Our Gowrie Carlton Learning Precinct (CLP) service go above and beyond to ensure that families have the holistic support they need. One way that this has been achieved is through the newly introduced Early Language and Literacy Playgroup. Early Childhood Teacher Anneke talks about how she supports children, and their families, through the playgroup.
Anneke, along with three other staff engaged in training in 2024 from the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, which was purchased through School Readiness Funding (SRF), with three more staff engaging in this training through 2025. This training provided Anneke and the CLP team with a deeper understanding of how to explicitly teach literacy concepts, focusing on seven concepts of:
Our Carlton Learning Precinct has an embedded culture of providing wrap-around support to ensure that families can access the service, attend regularly, and receive tailored help to promote their engagement within the program. This culture of innovation has led to the creation of a new support within the service; the Early Language and Literacy Playgroup, which utilises the Additional Educator funding through SRF.
With this additional support, families are selected to attend and are referred by the team of ECTs or leadership. The playgroup is designed for families and children who speak English as an additional language. It runs during school terms only, and is free for families who have children enrolled in 3- or 4-year-old kindergarten programs at CLP. Anneke was pleased by the level of engagement, with over thirty families originally putting their name down to engage.
“The playgroup gives families the chance to connect, learn and grow together. It’s powerful to see parents and children sharing joy through play, while also building their skills and confidence,” Anneke says. “It’s beautiful to see families support one another and leave with ideas that they can use at home, which strengthens their role in their child’s learning.”
Each Wednesday, between 10am and 12pm, Anneke and an employee from Carlton Neighbourhood House, Khadijo, greet the families. As the children enter the space they work on name recognition by finding a gum leaf with their name on it, then placing their leaf near a wooden representation of fire. This is one of the ways children and families are welcomed to playgroup and this ritual also Acknowledges Country. “Doing this with the families is so rewarding” Anneke says, “so many of them have stories about their home countries, and share important knowledge about the first peoples of the nations where they have come from.”
After this, the families spend an hour engaging with provocations, which explore the steps towards phonemic awareness. Some of the activities have been inspired by training from the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, with others from the Abecedarian Approach Australia. These experiences are intended to complement phonemic awareness teaching in a way which is accessible to families. During this time, Anneke and Khadijo explain the learning behind each experience, modelling how the learning can be supported in the home using home languages.
“A message that we share with families over and over again at playgroup is that they should speak to their child in the language they know best. We encourage families to engage in the experiences and use their home languages because that supports their child’s language and literacy development the best,” says Anneke.
The playgroup ends with a group time of songs, games and a story. The story is brought to life using props and puppets. “We like to model to the families that there are many different ways to read a book and that the same book can be read multiple times,” Anneke says.
Another School Readiness Funding initiative at Gowrie CLP is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library where all kinder children receive the same book in the mail. “We’ll always use the book of the month at playgroup because we know that all children have access to that book at home,” says Anneke.
The strong focus on explicit teaching of literacy and language concepts in the playgroup aligns closely with the approach used by the co-located Carlton Primary School. The shared approach, combined with the physical proximity of the two services, supports a smooth transition of learning for the children. “Children are building the foundations here with a specific approach,” says Anneke. “And when they go to school, that same approach is being used. This means the children can pick up right where we left off.”
Overall, Anneke has been genuinely moved by how the playgroup has deepened her relationships with the families who attend. “It’s a different kind of connection,” she reflects. “It’s like they understand our role more clearly now, and there’s a higher level of trust between us.” This strengthened partnership not only supports the children’s learning, but also creates a sense of joint commitment to the child, and continuity across their learning journey; both at the service, and in the home.
Looking to the future, Anneke hopes the playgroup will continue to thrive. “I’d love to see this playgroup running for many years to come,” she says. “Watching the children grow-from playgroup, to kinder, and eventually into the primary school upstairs- is such a special part of the work we do.”
Wednesday 2 September was Early Childhood Educators’ Day, and teams across our services received many lovely and kind messages from children and their families thanking our educators for all that they do.
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