programs

Surrey Hills Pre-school is one of the few Kinder's in the area that is able to walk to parkland to do a Bush Kinder program.

 Our Children walk with their educators into the kinder adjacent  South Surrey Parklands to: discover and explore free of commercial toys; learn respect for our environment; and gain knowledge of our country’s Indigenous heritage.    The children can get up close to local fauna and flora that isn't always possible within the preschool grounds.  

Pre-School Blue & Red Groups

(4 to 5-year old) 

On Wednesdays throughout Term 2&3 our Pre-school groups enjoy a weekly Bush Kinder Program. 

Kinder Yellow & Green Groups

(3 to 4 year old)

Throughout the year our Yellow & Green groups go on Bush Walks with their educators. The Bush Walks are less frequent and much shorter than the Full Bush Kinder program we facilitate for the Pre-School groups.  The Bush Walks are to begin familiarising the children with South Surrey Parklands and teaching to keep safe while in a Bush Kinder session. Our Bush Walk's not only ensure the children are ready for the full Bush Kinder Program, when they move up into our Pre-School program, they also benefit from the wonderful experiences nature has to offer.

Please refer to our Bush Kinder policies located on our policies page for further insight into this program.  

One of the privileges of working with children is helping to guide them through developing life skills.

Our educators believe one of these life skills is to help children recognize how their body gives them clues about how they are feeling emotionally.

And then to give them strategies to help them to be calm and peaceful.

Sessions of talking about tight and then loose and floppy muscles, breathing, stretching and imagery.

This year we have engaged with Hello Yoga for Kids, a Yoga teacher comes in weekly and runs yoga sessions for our Pre-School groups.

About Hello Yoga For Kids 

Through sun salutations, visualization, yoga poses, 

partner work, & fun games, our classes uncover many tools 

& techniques to achieve focus, empowerment, resilience, 

body awareness, & self-confidence. 

Kids will learn how to discover calm, energy, balance & strength, 

& learn to love themselves, better connect & communicate with 

those around them, and truly discover what it feels like to simply ‘be’.

By the end of our time together your child will have a yoga toolbox

full of postures, mindfulness, visualization, and breathing techniques 

that they can forever dip into and benefit from.

 At Surrey Hills Preschool, we aim to imbed the practice of acknowledgement and respect for Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, recognising them as the Traditional Owners and original custodians of this land, and recognise that the city of Bundoora and Surrey Hills preschool resides on Aboriginal land.
 

Each morning we invite the children to lead our Acknowledgment to Country.
“Here is the land
Here is the water
Here is the sky
Here are my friends
And here am I.
We would like to thank the Wurundjeri people for the land on which we learn and play.
Hands up, hands down, we are on Wurundjeri ground” 

Our Community, Committee and Educators are passionate about acknowledging Australian First Nations People; at committee meetings, AGM's, Parent Information nights and events we ensure we Acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of our land by Acknowledgement of Country.

We support our Educators to do Professional Development courses on Indigenous Perspectives and continuously look for ways to  further imbed in our educational program.

Acknowledgement Of Country on our website here

Art has a major role in the development of children.  Art activities provide opportunities in developing and refining gross and fine motor skills.  Art also aids the child’s social development.  As children are egocentric, they need opportunities to share, take turns and listen to each other, all which art provides.  A child can make a personal statement through art and it can also help them non-verbally express their emotions and feelings. For those that find communicating verbally challenging, art can provide that expressive side of them without the need to verbally communicate. 

Sustainability is front of mind in everything we do at our Kinder. We know we must lead by example for the children to learn everyday habits to help our planet and respect their environment.

We have a dedicated Sustainability Officer on our committee who assists the Educators to implement sustainable practices.

Some recent initiatives by the committee are 

•  Street Library
•  Collecting soft plastics to be recycled
•  Collecting bread ties to recycle 
•  2nd Hand Toy Auction 

In our everyday practice and program we practice what we preach and use sustainable practices such as

• Seesaw for instant images and videos of your childs day at kinder which builds to an online portfolio to track your childs progress throughout the year
• Email correspondence to parents
• Encouraging the donation of arts and craft items, dress ups etc for the use in our program
• Collect food scraps for the worm farm
•  Learn about water ways
• Learn about reusable resources and  limit paper use
• Have recycling bins readily available in the classroom
• Deadhead plants and discuss how this supports the growth of the plants 
• Discuss native vs invasive species of plants 
• Discuss the ecosystems and how these are dependent on many factors in the environment  
• Create play spaces for the children to explore the impact of our environmental footprint 
• Incursions on Native Species and how we can support them in the wild in the program
• Using water tank water in outdoor water play
• Turning off lights when we are outside
• Talking about Care for Country when we are at Bush Kinder

We take great pride in our Special Music Program for all groups. For both the three and four-year-old this takes the form of a specialist music teacher joining us in third term for weekly music sessions.  The children are divided into two smaller groups to provide more meaningful and appropriate lessons.  Our kindergarten places a large emphasis on music as part of the everyday program; listening skills are developed through music, and concepts such as pitch, tempo, and beat are taught. Singing is not just at music time. We regularly sing to children and use singing during transition times which supports smooth and more purposeful methods of moving the children from one part of the day to another