Free Kinder is available to refugee and asylum seeker families - TRANSCRIPT
Wassim: My name is Wassim Al-Anbar.
I came with my family to Australia in the end of 2022 on a humanitarian refugee visa.
My son, David has started Kindergarten and he is very happy and is learning new skills.
When we first came to Australia, we didn’t know anything about free education for children
Honestly, we learnt about kindergarten after making two connections
The first one from an organisation “Arabic Welfare”
And the second one was from Hume council; they helped us register David in Kindergarten
An Interpreter was available, in almost all languages
So, anyone who comes to Australia won’t have any trouble registering their children into kindergarten.
They can connect with the interpreter who can help with this,
In the beginning, we were worried because David did not know how to speak English,
And that he might have difficulty communicating with other children,
But honestly, we were surprised that he was able to make many friends and improve his level of English and even started learning many beautiful stories from the rest of the children.
We are so proud of David because he is learning many things he can benefit from in his daily life. He learnt about recycling bottles.
The kindergarten service is a free or low-cost service for two years.
The first year is beneficial for children because it teaches them to communicate with children from different cultural backgrounds. And learn the English Language for a better future. After the first year in kindergarten, there is a second year named Pre-Prep.
A preparational period so that they can be ready to begin the following year in school.
In the second year, after David finished the first year in kindergarten
I enrolled in a course, and it was full-time, 5 days a week
And because we came as refugees to this country, this made us eligible to have additional hours.
So, David started to have 5 days instead of 4 days in kindergarten,
This really helped me a lot to be able to finish the course and receive my certificate.
I advise families coming to Australia that there is an easy way that they can search for a kindergarten for their children, via a website findakinder.vic.gov.au
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