Overview
Your communications with families will need to be tailored to suit your service’s individual circumstances. Keep families in your community informed about:
- how many hours of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten are available
- when Pre-Prep will be delivered at your service
- any changes that will be made to the way programs are delivered, and
- the benefits of 2 years of quality play-based learning for children in the years before school.
What to talk to families about when explaining Pre-Prep
Engaging with families about Pre-Prep
Some families may need you to explain what terms like Pre-Prep or play-based learning mean, even if they have engaged with kindergarten previously. You can emphasise that programs will continue to offer play-based learning, and that many years of research show this is the best way for children to learn and grow in the early years.
You can also give parents and carers information about any different approaches to your programs that you are implementing. This will give you the opportunity to also explain how quality play-based learning will continue to be the basis for their child’s experience at your service. Having open conversations will help address any misconceptions or concerns families may have.
The Your guide to information sheets have tips on how you can communicate different program models to assist these conversations.
Consider inviting families to ask questions and provide feedback. For example, you could hold information sessions, distribute surveys or even set up a suggestions box to allow people to provide anonymous feedback too.
Connect with your local Maternal Child and Health (MCH) service, playgroups, primary schools, and allied health providers. It may be helpful to get in touch each year of the reforms to relay what your service is offering so you can be sure families are receiving updated information.
Engaging with cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) families
There are resources for services to communicate with CALD families about kindergarten and its benefits, including translated materials (see Resources below). From 2025, the department will fund 25 local councils to employ CALD outreach workers, who address barriers to kindergarten access and participation for families and children from CALD backgrounds.
To help inform families from CALD backgrounds about the changes at your service and provide opportunities to provide feedback, you can offer and promote the free telephone, video and on-site interpreting services, which are available to all department-funded kindergarten services.
Resources
- Communicating about kindergarten to your community, including information about Free Kinder
- Kindergarten quick guide for parents
- Supporting CALD families to engage in kindergarten, including in-language videos
- Use an interpreter in early childhood education services
- CALD Outreach Initiative
- Information about kinder in your language - families can choose from written, audio or visual materials to learn about kindergarten programs in Victoria.
You can also order materials from the Victorian Kindergarten Portal free of charge to promote your kindergarten program to your community.
Promoting Pre-Prep to priority cohort families
Children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds and from families who have had contact with Child Protection services are eligible for Early Start Kindergarten (ESK), which provides eligible 3-year-old children with access to 15 hours of kindergarten.
If you have ESK enrolments at your service, and families from priority cohorts in your community, talk to them about Pre-Prep and their eligibility for it at the start of 2026.
Resources
- Early Start Kindergarten
- Early childhood education programs supporting Aboriginal children, which has information about programs and services for Aboriginal children and their families. This includes the Koorie Kids Shine and the bupup balak wayipungang initiatives (previously Koorie Preschool Assistants initiative)
- Koorie education coordinators, who provide information about Koorie cultural inclusion, education guidance and support
- VAEAI Koorie Early Years: Best Practice and protocols – A Practitioner’s Guide (PDF, 11.6MB), which has information about providing a welcoming environment for Koorie communities at your service.
- Foundation House Early Years Program, which includes an information sheet about identifying children and families of refugee backgrounds.
- LOOKOUT Early Childhood Learning Advisors (ECLAs), who facilitate and monitor the participation of children in out-of-home care in 2 years of high-quality kindergarten
- Access to Early Learning, which aims to increase participation in kindergarten for children experiencing vulnerability, and also helps children from families with complex needs to engage in a quality kindergarten program.
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