Preschool

Rona Glynn Preschool is part of Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School. The teach­ers have and main­tain strong con­nec­tions with pri­ma­ry school staff and meet reg­u­lar­ly with Ear­ly Child­hood teach­ers from across the school,​town and​region. Rona Glynn Preschool is a place to learn through play: to explore, to inter­act, to dis­cov­er and to grow in a safe and healthy envi­ron­ment. Learn­ing takes place in our var­ied and rich indoor and out­door learn­ing spaces. Our exten­sive nat­ur­al play­ground allows chil­dren to fol­low their inter­ests and learn through touch­ing, feel­ing and risk tak­ing in the environment. 

Play allows chil­dren to explore, dis­cov­er, nego­ti­ate, take risks, cre­ate mean­ing and solve prob­lems – all the impor­tant foun­da­tions for devel­op­ing lit­er­a­cy, numer­a­cy and social-emo­­tion­al intel­li­gence. Play is a com­plex form of nat­ur­al enquiry. Through play we want our chil­dren to learn the skills of being a learn­er, to take risks, try new things and learn to bounce back after fail­ure or dis­ap­point­ment. All of this learn­ing takes place along­side peers and con­tributes to devel­op­ing a child’s social and emo­tion­al intel­li­gence and wellbeing. 

The Rona Glynn Preschool phi­los­o­phy is based around under­stand­ing and nour­ish­ing the whole child and an under­stand­ing that chil­dren are not iso­lat­ed indi­vid­u­als but belong with­in their fam­i­ly and their com­mu­ni­ty. Our phi­los­o­phy reflects the cen­tral idea of the Ear­ly Years Learn­ing Frame­work that children’s lives are char­ac­terised by Belong­ing (to fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty & cul­ture) Being (tak­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in the here and now and learn­ing and grow­ing through expe­ri­ence) and Becom­ing (form­ing their iden­ti­ties and who they will be). 

Ses­sion times

Mon­day / Tues­day (Bilbies/​Aherte group)

Hours of atten­dance are:

Mon­day 8am — 3:30pm

Tues­day 8am — 3:30pm

Wednes­day / Thurs­day / Fri­day (Echidnas/​Inarlenge group)

Hours of atten­dance are:

Wednes­day 8.30am – 2.45pm

Thurs­day 8.30am – 2.45pm

Fri­day 8.30am – 11am 

Where pos­si­ble, fam­i­lies are offered a choice of group for their child. Par­ents are asked to con­tribute $280 per year which can be paid to the preschool or through the school (see Par­ent Con­tri­bu­tion for bank details).

Rona Glynn Preschool is named after Rona Ellen Glynn, the first indige­nous teacher in Aus­tralia. Rona taught at the Hart­ley Street School in Alice Springs from 1952 – 1954. Lat­er in life Rona became a mid­wife and returned to Alice Springs, deliv­er­ing more than 2000 babies in the Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal. In 1965, short­ly after her death, Rona Glynn Preschool was opened and named in her honour.

Belong­ing, Being, Becoming

The learn­ing pro­gram at Rona Glynn Preschool is designed using the Ear­ly Years Learn­ing Frame­work (EYLF). This is Australia’s first nation­al Ear­ly Years Frame­work and was devel­oped to assist edu­ca­tors to pro­vide young chil­dren with oppor­tu­ni­ties to max­imise their poten­tial and devel­op a foun­da­tion for future suc­cess in learn­ing. It has a spe­cif­ic empha­sis on play-based learn­ing and recog­nis­es the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and lan­guage (includ­ing ear­ly lit­er­a­cy and numer­a­cy) and social and emo­tion­al devel­op­ment.

Fun­da­men­tal to the Frame­work is a view of children’s lives as char­ac­terised by belong­ing, being and becom­ing.

Belong­ing is the basis for liv­ing a ful­fill­ing life. Chil­dren feel they belong because of the rela­tion­ships they have with their fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, cul­ture and place.

Being is about liv­ing here and now. Child­hood is a spe­cial time in life and chil­dren need time just to​‘be’ – time to play, try new things and have fun.

Becom­ing is about the learn­ing and devel­op­ment that young chil­dren expe­ri­ence. Chil­dren start to form their iden­ti­ty from an ear­ly age, which shapes the type of adult they will become.

The Frame­work puts children’s learn­ing at the core and com­pris­es three inter-relat­ed ele­ments: Prin­ci­ples, Prac­tice and Learn­ing Outcomes.

The pol­i­cy out­lines the enrol­ment prac­tice for accept­ing enrol­ments at the preschool and how the process is imple­ment­ed. It takes into account changes intro­duced under the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive Uni­ver­sal Access;

NT Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing (DET) Preschool Guidelines;

A child is eli­gi­ble to begin preschool from the start of the school year if:

· s/​he is already 4 years old; or

· her/​his 4^th birth­day is on or before 30^th June of that year.

In the event of there being vacan­cies lat­er in the year, chil­dren may be accept­ed to begin from the date of their 4^th birth­day of that year and would con­tin­ue preschool for the whole of the fol­low­ing year.

Enrol­ment Capacity

Rona Glynn has capac­i­ty for a max­i­mum of 62 stu­dents, spread across 2 groups.

Pri­or­i­ty Enrol­ment Criteria

When the num­ber of stu­dents on the wait­ing list exceeds the Preschool’s capac­i­ty, the fol­low­ing cri­te­ria are used to deter­mine which stu­dents will be offered a place:

· if the child has a sib­ling attend­ing Ross Park School

· if the family’s home address is in our des­ig­nat­ed enrol­ment area (proof of res­i­dence may be required)

· age of the child i.e. old­er chil­dren on the wait­ing list have priority.

The final deci­sion about the offer­ing of posi­tions at Rona Glynn when the wait­ing list exceeds the num­ber of places rests with the Prin­ci­pal of Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School.

Enrol­ment Expres­sion of Inter­est List

Fam­i­lies with chil­dren turn­ing 4 should con­tact the preschool to place their child’s name on the pre­lim­i­nary Expres­sion of Inter­est list. While this gives the preschool an indi­ca­tion of chil­dren who are pos­si­ble enrol­ments, it is not a guar­an­tee of a place.

Enrol­ment Confirmation

Dur­ing term 3, fam­i­lies who have placed their name on the Expres­sion of Inter­est list and who meet the cri­te­ria will be con­tact­ed in writ­ing and offered a place for the fol­low­ing school year. Fam­i­lies need to com­plete the NT DET enrol­ment form in order to con­firm their acceptance.

Where there are too many chil­dren on the Expres­sion of Inter­est list, those fam­i­lies who do not meet the cri­te­ria will be noti­fied that they are not able to be enrolled and will be advised to con­tact oth­er preschools. These stu­dents may remain on the Expres­sion of inter­est list in case of a vacancy.

After Rona Glynn Preschool

Chil­dren who turn 4 years of age on or before June 30, 2022 will usu­al­ly com­plete one year of preschool and move into Tran­si­tion in 2023. In some cas­es, stu­dents will com­plete a sec­ond year of preschool. Deci­sions around this are made by the fam­i­ly with input from Preschool and school staff. 

Chil­dren who turn 4 after June 30, 2022 will con­tin­ue in preschool in 2023 and com­mence Tran­si­tion at the begin­ning of 2024.

The vast major­i­ty of stu­dents who com­plete Rona Glynn’s Preschool pro­gram con­tin­ue on to Ross Park’s Tran­si­tion program.

For a num­ber of years, the demand for enrol­ments has neces­si­tat­ed the imple­men­ta­tion of a Pri­or­i­ty Enrol­ment Pol­i­cy. This is due to Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School being at capac­i­ty for the class­room space avail­able. This pol­i­cy guar­an­tees entry to stu­dents liv­ing with­in our Pri­or­i­ty Enrol­ment Area and allows oth­ers to enrol, sub­ject to capac­i­ty, spe­cial cir­cum­stances and/​or School Coun­cil consideration.

As such, entry to Rona Glynn Preschool does not guar­an­tee enrol­ment in Ross Park’s Tran­si­tion program.

You are eli­gi­ble to enrol your child at Ross Park Pri­ma­ry when:

· Two forms of proof of res­i­den­cy with­in our Pri­or­i­ty Enrol­ment Area are pro­vid­ed or

· Your child’s sib­lings attend the school.

The prin­ci­pal, in con­sul­ta­tion with Ross Park Par­ent Coun­cil, has dis­cre­tion for enrol­ments out­side of these sit­u­a­tions, under the spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tions with­in the policy.

A map of Ross Park’s Pri­or­i­ty Enrol­ment Area is avail­able in the school office and on the web­site: https://​www​.ross​parkpri​ma​ry​.nt​.edu​.au/

If you have any ques­tions about this, please con­tact Suzi Burgess, Prin­ci­pal Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School to make an appointment.

Rona Glynn Preschool

2a McK­ay Street, Alice Springs NT 0870

PO Box 364, Alice Springs NT 0871

(08) 8952 1792

ronaglynn.​preschool@​ntschools.​net

Work­ing togeth­er with Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School