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HOW ARE KINDERGARTENS IN AUSTRALIA? / Articles / DETSKYVOPROS.
RF Author: Elena Drugova, photo from the author's family archive
PEOPLE AND STORIES CREATIVITY AND DEVELOPMENT
For the last six months my family has been living in Melbourne , a large multinational Australian city. I study here, my husband works, the children go to school and kindergarten. About the unusual structure, principles and rules of Australian kindergartens, which surprised and conquered me, especially for CHILDREN'S QUESTION.RF.
I must say right away that I am a researcher and practitioner in the field of education, so I don’t have a completely naive view of topics related to education, but I can analyze in detail the phenomena encountered in the system of preschool education in Australia and delve into features of the context, too, once. Therefore, these will be notes at the intersection of curiosity and knowledge, interest and experience.
Smile and wave!
Ever since the first phone calls to the garden, when I was arranging a place, I was alert: the voices sounded so incredibly joyful, as if some distant, very loving and missed relative was talking to me.
The first visit confirmed the premonitions: “Hi!!!” here they shouted as if you were the main person and they had been waiting for your appearance for a whole year. The same in relation to the child: the flow of smiles and goodwill, positive does not dry out. I understand the difference between a fake polite smile and sincere joy, and here the joy for you and your child is real. Yes, I’ll say right away: kindergartens are very expensive, the salaries of the staff here are quite normal, at an average level, therefore only people with special education and the right motivation, who love children and understand the importance of an emotional background for a child, work in kindergartens: there are no random people here, but There is one teacher for every five children. This filter works great, but I think it's not just that: most Australians I meet are really friendly and helpful, so it's a continuation of national traits. We already have two gardens, and the second fully confirmed the feeling of the first: many, many smiles of the staff, everyone is always very attentive to your questions and comments about the child.
I have never met either coldness, or aloofness, or formalism. And it won my heart.
Freedom: in sleep, walks, activities
When we get used to something, it begins to seem stable and unshakable to us. And, even if what we are doing is not very successful and does not bring great joy, it often happens that it does not even occur to us to abandon it or change something. Here is the traditional gardening regime for us: breakfast - walk - sleep - lunch - organized activity - afternoon tea - home - we all usually take it for granted. After all, it's better to have a regime than not to have one, isn't it? However, a too strict regime, in my opinion, reduces independence, brings up excessive humility and does not allow one to think beyond the boundaries of the ordinary. Therefore, I was happy to learn that our new Australian kindergarten was scheduled only for meals. But sleep, for example, at any time when the child wants to lie down and relax. The same with walks: the doors from the groups to the courtyard are constantly open, the children move indoors or outdoors completely freely, choosing an activity to their liking.
Classes, again, are not specially organized: there is no such thing as everyone sitting in rows at the tables and drawing some kind of tray with Khokhloma painting together. However, there are many corners where paints, plasticine are always ready, paper, sparkles, stickers and other joys lie. The child always chooses what to do. They can help him, of course: often a teacher sits near the table and around him a flock of several children are diligently making something together. But not because the teacher looked at the schedule and saw the item “Creative activity” there, but because the children showed interest in something and he supports their interest. Toys are also evenly distributed throughout the spacious group, access to any toys is always open. I met here and a lot of Montessori materials.
Everything is simple/everything is complicated
Some things are treated here, as we would think, too simply. For example (oh horror!), there are no removable shoes, and there are no beds, no separate bedroom for sleeping.
A mattress spreads on the floor, a child falls on the mattress, a blanket is on top. That's all the amenities. With the excellent material equipment of the gardens, such a “Spartan” dream is most likely associated with the prevailing cultural norm. She jars on someone, but it seemed completely natural to me. Australians are the most hardened people in the world, they put on flip-flops and shorts in the cold and windy winter, while we Siberians are freezing in sweaters and jackets. Their children swim in the icy ocean in October. This hardening continues at home, where you live all winter without heating at a temperature of 18-20 degrees. Needless to say, we stopped getting sick here, and the children also hardened perfectly. What else is treated in a simple way here is children's holidays. No long rehearsals, fancy costumes, two-hour performances. Everything is simple and very fun. Too bad it doesn't last long.
But there are points for which there are more problems than usual.
The first is sunscreen. It is either necessarily applied to the skin of the child by the educator before going out into the sun, or the parent smears his child himself “under painting”. Ozone holes and skin cancer in this country are not a scarecrow, but a harsh reality, so powerful protection and prevention are being carried out. The same applies to hats: they are mandatory, if there is no panama, then the child will be given a spare, as long as the face is in the shade. The second is trauma. Sometimes, you come to the garden, the child has a bruise, they will explain to you: “Yes, he fell with you.” In Australia, you will receive a certificate describing the incident and what measures were taken (bruise, scratch, everything washed and plastered), because the garden is really responsible for the child. The third is delay. No, you can bring the child late in the morning at any time that is convenient for you - this is OK. There is no clear morning time at all, the garden is open from seven o'clock.
But being late when you pick up your child from kindergarten is not OK at all. Lateness is punishable by financial penalties, which, again, is hardwired into the culture: people work and the extra minutes of their work that were required due to your fault must be paid.
Scientific approach
Do you know what pedagogical principles your garden is based on? Surely many do not even think about it, unless their child goes to a specialized Montessori garden or Waldorf garden, whose names speak for themselves. Meanwhile, there are many controversial issues. Should groups be mixed in age or homogenous? Should children mostly learn from each other or from adults? What learning materials do you offer? Can you help me learn them? How to deal with conflicts? What is the model of growing up and how does it manifest itself at different ages? Emphasize reading, writing, math, or develop more creativity and support out-of-the-box thinking? Different answers will give you kindergartens that are completely different in atmosphere and character.
In Australia, the theory of the stages of cognitive development by Jean Piaget and the sociocultural theory of our compatriot L. S. Vygotsky are held in high esteem: a large poster with his quote hangs right in the center of the kindergarten lobby. Each group has its own album, which is always in the public domain. Educators several times a week make notes in it, telling what new and interesting things happened during the day: either they celebrated someone’s birthday, then they went on an excursion, or someone’s brother was born. And once, on the spread of our album, I saw a whole series of photographs of my son, illustrating the development of a child according to Piaget: the development of sensorimotor, communication and other skills. The feelings were very strong - from maternal pride, which is understandable, to joy for the level of professionalism of educators and their desire to share their knowledge with parents.
Quite, completely different
And there are things that are completely absent in our gardens and culture in general, so it’s impossible to compare here - you can only tell.
So, one of the basic values of the Australian society, which is broadcast in schools, gardens, public places, at many events, through books, is recycling, waste processing and nature conservation. This value is imbibed here with mother's milk, and the beautiful Australian nature and stunning national parks are kept in pristine beauty. For example, children bring aluminum cans, cardboard, all this is handed over for recycling, and the proceeds are transferred to the local hospital - such projects are common here.
It is also worth mentioning that Australia is such a crazy mix of cultures and nationalities that it is very difficult to meet a native Australian, and even he may be a descendant of first generation migrants. This, in particular, is manifested in the fact that in the kindergarten children represent a dozen different nationalities, speak different languages, dress in different ethnic styles, and have different habits. There is even a holiday dedicated to this diversity as an essential feature of the nation.
Therefore, tolerance is also absorbed with mother's milk: otherness is becoming the norm, especially for children who perceive quite calmly both the hijabs of Muslim girls and the turban-patkas on the heads of Sikh boys.
Conclusion
Summing up, I will briefly list the values that I have already described and which are followed in our Australian garden: friendliness; personal dignity and respect for the child; the dignity of the educator and his professionalism; Liberty; development; diversity and tolerance; care for the environment. Of course, I do not pretend to be objective, it is always worth remembering that everywhere there are problems, but these values seem to me to be quite universal. Obviously, an educational institution is a reliable reflection of the values of the whole society. And the values of society are supported and reproduced by every action of a particular person every minute of his life. For some reason, this is felt especially clearly here.
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Kindergarten in Australia. Introduction
I finally got around to writing about our experience in kindergarten.
Since I don't know how to write briefly, and now I'm writing slowly, there will be a series of posts (almost all parts have already been completed).
I will try not to delay.
So, I'll start with organizational part .
The 2 most important features of Australian gardens are child-friendly and price.
I'll start with the price: in the area of Sydney where we live, gardens cost AU$105-115 per day. This is without food.
In the suburbs, far from the center, I heard about the price of 60 Ozzy Bucks per day.
On Instagram, a girl from Melbourne wrote that her friends sent their children to a kindergarten where the cost is 170 Ozzy Bucks a day, but this can be with food.
If you need with an extension, it is paid separately. I also read on Instagram that in case of late parents, pick up the fine at the appointed time by the minute. Almost 5-10 dollars per minute.
You can't walk all week. But if for some reason you missed your day, then you still have to pay for it. Even if you missed it due to a public holiday and, accordingly, a closed garden.
The state returns part of the money for the garden to residents at the end of the year. The amount of this return depends on income - more for the poor, less for the middle class. I don’t know how the rich are doing in this matter, since we don’t have acquaintances who are rich by local standards.
There is often a queue for the gardens. Near Andrey's work there is a garden in which I wanted to give Varya, so there is a record for a year at least. In some kindergartens, women put their children on the waiting list as soon as they find out about the pregnancy. When we were looking for Varya’s garden, I couldn’t even go to see it - even he was on an appointment and there in line.
There are more places in gardens in worse areas. When we were looking for a car, while looking at the car, I also asked the owners about the gardens :)
Gardens are different - I call kindergarten a "big garden" - there can be up to 25 children in a group, but for every 5 children there must be 1 adult . Family day care - "family". As I understand it, very similar gardens are opened by mothers at home. By law, it can be both in a private house and in an apartment. The main thing is to comply with the necessary conditions for safety and equipment. To open such a garden, one must complete a training course + obtain a first aid certificate + a permit, which also includes an inspection of the premises. Family day care can be opened even in rented housing, with the permission of the owner, of course. All food for the day, children, as a rule, bring with them from home. Not even a fact that it will be possible to warm up.
I asked several Russian-speaking local mothers, they all preferred kindergarten and they liked family ones less.
Next, preschool - older children are taken there, from the age of 3. The "working day" there is incomplete. Where Varya goes, you can leave your child from 8 am to 4 pm. We deliver it, as a rule, by 8-30 and I pick it up at 3-30. This pleasure costs 90 Australian dollars a day.
Upon admission, a couple of questionnaires are filled out:
- information about parents, about additional contact in an emergency, the details of the payment card from which (including the code on the back). This card is charged every 2 weeks for the future period. Upon admission, you also pay a deposit which is the cost of the last 2 weeks.
- a huge questionnaire about the child - his cultural "layer" - what country his roots are from, what languages they speak at home, what they call him at home, what names are preferable. Considering that this is a country of emigrants, not one Varya has different names for "their own" and for English-speaking people. In their group there are Indians, and Koreans, and Chinese, and Japanese .
. in general, there are enough of all nationalities. Also, be sure to specify all the features of health, such as allergies.
This is a garden window. There are carved figurines of children, which they painted themselves. And there's a photo attached to it.
The flags show which countries the current students are from.
Varya is fourth from the left in the bottom row.
Flag of Ukraine upside down. But I decided not to focus. Considering that among Ukrainians not everyone agrees with the current arrangement of the blue and yellow stripes, some people are inclined towards this order (now blue at the top is the sky, and yellow at the bottom is wheat).
And this is the street view of the same figurines.
Also, you need to attach a copy of the vaccination document and bring a certificate from the therapist that the child is fully vaccinated. It is not possible to buy such a certificate here. And without it, you won’t get to school or kindergarten.
