Committee Newsletter - August 2010

By Liz | August 31, 2010

Quiz night and silent auction

Wow, what a success the quiz night was! Everyone really got into the spirit of the evening, with all manner of table themes and costumes (including pirates, pyjama party, Mexicans, Irish, mad scientists and even a whoopee cushion!). The feedback from the event has been great, and some teams are already hatching plans for next year’s quiz… Not only was it a fun event for the kindy community, but the evening raised over $6000 for the kindergarten!!! This will be used to purchase new playground equipment. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the event. 140 items or vouchers were donated for the live and silent auctions by businesses both local and further afield.  A list of the sponsors who contributed to the evening is provided over the page. We were also impressed with the number of scratchy tickets and luxury food items and wines donated by kindy families for the raffle. This meant that we didn’t have to buy prizes for the raffle. Thank you. And many thanks to the people who helped make this event a reality. In particular, Kirsty Hewitt, who did a wonderful job of organising everything, along with the Committee. Thanks also to others who donated their time to help set up before the event and clean up after it.

Grant success
The committee and teachers are very excited to announce that we have been successful in our application to the ASB Community Trust for funds to purchase and install a Bure in the playground. The ASB has granted $9200 for this purpose! The Bure (a hut-type structure with a thatched roof), will provide shelter for the children and will connect in with existing and proposed playground equipment such as climbing frames and rock walls.

Teachers’ update
The children are very enthusiastic about this term’s “space” theme. They are showing such creativity in making their own space related toys and are developing their literacy and numeracy skills during mat time games and other activities. Good progress is being made towards the new all-day structure being implemented in Term 4. The teachers are excited by the changes, and are currently interviewing candidates for the additional teaching post that will be needed. 

Newsletter sponsorship
The committee is looking to include some advertising within the newsletter to help pay for its production and provide further funds for the kindy. The advertising itself is likely to be in the form of business-card sized advertisements on the rear page of the newsletter, for a small annual fee. If you or anyone you know would like to advertise to our kindy community (circulation of around 80 families, 11 issues per year), please contact Anna, Kirsty or Angela. Also, if anyone has any contacts with a printer who could assist with printing a newsletter template, please contact the above.

Projects, Events, and Fundraising
With the funds raised through the quiz night, parents donations, previous community events and the ASB grant, we are moving along with our big upgrade to the playground. New boxes to replace the old rotted ones were delivered last week and, dependent on contractor availability and Council consent requirements, it is hoped the Bure and some other exciting new equipment will be installed prior to Term 4 adding to the balance challenge purchased at the start of the year. The playground overhaul will cost over $20,000 and many hard hours of fundraising have gone into it, so it is very exciting to be able to see it begin to take shape!

Native tree grotto
Thanks to those families who have donated plants for this area. The children enjoyed helping to plant them. More plants and a water feature will be purchased this week and planted during the working bee.

Secret Garden
Weed mat, shells and pavers were recently laid in this area (with help from the children), and further work will be undertaken during the working bee.

Thank you!!

Read the rest of this entry »

What Have We Been Up To In Term 3, 2010

By Annie | June 29, 2010

Well,there was a rumour going around, that exciting things were going to be happening in space over the next few months. We asked the children if they were interested in finding out about Space…

The children were quick to share what they knew and before long, we were rocketing into Space discovery! In discussion with the children, we decided to start with the Solar System. Our wonderful families joined us on the journey by visiting the library, looking on the net and encouraging fantastic works of art that were brought to kindergarten to share.

We were surprised at how the children began to make their own toys at the making table. We had Jedi knights, storm troopers and a Darth Vader, astronauts in modules zipping around planets, aliens and astronauts partying in space and a range of space travel vehicles.

This particular group are very interested in literacy. We have been supporting this by introducing word recognition games, matching games, fact books, mapping out coordinates, labelling their planet pictures and providing prompts to aid their learning.

The children have enjoyed the provocations that we have been providing, like the dark space room, lunar landscapes, a rocket facade that the children could enter into the Wobbly planet.

We have been amazed at how the children can read the names of the planets and place them in the correct position in the solar system. This game is available to the children during the session and this is when we see them directing their own learning and peer mentoring. We even mix things up to challenge them but still, they seem to know and are quick to correct us.

We will be winding up this project with a visit to the Stardome. I hope they are ready for our very knowledgable children!

Waiting List Protocol

By Anna | April 26, 2010

Our current entry age is 3 years 7 months.  This can change as children leave kindergarten to attend school.  Please check regularly to see if there is any change to this.

Due to our very large waiting list at Torbay Kindergarten, we have had to put in place a “priority” and fair way of implementing it.

*  Children who are turning the entry age and have been on the waiting list the longest will be offered a place first.

*  Children you have transferred to the district and have been attending kindergarten already and are of the correct age will get priority.

*  Please note that we are not taking children directly into our morning session as this pushes up our entry age even further.

We are always working a fair system.  Please be patient and we will contact you as soon as you are next on the list.  We are sorry for any inconvenience but we cannot change the demographics of our community.