Enrolment

Enrolment information

Three-year-old kindergarten

Three-year-old kindergarten is available for children who turn three before 30 April each year, two years before they are eligible to commence primary school.

For children born between January and April, parents need to consider their child’s age when starting school and hence when they commence three-year-old and four-year-old kindergarten. Children attending a funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten program are not eligible to access a second year of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten, so you may want to consider deferring to the following year.

From 2022 every eligible three-year-old child in Hobsons Bay will have access to a minimum of 5 hours of funded three-year-old kindergarten. From 2023 to 2029, services must work towards offering 15 hours of funded three-year-old kindergarten.

To ensure a seamless and consistent process for families in Hobsons Bay, registrations and allocations for three-year-old kindergarten are undertaken by the Council’s Kindergarten Central Registration Scheme.

Information regarding the registration process will be continually updated on the Council’s webpage.

Registrations will be accepted from the age of 1 year old and onwards.

Four-year-old kindergarten

Four-year-old kindergarten is available for children who turn four before 30 April each year, in the year before they are eligible to commence primary school. All Victorian children are eligible for 15 hours per week (or 600 hours) of funded kindergarten in the year before they commence primary school.

Registrations will be accepted from the age of 2 years and onwards.

For children born between January and April, parents need to consider their child’s age when starting school and hence when they commence three-year-old and four-year-old kindergarten.

A second year of funded four-year-old kindergarten may only be considered when a child shows delays in at least 2 key areas of learning and development. The child will be assessed and may be eligible if the kindergarten program is deemed to be the most appropriate learning program and the child will achieve better outcomes at kindergarten than if they go to school. Read more here Does my child need a second year of kindergarten? | Victorian Government (www.vic.gov.au)

To ensure a seamless and consistent process for families in Hobsons Bay, registrations and allocations for four-year-old kindergarten are undertaken by the Council’s Kindergarten Central Registration Scheme.

Have you seen this logo?

We use the Kinder Tick because we’re an approved provider of a Victorian Government funded kindergarten program. That means our service delivers a play-based learning program, led by a qualified early childhood teacher.

The Kinder Tick shows we meet criteria in the funding guidelines set out by the Victorian Government — which means you can have confidence that your child’s learning and development will be supported by qualified early childhood teachers and educators through a responsive, evidence-based learning program.

At our service, we offer Three-Year-Old Kindergarten as well as kindergarten programs in the year before school.

Research from across the globe shows that two years of quality kindergarten programs improves a child’s learning outcomes.

Children who attend two years of kindergarten also show higher levels of emotional intelligence and wellbeing into their school years and beyond. 

By looking for the Kinder Tick, you can be certain your child will be taking part in a kinder program that will give them their best start in life.

To find out more, visit: vic.gov.au/kinder