ESC: Thomastown Community Kindergarten

Thomastown Community Kindergarten is committed to providing high quality Steiner-based childcare, holistic education and family support services. As a community-based project, we strive for social integration. We follow a Steiner Waldorf approach to Early Childhood where we guide each child to learn and develop as an individual, providing a stimulating, broad and happy environment to do so. We let the child use their time to play, explore and follow their imagination using a wide range of natural and open-ended materials as well as teacher led activities. Thomastown Community Kindergarten is a Steiner Waldorf based Kindergarten and its aims are to provide a warm, nurturing environment to children aged 2.5+ - like a home away from home. The main objective of Steiner Waldorf education is to educate the whole child, head, heart and hands. The Steiner Waldorf early years curriculum is broad and balances the needs of children. The Kindergarten is a Community based, not for profit, childcare service that forms part of a core community infrastructure which is responding to an identified need in the local area. Our main activity is providing a community child care service to our local community. Our target group is all local families and their pre-school children. We feel child-centered early years education is particularly important considering the growing challenges of modern times when there are heightened concerns about the amount of time children engage with screen media.