Dear families
MEYM would like to extend a warm welcome to our new families joining us in 2022 and welcome back to those returning for another year. We hope that you enjoyed the holiday break and that your child is ready for all the fun and learning experiences that our kindergartens will provide.
Children are settling in well to kindergarten and have enjoyed meeting the teachers and forming exciting new friendships, some of which will I am sure will continue on through school and beyond.
For some new families your child’s first year marks a significant milestone in your lives and starting kinder can be fun, exciting and challenging all at the same time. Our wonderful teaching staff will assist your child to settle in and our kinder programs will ensure that they build in confidence, learn and above all have lots of fun.
Please do not hesitate to make a time to speak with your child’s teacher if you have any queries. We encourage strong relationships and open communication between parents and teachers.
In addition, our administrative team at MEYM are always here to assist you.
From MEYM Management
It is wonderful to see everyone settling back into the routine of kindergarten at all of our six MEYM kindergarten services. While it has been a little tricky with the COVID overlay we are now starting to welcome back families into the kindergarten environments and while this will mostly be outdoors, we hope that it will not be too long until families can come back into the buildings.
Just a reminder that for everyone’s health and safety if you or your child is not well or displaying COVID like systems please get tested. If you need any more RATs please see the staff at your kindergarten service. Whilst we have a strict testing regime in place for staff testing we are anticipating that there will be occasions where we need to cancel sessions at short notice. This is not ideal however under the legislation we are required to ensure that child: staff ratios are met at all times children are being educated and cared for. Workforce issues with illness continue to be an issue across services so while we will always try our best to get relief staff or casual staff from our pool this may not always be successful. If we do have to cancel sessions at late notice we will contact you by email and text so please check communications prior to attending.
All staff are working to ensure that all children have an individual learning program where learning outcomes and learning and development is recorded. We encourage all families to engage with this process as we acknowledge that parents are children’s first teachers and you know your children best. If you have priorities or expectations about your child’s learning please speak with your child’s teacher. Our programs are all based on learning through play and we believe strongly that this is how all aspects of children’s learning and development can be achieved. We also acknowledge the importance of having meaningful and responsive relationships with children and families. If you have any questions or would like to know more about learning through play again please speak with your teachers. We would like to wish everyone a happy and safe rest of Term 1.
From MEYM Enrolment Officer
Medical Action Plans – Please ensure your kindergarten has an up-to-date Medical Action Plan for your child if required. These must have a recent photo of your child and be signed and stamped and dated by a doctor.
Medication – A medication record will be completed for any medication to be administered to your child during session. Any medication supplied to the centre must have your child’s name, dosage and be in date.
Term Fees – The invoice for every kindergarten program fee will be emailed to parents 4 weeks prior to the commencement of the term and payment is due 2 weeks prior to the commencement of term. Term 2 Fees will be invoiced on 28th March and are due by 11th April. Please ensure that there are sufficient funds in the nominated account at this time to avoid being charged the transaction fees for any rejected or declined payments.
If you have any queries regarding payment of your fees please email accounts@meym.org.au
Concession Cards – Upon expiry, please ensure that you provide us with an updated concession card to enrolments@meym.org.au
Immunisations – Please ensure that you provide us with an updated copy of your child’s Immunisation History Statement if your child has received updated vaccinations.
Enrolments – Registrations open from 1st March with Merri-bek Council. For children currently enrolled in our 3yo programs you will not need to register for the 4yo program for 2023 as Council will automatically transfer your registration into the 4yo kindergarten file providing you wish to attend the same kinder. All parents will be required to complete new MEYM enrolment documentation and this will be sent to you towards the end of the year.
For all enrolment queries please email the Enrolment Officer at enrolments@meym.org.au
Announcements
- MEYM has a website full of information on enrolments, timetables, policies, Handbook and our kindergartens. Please take a look www.meym.org.au
- We also have a Facebook page where we post about our kindergarten programs and what the children are up to. Please take a look and Like and Share our page Here
- Our Kindergarten Family Handbook is located on our website Here
Important Dates
Term Dates 2022
1 February – 8 April
26 April – 24 June
11 July – 16 September
3 October – 19 December
Staff PD Days (Kinder closed)
Friday 8 April
Monday 31 October
Community Fundraising Dates
Turner Street Bunnings BBQ
12 March
Oak Park Bunnings BBQ
19 March
Parent Fundraising Group 2022
Please ask your kindergarten about being part of the Parent Fundraising Group. As a parent you can contribute to supporting the kindergartens goals in working together to improve the educational experience and outcomes for children. It provides opportunities for parents to get to know each other and your child will love to see that you are involved!
Across our MEYM Kindergartens
Gowanbrae Children’s Centre
What a wonderful and warm beginning to the new kindergarten year at Gowanbrae Children’s Centre.
The children have now all settled in really well and are enjoying engaging in various activities both inside and outside in all the programs with their peers.
Some stand out areas of interest have been the sandpit, creative experiences, imaginative and dramatic play including dress ups, the bikes and the monkey bars.
We have also been exploring and unpacking feelings, emotions and respectful communication and engagement with the program and our peers through the use of the Colour Monster and “Have you filled a bucket today” books and many discussions both planned and spontaneous during play experiences. We are also exploring our identities through our self-portrait drawings.
We look forward to continuing to develop safe, secure and reciprocal relationships with one another as the term progresses.
Upcoming Children’s Event During their session:
PYJAMA Day for Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal during session
Last week of term – All groups. Please wear pj’s and bring a donation for RCH.
Tuesday 5th April- Red Group
Thursday 7th April- Blue, Yellow and Green.
Lake Park Kindergarten
We are so proud of the way our wonderful children have settled in to Kinder!
At Lake Park we have started with discussions on Lunar New Year and Acknowledgement to Country. Next week we are celebrating Carnevale through our Italian programme. Progressive mealtimes have promoted autonomy, community and language. Excited children talk happily about their lunchboxes, building a bridge between Kinder and home. Our children have particularly loved our intentional and spontaneous music and literature experiences. We have found three kinds of butterfly to research (one friendly butterfly keeps visiting our Kinder room!) and our tawny frogmouths love sleeping in the tree near our swing. Dinosaurs, dress -ups, animals and vehicles have inspired much imaginative play. Expressing individual ideas and problem solving is a rich and positive focus across our indoor/outdoor programme. Our goals for term 1 include building strong reciprocal relationships with and between our children, staff and families.
Moomba Park Kindergarten
The children have been loving exploring their new learning environments. There has been lots of time to play outside in the sunshine and all groups have been loving the sandpit and mud kitchen. The four-year-olds are concentrating on working in small groups and getting to know each other and their educators. They are getting to know the routines of their day and as they are starting to feel comfortable the children are starting to show off their wonderful bright personalities. Possum group has been enjoying reading “scary” stories and Kangaroo have been making playdough and talking about colours and volcanoes.
In our 3-year-old program the children are setting in very well and learning to spend time away from their families. They are really enjoying painting using water colours and have also been spending time exploring measuring, tipping and pouring through water play.
Newlands Preschool
We made pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Cooking may involve: pouring, stirring, sifting, counting, shaking, measuring, participating, waiting, listening, observing, baking and eating. Children actively participated in this learning experience. Eating the pancakes with a choice of butter or jam was undoubtedly the highlight!
Oak Park Kindergarten
We’ve had a lovely start to 2022, with children, families and new staff all settling in beautifully. The changes we made to our 3yo Program to accommodate the Departments COVID Guidelines have been very successful and it is great to see most of the children making choices of where in the Kinder they would like to start and separating happily from their families. Our 4yo’s have shown great independence skills by managing their own belongings on arrival and departure which will set them up well for school next year.
We have introduced Bush Kinder to the 4yo’s and have been very busy collecting all the sticks that gathered over the holidays to add to our self-made shelter while there. Having the extra space to run around in and the trees to walk through and climb has been very exciting for them. Our Parent Group have wasted no time in getting this year’s fundraising off the ground with a Kiddies Food Kutter fundraiser as well as a working bee to get around to all the things that have needed doing over the past 2 years, but we haven’t been able to. We also have a Bunning’s sausage sizzle booked for the 19th March at Coburg, so please come along and support our Kinder by buying a sausage! As always, this is a very exciting time of year as we get to know the children and their interests and start planning for the year ahead. Let’s hope this year we will be able to carry out all of these plans!
Turner Street Kindergarten
Turner street children have settled in really well. We have been enjoying the weather and spending lots of time on our beautiful yard, engaging in lots of water play. We are starting to see friendships form between the children.
The groups are enjoying sand play cooking in the cubby with the water and sand. With this interest in mind, we are looking at beginning our veggie patch and cooking some things with the produce we grow.
We are looking forward to our Bunning BBQ on the 12th March at Coburg Bunnings. Please come along and show your support.
Community




