About our programs

At Little St Margaret's, the children are offered a daily routine that provides them with a sense of security.  Each day involves planned indoor and outdoor learning, group times to facilitate intentional teaching, and communal mealtimes. Due to the needs, interests and personalities of the particular group of children, the amount of time spent in each of these aspects of the program can differ. Flexibility and extended periods of uninterrupted play are imperative to children’s continuity of learning. Each group has their own physical learning environment, so experiences and projects can be left overnight and revisited the following day. Our educational programs are recognised as being among the best in Australia. 

3-year-old program

We offer two options for our 3-year-old kindergarten program:

• Blue Group is two full days from 9am – 3pm (Tuesday and Thursday)

• Green Group is two half days from 9am – 12pm (Monday and Friday) and one full day from 9am–3pm (Wednesday).

The same curriculum and activities are applied across both groups.

An extended care program is also available Monday to Thursday, providing care until 6.00 pm, and 8.30 am drop-off is available every day. Read more about our Extended Care Program below. Our 3 year-old program offers:

• Intimate learning environment in a beautiful historic building

• Uniquely small class sizes

• Individual needs for rest catered for on long days

• Flexibility of attendance. Parents can choose to increase their child’s attendance by utilising our extended care program

• Weekly specialist music class

• Frequent incursions (special visitors within the program). Some examples include magician, drama, animals, dietician, dentist, sustainability, artist and many more

• Comprehensive transition to 4 year-old kindergarten

• Parents kept well informed, occurring through informal chats at the end of each session and written program reflections.

4 year-old Program

Our 4 year-old kindergarten program is also split across two classes (Red Group and Yellow Group) to ensure we maintain uniquely small class sizes and a specialist level of care. The program runs every day of the week, with the following schedule applying to both the Red and Yellow groups:

• Monday, 9am – 12pm (half day)

• Tuesday, 9am – 3pm (full day)

• Wednesday, 9am – 12pm (half day)

• Thursday, 9am – 3pm (full day)

• Friday, 9am – 12pm (half day).

An extended care program is also available Monday to Thursday, providing care until 6.00 pm, and 8.30 am drop-off is available every day. Read more about our Extended Care Program below.

Our 4 year-old program offers:

• Intimate learning environment in a beautiful historic building

• Uniquely small class sizes

• Opportunity for weekly interaction and play with the entire cohort of 4 year-olds to help with their social and emotional development for school readiness

• Weekly Specialist Programs including music with a specialist teacher, Library, Premier’s Pre-school Reading Challenge, and park programs

• Letterland Literacy program (26 weeks)

• School Readiness and Transition programs, including detailed written Transition Learning and Development Statements at the end of the year

• Parents are well informed through written learning reflections and parent-teacher interviews

• Excursions, such as Chesterfield Farm, Kew Traffic School, Scienceworks, Fire Station, Library and many more

• Flexibility of attendance. Parents can choose to increase their child’s attendance by utilising our extended care program

• Specialist visitors, such as emergency services, Responsible Pet program, dietician, dentist, sustainability, artist and many more.

Extended Care

Extended care offers busy families flexibility Our formal kindergarten program commences at 9:00am however children may be dropped off in the morning anytime from 8:30am at no additional charge.

Afternoon extended hours are until to 6:00pm from Monday to Thursday and until 5pm on a Friday. Extended care is not an extension of the kindergarten program but an additional service at an additional cost.

Our Activity Group Leader plans and implements the extended care program. The program is designed to encourage children to think creatively, explore, investigate, problem solve and share their learning with others in a rich nurturing environment. The children are given time for snacks and are provided with quiet areas where they can relax and read.

Find out how to enrol your child at Little St Margaret’s.