Resources for funded kindergartens

Access to one funded kindergarten place - form for parents

At the beginning of the kindergarten year, service providers must provide written confirmation to all families that tell them that their child has secured a funded kindergarten place at the service.

Services must also make sure that these families have a signed form to confirm their child is receiving their funded kindergarten program at their service and keep a copy on the child’s record.

Services must use the department’s “one funded place” form. This form can be included in an enrolment pack, either on paper or online and needs a parent or carer's signature.

If you have any questions, please contact your local Early Childhood Improvement Branch.

All about kindergarten

Information for parents about kindergarten and what to expect, including a downloadable fact sheet. To access the translated versions of this fact sheet, visit Translated resources

Cost subsidies - poster

Free or low cost kindergarten - the kindergarten fee subsidy (poster) (PDF, 1MB)

Free or low cost kindergarten - the kindergarten fee subsidy (poster) (DOCX, 401KB)

For service providers and management committees

Strengthening business best practice

We've developed a suite of resources materials for service providers and committees of management that provide financial and business advice to help strengthen business best practice within the kindergarten sector. The resources focus on strategies that can help strengthen operations, increase revenue and improve efficiencies for kindergarten services.

Investing in the now and future:

Parent fee setting for sustainable kindergartens:

Maximising enrolments:

Maximising income:

Additional service offerings:

Improving sustainability in rural kindergarten:

Kindergarten budgeting for Committees of Management:

For kindergarten services

Early Start Kindergarten (ESK):

Long day care services:

Children in out-of-home care information pack - long day care services (PDF, 830KB)

To order ESK print material free of charge, please sign up or log in to the Victorian Kindergarten Resources website. Anyone can view and order ESK print material.

For MCH services, Child Protection and Child First professionals

For Maternal Child Health professionals:

Kindergarten resource for Maternal and Child Health professionals (PDF, 13.1MB)
Early Start Kindergarten Information for Maternal and Child Health Professionals (PDF, 253KB)
Early Start Kindergarten Information for Maternal and Child Health Professionals (DOCX, 399KB)
Maternal and Child Health professionals nurse resource microsite:
- The Department of Education has a suite of resources, including factsheets, brochures and translated materials, available to help MCH nurses in communicating to parents about kindergarten. This microsite allows MCH nurses to order hard copies of these materials free of charge, with some restrictions. Register to access the microsite by selecting ‘Create an account’ on the Sign In page.

For Child Protection and Child FIRST professionals:

To order these materials, free of charge, complete and submit the Early Start Kindergarten order form.

For teachers and educators

Improved educator to child ratio - teaching, collaborating, and building relationships

A suite of resources for early childhood teachers and educators. The resources focus on building relationships with individual children and their families, reflecting on current practices, working collaboratively with other professionals and maximising learning outcomes.

Tip sheet 1 - Collaborative teaching: teaching as a team:

Tip sheet 2 - Learning in a larger group: teaching strategies to support engagement:

Tip sheet 3 - Utilising physical and social environments to maximise learning:

Tip sheet 4 - A place for everyone: responding effectively to every child:

Tip sheet 5 - Secure relationships: creating strong connections and building relationships with all children and families:

Tip sheet 6 - Multi-age groups: working with mixed-age groups:

Tip sheet 7 - Kindergarten access for all children: ensuring the sector is responsive to the community:

Configurations for educator to child ratio

The educator to child ratio is calculated according to the total number of children being educated and cared for by the service.

For example, where a service has between 45 and 55 children in a two room kindergarten, five educators are required to meet the 1:11 ratio. These services require an early childhood teacher for each group, however, may consider having a fifth educator working across the two groups when the groups are operating at the same time.

For more information, refer to:

Videos for implementing the improved ratio

Victorian kindergarten services are required to operate at an educator to child ratio of 1:11 in accordance with the National Quality Framework. The improved ratio allows staff to give more individual attention to each child and support better learning outcomes.

A suite of digital stories have been developed to support services to implement the improved ratio requirement.