The Queensland Government has introduced a ‘Free Kindy Program’ commencing in 2024.

What is the Government 'Free Kindy Program'?

From January 1, 2024, eligible-aged children will receive 15 hours per week of free kindy when participating in a government-approved program.

How will it work at Calvary ELC?

Calvary ELC is a long day care centre that provides care from 7 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday – a total of 10.5 hours per day. The ELC charges a daily fee that covers the entire 10.5 hours regardless of when you drop-off and pick-up your child. Our Centre operates this way to cater to the ever-changing schedules of families allowing for day-to-day flexibility.

Our Kindergarten Program is embedded into our daily hours, operating from 8 am to 4 pm Monday to Thursday and delivered by a fully qualified Early Childhood Teacher. It is during these hours, that your child will be eligible for the 15 hours of government funded free kindy per week.

Additional details:

• Children who turn 4 by June 30 in the year in which they are enrolled in an approved kindergarten program will be eligible for the government funded free kindy.
• The 15 hours of free kindy is broken up into 7.5 hours across two days.
• Children must participate in a minimum of 15 hours of an approved kindergarten program to be eligible for free kindy.
• Calvary ELC does not operate the approved kindergarten program on Fridays, therefore attendance on Friday is not eligible for free kindy.
• As the ELC is a long day care centre, the remaining operating hours outside of the eligible free kindy hours will still be charged for (CCS still applies if eligible).

2024 Kindergarten Expansion Program

Calvary ELC will be undergoing some exciting changes commencing in 2024 with the introduction of the Queensland Government funded ‘Free Kindy Program’. Kindergarten is an important program that offers life-long benefits. Calvary Christian College has identified that children who enrol at the College from our ELC are more settled and transition quicker than those form other centres. Given this success, the high demand for kindergarten at our centre, and the introduction of the government funded free kindy in 2024, we have decided to expand our kindergarten program across two rooms as of next year.

What will this look like?

From 2024, Calvary ELC will make some significant changes to the centre to increase our available spaces in kindergarten. This will involve combining our current Junior Kindy and Pre Kindy classes into the one room. The new room will be referred to as the Junior Joeys and will be situated in our current Junior Kindy room. The combination of these two rooms is not planned to be a permanent change, but a temporary move pending future planned expansion of the centre. With only one Junior Joey room available, spaces at our ELC for this age group (2-4) will be limited from 2024.

The current Pre Kindy room will be changed to kindergarten, meaning from 2024, the centre will have two rooms running an approved Kindergarten Program. These rooms will be referred to as the Kindy Kangaroos and will be available for children who turn 4 by June 30 of the year they are attending. The addition of the second Kindergarten room will open a significant number of new spaces allowing us to place families who have been on our long wait list. This also supports our Prep Program at the College by having more children participating in our ELC-College transition program.