A jolly good time before Kinder

 Starting Kindergarten used to mean buying shiny black shoes in the last week of January and holding mum’s hand as you walked through the school gate.

But in recent years public schools have established extensive transition to school programs in the year before formal schooling begins that aim to make children comfortable with the classroom and the routines expected of them for learning.

Mudgee Public School last year added two new activities on top of its Mudgee Beginners program – a Jolly Kids free preschool targeting children for early intervention and a Jolly Gym program to develop gross motor skills.

Assistant principal Ros Rogers said the new programs had brought more children into the school and resulted in an easier transition to Kindergarten for the students – and their parents.

“The children start school knowing what they’re going to be doing and they feel very happy here,” she said.

The teachers get to know the children by name and can assess their abilities.

It also helps determine if children need extra assistance in Kindergarten or if resources, such as teachers aides, will be required.

The two programs were established after teachers noticed a number of children were starting Kindergarten without preschool or childcare experience and lacked school readiness skills, like how to use scissors or count simple numbers.

They approached the principal, Mark Young, with their concerns and together they began exploring strategies to improve the school readiness of all children.

“We started with the key issues which needed addressing and then looked at the outcomes we wanted to achieve and went from there,” Mr Young said.

“Finally we hit the nail on the head – Jolly Kids and Jolly Gym were about to begin.” Jolly Kids runs for two hours a week from Term 2 and is staffed by a preschool-trained teacher and a teachers aide.

Jolly Gym, which also runs from Term 2, was suggested by a teacher on maternity leave who saw the benefits of working on gross motor skills to help students learn.

The school extensively advertised Jolly Gym as a community activity and invited families along, regardless of whether the children would be attending the school the following year.

For two mornings a week there is a program of hands-on activities, such as ball skills, crawling through tunnels or on climbing equipment.

Parents are offered tours of the school while the children hop, skip, jump and balance.

“We’re a very parent-friendly school but if they are new parents they may not have any idea about the school,” Mrs Rogers said.

The existing program, Mudgee Beginners, involves children coming to school for 90 minutes a week for seven weeks in Term 4.

A teacher who is likely to teach Kindergarten the following year runs the sessions, which are structured as a mix of play activities, an introduction to school routines, language and numeracy.

Last year there were 60 children in the program and most enrolled to start school at Mudgee Public.

A highlight is the end of term concert by the pre-Kindy students in front of their parents and school staff.

Mr Young said the school was careful not to duplicate existing programs in the town and communicated closely with preschools and other agencies to gain their support and assistance.

“Jolly Kids and Jolly Gym, I believe, are best practice in terms of school readiness strategies,” he said.

“It was the strength of the collaborative process that allowed us to come up with these programs.”