About Us

Bishop Kindergarten:

• Is a full time Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) Category 2, stand alone Preschool with a 30 child capacity.
• The building is well maintained and was purpose built about 48 years ago with street parking along Willison Street and George Street.
• Is one of a number of Early Childhood Services (Preschools and Childcare Centres) in and close to Port Lincoln.
• Works with the Preschool Community and the Port Lincoln Office for Education to support the placement of children into Preschool Programs.
• Families come from diverse backgrounds and travel from within the city limits and outlying rural areas.
• Has a warranted staff team of 2.5 equivalent full time staff i.e. 1.0 Director, 1.0 Teacher and 0.5 Early Childhood Worker (ECW). This staff team has been working together at Bishop Kindergarten for a number of years.
• Introduced Universal Access in 2012. i.e. Children who start their entitled year of Preschool can attend a maximum of 15 hours per week. Since 2014 we have employed an additional 0.4 Teacher – utilizing the Universal Access staffing allowance.
• We also increased the ECW position to 1.0 using budget savings.
• Introduced Same First Day in 2013 i.e. Children who turned 4 before the first of May are entitled to start at the beginning of the school year. A transition and orientation program is negotiated each year when a ‘transition to school’ provides spaces for new preschool children to begin a transition to preschool.
• Place children in 2 groups of 30 after negotiating with families.
  • BLUE – BLUEFIN TUNA / FINS attend Monday and Wednesday 8.45a.m. – 3.00p.m. and Friday 8.45a.m. – 11.15a.m.
  • GREEN – LINCOLN PARROTS / FEATHERS attend Tuesday and Thursday 8.45a.m. – 3.00p.m. and Friday 12.30p.m. – 3.00p.m.
  • These groups stay the same to maximise continuity of relationships and involvement in the curriculum.
• Provides before and after kindergarten care for working families who are juggling drop-off / pick-up times. This is a written request and may incur a small fee.
• Uses the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia – Belonging, Being and Becoming to facilitate children’s play-based learning.
• Implements DECD priorities – Numeracy and Literacy – intentionally setting up environments that will enable the children to show their knowledge, skills and dispositions.
• Uses the National Quality Standards (NQS) to guide a yearly systematic self review.
• The 7 Quality areas of the NQS enable us to enquire into all aspects of the Preschool’s operations and helps to address questions on the quality and effectiveness of the Preschool’s processes, outcomes and performance.
• Is a welcoming, safe and stimulating learning environment where the outside play space can be utilized in all weather and the children use the natural environment to extend their play and learning.