will be delivered by our staff.
While genes provide the initial map for development, it is the experiences and relationships babies and children have every day that literally shape their brains. Families have an extremely important ongoing influence on children’s development. The community and service environments in which children and families interact also play a key role in supporting optimal development.
