New Kindergarten Enrolment Information

Important Dates

Here are some important dates for you to add to your calendar:

Before the end of October - Families to download School Bytes app to their phones

Tuesday 3rd November - Welcome to NRPS Tour/Treasure Hunt

Monday 9th November - Kindergarten Orientation Session #1 and Parent Information Session

Tuesday 17th November - Kindergarten Orientation Session #2

Wednesday 25th November - Kindergarten Orientation Session #3

Wednesday 3rd February - First day of school for Kindergarten 2027 students

Friday 5th February - Kindergarten classes formed for 2027 and information sent to families

Writing Skills

NSW Foundation Style is the writing we use in our school. Here is an example of what each letter formation looks like:

Best Start at NRPS

The Best Start Kindergarten Assessment will take place during school hours in February, as part of your child's first days at school.

The first day of school for Kindergarten students will be Monday 2nd February 2026.

Best Start is an assessment that is completed by all Kindergarten students to assess their knowledge in literacy and numeracy, prior to starting school. This allows us to organise our programs to cater for students at their individual level. On the day of your child's assessment, one of our Kindergarten teachers will spend approximately 40 minutes asking your child a series of literacy and numeracy questions and getting to know your child a little better. There is no need for your child to prepare in any way for this test.

The teacher conducting the assessment will likely be your child's teacher. You will be sent a report about the skills your child has demonstrated, early in Term 1.

Literacy

What happens in the Literacy block?

• English is taught every day of the week as part of our literacy block. During the literacy block we cover all aspects of the English syllabus including:

  • oral language and communication
  • vocabulary
  • phonological awareness
  • print conventions
  • phonic knowledge
  • reading fluency
  • reading comprehension
  • writing
  • punctuation and grammar
  • spelling
  • handwriting
  • understanding and responding to literature

• Each week students will be introduced to 1 or 2 new phonemes (sounds). Students will learn how to read, write and say these phonemes. As students build their knowledge of phonemes, they will learn how to blend phonemes together to say words. E.g., /c/ /a/ /t/ = cat. Students will review their phonic knowledge every day. Students will also be introduced to “tricky words” each week. These words are common sight words, often ones that cannot be decoded, that students will need to memorise to assist them with their reading and writing.

• Handwriting lessons are explicitly taught to students. Students learn how to form letters correctly, write letters of the same size and shape and leave finger spaces between their words.

• Each day of the week students will complete the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program. This program trains students to develop how they focus on and manipulate sounds in spoken words. Students learn core skills such as phoneme isolation, phoneme substitution, segmenting, blending, sound deletion, onset-rime manipulation and syllabification.

• Students will be placed into reading groups and matched with students reading at the same or similar level as them. Together these students will read with their teacher and work on developing reading skills such as blending, expression and comprehension of texts.

• Students will develop their knowledge of print conventions through explicit teaching of skills such as, direction of print and using return sweep when reading. Students will learn to read from left to right, top to bottom.

• Each week students will be read stories and explore the concepts of context, narrative, character, perspective, imagery, symbolism and connotation. Students will be exposed to new vocabulary words and learn how to use these words in writing and spoken conversation.

• During writing lessons students develop their knowledge of punctuation and grammar. Students learn about capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. Students also develop their knowledge of nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. As the year progresses students will learn more about clauses, prepositional phrases, time connectives and compound sentences.

• Oral language will be developed through whole class discussions. Students will respond to texts, ask questions and contribute answers during discussions. Students will also develop their listening skills and learn how to listen attentively while others are speaking and respond appropriately with questions and opinions.

Numeracy

What happens in Mathematics lessons?

• Math lessons start with a number talk. Number talks encourage students to share the strategies they have used to solve a problem. It assists students with developing their mathematical language.

• Each week, students will be explicitly taught new skills based on a topic. Students will then be given time to consolidate their learning through set tasks and group activities.

• Most days the students will participate in group activities related to Mathematics. Each activity will focus on the development of a skill relating to the outcomes in the Mathematics Syllabus.

• The teacher will assign each student to a group according to their learning needs. Groups are flexible.

• The teacher will work with the students as a whole class or in small groups of 3 to 6 to explicitly teach whole number, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, patterns and algebra, length, area, volume & capacity, mass, time, two- and three-dimensional space, position and data.

• An example of other activities that students may do are:

  • tracing numbers
  • playing counting games using concrete materials
  • playing online educational games
  • making patterns with shapes
  • completing number puzzles
  • playing card and dice games

Technology

How will technology be used in Kindergarten?

Technology is a very effective and engaging learning tool for students of all grades. It creates possibilities for authentic learning of skills and concepts to be embedded in learning. Students develop skills of collaboration and teamwork, creativity and imagination, critical thinking and problem solving when using the various types of technology tools. Learning is made visible when using technology, as students produce a final product, implement newly mastered skills and build on these to enrich what the tool can do for a specific task. This can be shared with peers and teachers for reflections and feedback.

• Students use technology across the week in many ways. In the area of Mathematics students may use technology to learn and explore position, sequencing, estimation and problem-solving. Additionally, in English students could use technology to type recounts about weekends, create and sequence stories, and identify sight words.
• The teacher will implement technology across other Key Learning Areas such as Creative Arts, Science, History and Geography to ensure students develop and explore technology in multiple ways and for different purposes.

In Kindergarten at North Rocks Public School, students will engage with:

• Bee Bots (an easy to operate and instruct robot)
• iPads (touch screen portable computer)
• Laptops and Desktop Computers
• Interactive Whiteboards

Examples of programs students will be using:

COMPUTERS

Computer Programs: Jolly Phonics, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Paint, Tux Paint.

Websites: ABC Ya (number, reading and writing activities), Count Us In, Starfall, Topmarks.

iPADS

Applications: Seesaw, Jolly Phonics, RedWriting, Kahoot, Camera (e.g. for photographing work and recording read alouds), Various Apps to reinforce literacy and numeracy skills.

Screen Time

Recommendations

For children 2 to 5 years of age, sitting and watching television and the use of other electronic media (DVDs, computer and electronic games) should be limited to less than 1 hour per day.

Children benefit more from talking, singing, reading, listening to music or playing with other children.

Evidence suggests that long periods of screen time are connected with:

• less active, outdoor and creative play
• slower development of language skills
• poor social skills
• an increased risk of being overweight

Family guidelines should focus on:

• How often children have access to screens (you may choose to have screen-free days).
• How long children can use them for (splitting the time between different types of screen and using a limiting device such as a stop watch or screen lock as a control measure).
• What children can view (the quality of what your child is viewing is more important than the time spent)

Like all parenting decisions, it is important to focus on modelling the preferred behaviour to your children and involving older children in the decision-making process. Monitor what they are accessing and use the opportunity to start conversations and learning, making sure that screens are used in family/shared areas and not in bedrooms.

Once your child begins school, then as a family, you need to discuss how best to use screen time to reduce excessive use.