Could Your Child Benefit From A HeadStart?

School Readiness

With more and more parents asking the question ‘Is my child ready to start school?’ Wannabees Family Play Town created the Learning Bees program to help children become ready for the challenges of starting school.

Learning Bees is a program which runs parallel to school terms in NSW at Wannabees Family Play Town, and is designed to improve children’s social and academic school readiness.

The program’s focus is on social, emotional, literacy, and numeracy skills.

These skills are very important for a child who is about to start school.

This is echoed by Leanne Batho of Werris Creek Public School, who says:

“The things you can give your child before they start school are good social skills, they need to be able to talk and they need to be able to listen.”

Benefits

Wannabees Learning Bees Program helps kids with their social and emotional skills.

In 2018, Wannabees ran some independent research into how social and emotional skills are improved by attending a role play venue such as Wannabees.

Over a four week period, 20 children came to Wannabees and participated in role-play activities. Over these weeks, marked improvements in social and emotional skills were noticed in most children aged 4-6 years of age. Generally, they became more open to others, and more willing to leave mum or dad for increasing periods of time.

Role-play is used extensively in the Learning Bees program so that children’s social skills are improved. However, the Learning Bees program also focuses on academic skills such as pencil grip, posture, letter recognition, narrative sequencing, memory, and more.

These skills give children a great opportunity to be ready and successful learners when they start school, and Silvia Onorati, Deputy Principal, agrees.

“The Wannabees Learning Bees program is well organised, creative & fun. It gives children a great opportunity to become ready for school & practice valuable skills.” – Silvia Onorati, Deputy Principal.

Program Goals

Overall, the focus of Learning Bees is fun and education, embodying Wannabees’ edutainment focus (education + entertainment). There’s nothing better than learning through experience, and this is what Learning Bees emphasises.

Learning Bees has an eye for your child’s future, with a good start to school being imperative for schooling overall, even into the HSC. Michael Windfred, from Werris Creek Public School states:

“Sometimes if you start them too early, they’re not mature enough at the other end, ready for the complexity of study in the HSC. That worries me if our children aren’t emotionally and academically ready for that”

“By enrolling your child in a program like the Wannabees Learning Bees, you’re enrolling them as good learners for life!” – William Sammuri, Wannabees Learning Bees Program Coordinator.

For more information about our school readiness program: the Wannabees Learning Bees, call us on 02 8021 6902 or email us at info@wanna-bees.com.au