Further Resources

Best Start, Best Life reforms

• Kindergarten Sector Guide – key information about the reforms, and the support available for children to access and participate in programs.
• Four-Year-Old Kindergarten is becoming Pre-Prep – the roll-out schedule.
• Operational policies supporting the Best Start, Best Life reforms – flexible hours and other policies.

Communicating with families

• Communicating about kindergarten to your community – communication kits, fact sheets, social media tiles and other resources to help services communicate with families and promote their kindergarten programs.
• Benefits of kinder – information about the benefits of kinder programs.
• Pre-Prep roll-out video – shows children who are eligible in 2026.
• Play-based learning and your child – information sheet about how children learn through play.

Inclusion in kindergarten programs

• Children with additional needs in early childhood – supports available for children with additional needs.
• Getting started at childcare and kindergarten – Association for Children with Disability – advice for families and carers of children with additional needs.
• Toolkit: Inclusion is Everyone's Business resource.

Planning for and implementing Pre-Prep

• Change Management Toolkit – information and tools to help services work with their team and families to plan and implement Pre-Prep and continue Three-Year-Old Kindergarten.

Pre-Prep program modelling

• ‘Your Guide To’ information sheets on multi-age groups, rotational models, team teaching and teaching longer days – advice about planning for and the benefits of program models.
• Delivering Pre-Prep to children from priority cohorts – programming considerations for 2026 priority cohort children.

Supporting CALD families and children

• Supporting CALD families to engage in kindergarten – resources for services to communicate with cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) families about kindergarten and its benefits.
• Supporting families from refugee backgrounds –Foundation House – resources for services to engage with families from refugee backgrounds to support access to early learning.
• Engaging with multilingual families guide – how to create welcoming and inclusive environments, use different ways to communicate, and get the right language supports.
• Early Childhood Language Services – free interpreting and translation services to communicate with parents and carers who speak a language other than English or use Auslan.
• CALD Outreach Initiative – CALD Outreach Workers address barriers to kindergarten access and participation.

Supporting First Nations families and children

• Early childhood education programs supporting Aboriginal children – early childhood programs and services for Aboriginal children and their families.
• Resources to support cultural safety for Koorie children and families – resources to support a welcoming environment for Koorie families at your service.
• Best Start – local partnerships with service providers to support localised and targeted strategies to improve children’s engagement and participation in kindergarten, including 6 Aboriginal Best Start sites around Victoria.

Additional year of funded Three- or Four-Year-Old Kindergarten or Pre-Prep

• Additional year of funded kindergarten or Pre-Prep from 2026 – information about the eligibility criteria and process.
• Does my child need an additional year of kindergarten or Pre-Prep? – information for parents and carers about the guidelines.