School Readiness Program

In recognition of the importance of Cultural Inclusion in responding to and celebrating the diverse needs of the Victorian Community fka Children’s Services (fkaCS) is privileged to be included on the menu of evidence as part of the Victorian Governments School Readiness initiative.

>  View the School Readiness Funding Menu of Evidence

>  Planning for School Readiness Funding

Support Available

Our new School Readiness Program of support sits alongside the Victorian Kindergarten Cultural Inclusion Program and affords us the opportunity to work alongside Kindergartens to design a program of work that will support their needs and those of the children and families in their community.

fkaCS offers a holistic program of support that covers:

• WHY it is important to think about cultural inclusion (including the relationship to the VEYLDF);
• WHAT needs to happen to provide and demonstrate culturally inclusive practice; and
• HOW to implement changes in practice, reduce barriers to participation and celebrate our diverse community.

We work with kindergartens to apply critical reflection and thinking to practice at:

• Service level (e.g. policies); to ensure inclusion and equity.
• Curriculum level; to ensure each child is supported to actively participate in the program, exercise agency and develop confidence as learners - strong in their identity, wellbeing and connectedness to community - and is supported to learn English as an additional language.
• Relationship level; with families and children to ensure respectful, responsive and trusting relationships to support a sense of belonging.
• Personal level; to explore their own world view and enhance positive attitudes to differences.

Packages & Costings

fkaCS appreciate timelines are short for kindergartens submitting Annual Plans for 2019, so a series of Cultural Inclusion Support Packages have been designed. These are priced at $250 per hour and typically packaged into:

• 5 hours: $1,250
• 10 hours: $2,500
• 15 hours: $3,750
• 20 hours: $5,000

We recommend that Kindergartens consider the number of hours they wish to commit to Cultural Inclusion to include in the Ready for School Annual Plan and touch base with fkaCS early in the new year to determine the best way to utilise these hours and design the right support to meet your needs.

Customised packages typically include a combination of the following activities and/or support based on the needs of your Kindergarten community:

• Cultural Inclusion action planning based on the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle
• Professional Learning
• Onsite pedagogy and practice support and coaching
• Review of policies and procedures
• Online training (currently in development)
• Home language onsite visits (previously known as Bilingual support)
• Facilitating connections to local solutions and community
• Bilingual resource consultancy
• Access to the fkaCS Multicultural Resource Centre

There are no travel costs associated with our program of support, and in most cases support is provided on site at your service. For more information please refer to our flyer of offerings.

For those services who have already included Cultural Inclusion Support in their Ready for School Annual Plan, please contact fkaCS so we can plan resources and ensure our support is timely and available when you need it.