The Government is investing $4.7 billion over 4 years from 2022-23 to make early childhood education and care more affordable for Australian families. The Government's reforms will mean 96 per cent of families with children in care are better off and no family is worse off.

From July 2023, Child Care Subsidy rates will increase up to 90 per cent for eligible families earning less than $530,000. Families will continue to receive existing higher subsidy rates of up to 95 per cent for any additional children in care aged 5 and under.

The significant cost of early childhood education and care can prevent parents, particularly women, from working as much as they want. It is estimated these reforms will increase the hours worked by women with young children by up to 1.4 million hours per week in 2023-24. This is equivalent to an extra 37,000 full‑time workers.

The reforms will also support children's learning and development and their readiness for school.

The Government is investing $531.6 million over 4 years from 2022-23 to expand the Paid Parental Leave scheme and provide greater support to families. In 2026, families will be able to access up to 26 weeks of Paid Parental Leave.

This expansion is the biggest reform to the scheme since its introduction in 2011. It will enhance economic security, improve gender equality and increase participation and productivity. It will support parents to spend more time with their children and share caring responsibilities more equally.

The modernised scheme will include reserved 'use it or lose it' weeks for each parent, to encourage both parents to take parental leave. Either parent will be able to claim Paid Parental Leave first and both parents can receive the payment at the same time as any employer‑funded parental leave. The reforms also improve flexibility, with parents able to take leave in blocks as small as a day at a time, with periods of work in between.

The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce will examine the optimal model for 26 weeks of Paid Parental Leave including the number of weeks that parents can access at the same time and the mix of 'use it or lose it' weeks. This will ensure it delivers the best outcomes for families and encourage more shared parenting.

Australia is facing acute housing pressures and too many Australians do not have access to affordable housing. At the same time Australia has a low level of institutional housing investment and the world's third largest pool of capital in our superannuation system which is hungry for investments that will deliver stable returns over the long term.

A target of one million new homes under a national Housing Accord

The Government is bringing states and territories, the Australian Local Government Association, investors, and representatives from the construction sector together under a new national Housing Accord. The Accord sets an aspirational target of one million new, well-located homes to be delivered over 5 years from mid‑2024 as capacity constraints are expected to ease.

Under the Accord, the Government will provide $350 million over 5 years, with ongoing availability payments over the longer term, to deliver an additional 10,000 affordable dwellings. States and territories will also support up to an additional 10,000 affordable homes, increasing the dwellings that can be delivered under the Accord to 20,000.

Planning for the future of Australia's housing

Beyond the Accord, the Government will develop a National Housing and Homelessness Plan to set out other actions and longer-term reforms. The Plan will be developed in close consultation with the states and territories and other stakeholders.

Investing in social and affordable housing

The Accord builds on the Government's $10 billion investment to establish the Housing Australia Future Fund. Returns from the Fund will be used to build 30,000 new social and affordable dwellings over 5 years.

The Government is expanding the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility to allow it to more flexibly use $575 million of existing funds. This will help unlock a projected 5,500 new dwellings.

Helping more Australians to realise their dream of home ownership

Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee

The Government is helping 10,000 eligible first home buyers a year in regional Australia to buy a home by guaranteeing up to 15 per cent of the purchase price.

Supporting veterans to purchase a home

The Government is committing $46.2 million to expand the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. This will support veterans and Australian Defence Force members to purchase a home through monthly subsidies on mortgage interest payments.

Help to Buy

Under Help to Buy, eligible home buyers will have access to an equity contribution to buy a home with a smaller deposit and a smaller mortgage.

Helping older Australians who want to downsize

The Government is extending the exemption of home sale proceeds from pension asset testing by 12 months and is expanding access to make downsizer contributions to superannuation for people aged 55 to 59.

The PBS general co‑payment will be lowered to $30

The maximum cost to general patients for PBS medications has doubled since 2000. These high costs meant that close to one million people delayed or did not fill their medications in 2019-20. Some Australians are having to choose between filling prescriptions for potentially life‑saving medicines and providing other essentials for their families.

In this Budget, the Government is cutting the cost of medicines to ease cost‑of‑living pressures. From 1 January 2023, the Government will decrease the maximum co‑payment under the PBS from $42.50 to $30 per script, a 29 per cent reduction. Each year, this will save around 3.6 million Australians more than $190 million in out‑of‑pocket costs.

More cost‑effective medicines

The Government is providing an additional $1.4 billion for new and amended listings on the PBS and other medicines programs. This will allow greater access to affordable and life‑saving essential medicines and includes treatments for various types of cancer and growth hormone deficiency in children.

Welcome Valued Families to another edition of the Kidi Kingdom Child Care Springfield Newsletter.

I would like to start by thanking all our amazing families that have joined us over the last few months and all our existing families. We hope you and your child/ren are enjoying your time with us as we continue to promote education and develop your children's learning.

It has been a busy few months with our Kindergarten children starting their journey to Primary school. Our Kidi Kingdom Community would like to wish you all the very best on your next adventures into your next phase of your journey of learning.

As most of our families are now aware, Miss April has moved on to our Pimpama Kidi Kingdom Child Care. We thank you for your many years of service at Kidi Kingdom Child Care Springfield. We would like to wish MIss April all the very best and can't wait to see the new centre.

As educators we strive to provide a high and rich quality of care by introducing the Abecedarian Approach to learning the 4 areas. These areas are made up of language priority, enriched caregiving, learning games and conversational reading.

All our communication regarding your child is through our Hub Hello System. If you are unable to see anything through this system please let myself or Chrystle know and we can guide you through the process.

We would also like to remind our families that at the start of January 2023 the centre daily fee rates have increased slightly which means that your direct debit fees have changed. If you believe that your account hasn't been adjusted or have any other fee queries please give myself or Ms Crystal a call and we are more than happy to discuss.

Please keep in mind that your account is required to be 2 weeks in advance at all times to secure your enrolment.

We ask our families to please feel free to contribute to our Quality Improvement Plan, this is available for our families at reception. We value your contribution and feedback.

In March we will welcome a new Early Childhood Teacher to our Kindergarten Program, Ms Ritu. We look forward to her many years of experience and knowledge joining our Kidi Kingdom Team.

Please if you have any questions or concerns feel free to approach me at reception or simply email us at s@kidikingdom.com.au. Please head over to our Facebook page and we always appreciate our loyal families helping our centre by sharing your positive experiences to the local community by writing a quick 5 star Google, CareForKids or Facebook review.

Kind Regards, Natalie Andrews Centre Manager Chrystle Smith Assistant Centre Manager

Click here to visit our pages at Facebook and Instagram

Dear Valued Families of Kidi Kingdom Child Care Springfield

I am delighted to have been given the opportunity this year to assist and guide the educators in their educational programming and delivery of the learning frameworks. The centre wide implementation of the Abecedarian Approach will see an increased focus on child-led experiences based on children's interests which will be used as opportunities for learning and scaffolding children's current abilities and knowledge.

The Abecedarian component of enriched care giving along with our term focus of conversational reading, aims to provide educators with more time with your little ones to engage in one-on-one/small group interactions as part of their daily routines and transitions which facilitates a more natural way of learning.

Families may be unaware that they are already using the Abecedarian approach at home: An example of using a routine for learning can be as simple as having discussions during Meal times - What shape is this fruit, do you know? (Mathematical), Can you name any other food item on your plate? (Vocabulary), Do you love apples? I do too! Do you know where apples come from? (Discuss Processes) Apples are healthy, do you know why? (Nutrition) I am so happy to share breakfast here with you (Emotions).

For more information families can visit Abecedarian Approach | AEF Global.

Please also note that changes have been made to The Early Years Learning Framework Belonging, Being & Becoming as well as the School Age Care Framework My Time, Our Place in terms of inclusion, sustainability, transitions, theoretical approaches and emphasising the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of being and doing which will be put into practice and will reflect in the centre's programming going forward.

Kind Regards, Chrystle Smith, Educational Program Leader.

Welcome Valued Families of the Early Learners Room.

Miss Jayde and I are very excited to begin the new learning journey with your child. We would also like to warmly welcome all our new friends who started with us at the end of 2022 and the start of 2023!

Welcome to EL: Jahna, Lewis, Isaac, Karter, Elio, Ainsley, April, Billy, Benji, and Reia. We are ready to watch the children learn, develop and grow.

We had an amazing time celebrating Christmas and we had lots of fun at our Kidi Kingdom Child Care Centre Christmas party in the big month of December 2022. We had an amazing afternoon tea with various activities outside with our lovely families as well as a big surprise from Santa himself.

We have developed an understanding of the children's establishing routines and families through information sharing during January. We focused on the children's interests and needs. We had the theme of Exploring Our World of Colours which included the arts and painting to decorate our room and while following the children's interests on our daily planning. We participated in the celebration of the calendar events such as Chinese New Year and Australia Day with themed experiences where we acknowledged the culture and traditional music of culture. We are so proud of the children. They had a great time with us during the month.

We have been laying strong foundations with all families in the terms of trust, respect, confidence, and secure relationships to provide the best care for the children. A special congratulations to Benji who celebrated his first birthday this month!

In February and March, we will be focusing on the children's interests to discover and build their world. We would like to lead children to explore nature, weather, and different types of animals. While we attach the most importance to children quickly growing from milestone development.

If there are any concerns or questions, please feel free either to email the centre, send us a message through your children's communication books or come and speak with one of us, we are happy to answer any questions and help wherever we can.

Kind Regards, Miss TaTa and Miss Jayde.

Welcome Valued Families to Junior Early Years Room.

What an amazing start to the year. We spent the month of January exploring different ways of bonding and understanding your child's interests and needs. While also collaborating with other educators of how to set up the room, for a smooth transition from Early Learners.

While in February we have been exploring the children's many interests and seeing how we can extend it into our learning curriculum. It's a fresh new start for all of us in this New Year, not to mention more friends to build connections with.

We are so excited to see what the following months bring in this New Year and we are excited for your voice to be involved in our curriculum too as we are always looking for new ideas and support from families to make it easier with transitioning. We look forward to meeting you all!

Please note we have issued our Family Goal Sheets to support our children and families with achievements they wish to see this year. We can't wait to plan goals for this term.

Kind Regards, Miss Taneeka, Miss Kerrie and Miss Anum.

Welcome Valued Friends and Families of the Early Years Room.

We have had lots of fun getting to know everyone and settling into our new learning space. We have enjoyed exploring our new play space and have set up designated areas for puzzles, block building, home corner play, nature and animal play, reading and creative arts which we have observed as our current activities of interest to the children. We have been working hard to foster responsibility for our belongings including our hats and our shoes and the children are quickly remembering to put their belongings in the correct locations when they are not using them.

At morning yarn times we have noticed the children are interested in counting how many friends have joined us for the day here at kindy. We sit down together to count as a group from 1 - 10, 15 and 20. This has sparked our latest project where we are exploring mathematical activities focusing on HOW MANY and COUNTING while providing lots of language and conversations using appropriate counting language. So far we have enjoyed discovering how many fingers and toes we have while also incorporating a lot of number based songs into our yarn time.

Moving forward I would like to remind everyone to please make sure to bring in bed sheets, hats and nappies each day which are labelled with your child's name. This assists your child in having a smooth day whilst being educated and cared for by our team.

Kind Regards, Miss Sarah, Miss Shayla and Miss Reetu.

Welcome Valued Families of the Senior Early Years Room.

As we settle into a new year, we look forward to participating in many fun and exciting experiences. In the month of January the children transitioned into their new rooms - we welcomed some new faces and had plenty of opportunities to make new friendships. The children have also participated in the celebrations of the Chinese New Year - In China, each year is represented by one of the 12 zodiac animals, this year 2023, we celebrated the year of the Rabbit.

Australia Day - A day for Australians to reflect on what it means to be Australian, to celebrate and to acknowledge our history. During these events the children participated in different activities and learned more about the history that makes these days so special. Moving ahead to the month of February, we have another cultural event to celebrate,

Waitangi Day - Where people of all communities and backgrounds gather at Waitangi to commemorate the first signing of New Zealand's founding document: Te Tiriti o Waitangi, The Treaty of Waitangi.

We also have to look forward to Valentine's Day - sharing the love .Then one of our favourites, Pyjama Day - Where all the children and educators are invited to spend their day dressed in their favourite PJ's.

As educators, we look forward to not only using our knowledge to teach the children, but using the knowledge of the children to also teach ourselves. We look forward to growing with you this year and of course watching the children grow.

Kind Regards, Miss Sandy, Miss Raquel and Miss Maddi J.

Dear Valued Families of the Kindergarten Room.

We would like to welcome all the new and continuing children and families that are in our class. It has been lovely seeing all the smiling faces of the keen and eager children as we begin an exciting new year of learning through a play based approach to learning. Through play your child will discover and extend their own interests, abilities and limitations. During the first term the focus is on settling into the new room, getting to know everyone, building safe, secure, strong relationships and allowing the children to focus on and explore the activities and experiences offered to them at kindy.

The children are offered a variety of different play experiences both planned and unplanned to support their individual and group interests. Your child will continue to develop their emotional, social and physical skills and practice their literacy and numeracy skills, develop responsibility, independence, persistence, resilience, confidence and self worth.

The ongoing learning objectives for the year will be - name recognition, counting, alphabet, phonics, calendar, days of the week, weather, patterns, colours, refining and developing pencil grip skills and eye hand coordination, art and craft and focus on routines, self help skills, independence and organisation.

For resting time could you please bring a fitted cot sheet and blanket that is labeled with your child's name that can be stored at the centre in a pillowcase and sent home to be washed at the end of your child's week or alternatively sent home daily. A bucket hat with your child's name that can be left at kindy or sent home daily. Please also let the centre know if your child has any updated medical or eating requirements.

We are excited to get to know your child and their interests and build a positive relationship with you. We encourage parental input and suggestions to best support your child's learning. We value and respect the culture and beliefs of all our team members and families and encourage family feedback and input into our centre's calendar of events. Let us know if we can add any meaningful events from your family to this.

Kind Regards, Ms Caroline and Miss Shazna.

Dear Valued Families of the School Care Room.

I would like to introduce myself as your new School Care Lead Educator. My name is Miss Anum and I will be caring for and educating your school aged children in the before and after school care program this year. I look forward to spending time with your children and planning experiences for your children based on their needs and interests. Please let me know if there is anything you wish for me to know about your child's interests and if there is any information regarding their individual requirements. I look forward to getting to know the children and families this year, learning together as we start a new year and new journey.

Kind Regards, Miss Anum