EYLF in WA

[cathiek]

Hi everyone
I was wondering if you could help me with something I heard today. I was told, not officially, that it is possible that the EYLF might not be introduced into WA (which is where I am) because Kindys in WA are different to the rest of Australia. (In WA Kindys are attached to schools and are part of the Education system) Kindy in WA is for 4 year olds - not 5 yo like in other states.
Has anyone else heard this? I thought it was a national framework.
I really hope this is just misinformation but was wondering if anyone knew, or could point me in the right direction to find out.
Cheers
Cathiek

[Lorina]

Hey CathieK,

I didn't know that the early childhood system was different over there in W.A. I actually did some research on it today and from what I understand children begin Kindergarten at 4 years old and Pre-primary at 5 years old... I think Kindergarten is similar to preschools we have here in NSW but it's attached to a school. I rather like this idea because a child can get use to where the school is and I think the transition to school is alot more effective. In regards to EYLF like you mentioned it is a "National Framework" so I'm pretty sure that you would also have to implement it. Even if you are using a different schooling curriculum I think that you would need to still link it to the EYLF. For e.g. adding learning outcomes to activities and experiences, justifying where activities came from (using input keys such as family, child, teacher initiated etc) and you could also display a curriculum plan. I did have a look at the Department of Early Childhood for W.A and on the resources link it does have information about the EYLF so I assume that you will probably need to implement it.

If you have any doubts you could probably try calling the Department of Early Childhood over there to clarify things.

Hopefully this helps and let me know if you find out anymore information,

Cheers ,
L.A

[cathiek]

Thanks LA - I appreciate your looking in to this. Yep - Kindy is at 4 and Pre-Primary at 5 & it does help with transition having the Kindy attached to a school. When my son did Kindy it was a very smooth transition to PP as it was literally the class next door and he had time in there over the Kindy year to get him used to it. It just seems that in relation to EYLF that WA are dragging their heels a bit, maybe because we are a bit different to the other states.
Wouldn't it be nice if it was the same right across the country (or is that just a pipe dream) LOL.
Cheers