Welcome to fka Children’s Services Members eNewsletter for Term 3, 2021.

The theme of this term's eNewsletter is transitions, as it’s that time of year where we start setting up our processes to welcome new families in and transition families out for their journey to school. These times of change are even more impacted by uncertainty as we go through this pandemic together. Strong family connections can support the young people in our care and ease anxiety of families as they go through these significant changes.

The introduction of two years of funded kindergarten means welcoming families with younger children into our kindergarten programs. The transition from home to kindergarten is particularly important and builds the foundation for children’s academic, behavioural and social-emotional skills, as well as families’ relationships with their child’s educational institutions for years to come.

Each family’s response to transition is unique. Language factors – where the language spoken at home is different to the language of instruction – can create barriers to a successful transition. This makes it even more important to build and continuously strengthen the service to home connection. So, what can we do to make this happen? Valuing the child’s mother tongue and making it visible in the service through authentic family engagement goes a long way when seeking to create strong connections. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theoretical model, we understand the power in making connection between the two learning platforms of home and kindergarten, as child development is viewed as a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment. The systems are interrelated; the influence of one system on a child’s development depends on its relationship with the others.