New South Wales
Country Areas Program
Projects That Really Make a Difference!

Project Title: Headstart Program

Type: Moree District Initiative

Coordinator/s: Ms Jane Kibble

Participating Schools: Quambone PS, Carinda PS

Attributes Addressed: Self, Self&emdash;Directed Learning, Communication, Literacy, Numeracy

Overview:

This initiative seeks to provide young children with the benefits arising from social experiences and opportunities to develop language, thinking and communication provided by preschool activities. Some students in both small, isolated communities have extremely limited, or no, access to preschool experiences and as a result are disadvantaged significantly on entry to Kindergarten.

The aim of the Headstart project is to provide a specific program which targets early learning needs. This will give children, who have not attended a normal preschool, opportunities to develop skills and knowledge required for a successful start to their first year of school. The program will target children enrolled for Kindergarten at Quambone and Carinda schools for the following year. It will commence operation in term 4 for 2 hours once a week initially, then increasing to twice a week for a period of eight weeks.

A teacher will be employed to implement this transition program. Activities are to be planned for the children to enhance their development of skills, processes and understandings which will help them adjust to school and enable them to interact productively in the classroom. The teacher employed will be responsible for building up individual learning profiles. Checklists will be developed and work samples collected, based on what a normal preschool assessment would offer. The profiles will be used directly in planning appropriate learning experiences for these children when they start Kindergarten. This will lead to Phase 2 of the program which will further support these students once they commence school.

Parents will be involved in a number of ways. A parent roster will operate so that parents are involved in the school environment and are able to see first hand the activities used to develop their child's skills. Parents will be involved in information sessions which will give them an understanding of the expectations of Kindergarten and will offer any support needed to assist their children at home with areas such as literacy and numeracy.

Time will be set aside also for the teacher to collate profiles which are to be used also, in reporting progress to parents, so they are aware of the skills their children have acquired.

The teacher, resources and program materials will be shared between the two schools. As they take the implementation process on board together, the staff will be able to share highlights and barriers of the program. Sharing of ideas is crucial to the success of the program.

Implementation

Phase 1 of the Initiative: * Assess incoming students using the following resources: Qld Preschool Curriculum Guidelines the Diagnostiic Net Continuum Assessing Literacy and Numeracy Using Foundation Outcomes Starting Kindergarten during the transition Preschool&emdash;Kindergarten (Term 4) * Needs identified and a suitable program developed for term 4, targeting the following: developing social skills by communicating, cooperating and sharing learning to represent their ideas in various forms building foundations for early literacy and numeracy by engaging them in symbolisation acquiring new knowledge and understanding about themselves and their world * Consultation with District Literacy Consultant and Early Learning Program Coordinator to facilitate discussion as to the types of resources to be purchased for the program.

* Resources designed to supplement existing resources in literacy and numeracy, and foster early learning experiences will be purchased. These include: 10 big books small sets of books to match the big books additional literacy support such as cassettes, teacher manuals, games, puzzles, matching games and roll and write alphabet numeracy materials such as patterns block games, count and classify mat, beads and pattern cards, flash cards, playdough mini chalkboards and extra equipment such as crayons, small scissors teacher resources for early childhood education * Ongoing collection and analysis of data to build up individual profiles to be used in school planning, reporting to parents and enhancing student learning outcomes * Provision of training and support for parents and community in awareness of preschool and beginning school experiences that enhance learning outcomes Phase 2 of the Initiative: further support to be provided during Term 1 of Kindergarten