Tenison Woods “jumps the gun” and offers teacher-led 3yo kinder

Tenison Woods College’s Early Learning and Community Centre has gotten a head start on the potential introduction of three-year-old kindergarten for 600 hours a year, a core recommendation of South Australia’s Royal Commission into Early Learning. 

The Royal Commission made 33 recommendations, one of which is that three year old children should have access to 15 hours a week or 600 hours a year, half as much as in Victoria and New South Wales.

Tenison Woods College, in the regional community of Mount Gambier, believes the idea has merit, and will offer a teacher-led early years program to three-year-olds from the first term of the 2024 school year.

Centre Director Fran Scanlon said the decision was an exciting one for the service. 

“To be part of this new direction in early years education and knowing we are continuing to improve and provide the best possible education for all the children in our centre is extremely rewarding,” she shared with local news source Border Watch. 

For College Principal David Mezinec, the introduction of teachers to the two and three year old classrooms represents “a huge step forward” in terms of profiling the value of early learning to the broader college community. 

“This decision will advance the learning of the children in our centre by giving them two years of preschool before they commence Reception,” he said.

“It is part of our school’s ongoing commitment to offer a whole family approach from early childhood to year 12 and beyond.”

Learn more about the work of the College here. Read the original coverage of this story here.