Image 1: Graduating class of Prep-Ready Kids 2022. BACK ROW L-R Victoria Park State School representatives Kristi Elworthy, Riley Cousen, Katusha Lee, Logan Beale, Courtney Edwards. FRONT ROW L-R Led Francis Contreras, Precious Anderson, Jacob Mateo, Fatima Lopez, Gabriel Zarate, Patrick Buchanan, Isaac Soriano, Aviitausili Howman, Ela Maglente (Program Coordinator)
Image 2: A separate celebration was held for Andra Novri (son) and Indriani Indriani (mum). Photos supplied
Excited Prep-Ready Kids and their families celebrated their graduation last Monday, November 28, having completed the Prep-Ready Kids Program delivered by The Neighbourhood Hub.
Prep-Ready Kids Program is for children aged 3.5 to 5 years old and aims to prepare them for primary school. It allows children to learn some of the basic skills they will build on as they enter primary school including numbers, letters, listening, comprehension, cooperation, socialising, experiments, physical literacy, excursions and more.
Celebrations on the day included a visit from Santa, celebratory games, and watching a photo compilation of the group’s achievements over the year.
Special guest, Kristi Elworthy, Head of Department for Curriculum from Victoria Park State School, gave an inspiring message to the graduating children and their families.
The graduating children received their framed certificates and medals from student representatives from Victoria Park State School.
Ela Maglente, Program Coordinator has worked with the children throughout 2022 and says the group took a completely different approach in the program this year.
“We focused on increasing the children’s independence and focusing more on activities that do not require direct parental engagement,” she said.
“We decided to run the sessions as if they were happening in the Prep classrooms at school.
“The children have excelled in the new setup.
“This new setup also allowed us an opportunity to provide activities which focused on parents such as fitness sessions, information sessions, workshops, and other activities which the parents thoroughly enjoyed and, in the process, found friendship and connections with one another.
Ms Maglente said the end of the year event is a special one that families look forward to.
“This year is a celebration of the children and parents’ hard work and resilience during this unprecedented time,” she said.
“It was wonderful to see the families come together and celebrate what has been a challenging yet fruitful year for the multicultural families.”
The Prep-Ready Kids Program is taking expressions of interest for their class of 2023 and the Neighbourhood Hub encourages anyone who is interested – either of Australian or multicultural background – to email elam@tnhub.org.au.
Prep-Ready Kids is delivered at 43 Shakespeare St, East Mackay every Monday (school term only) from 9:30 am to 11:30 am.
