St John’s Lutheran Kindergarten Newtown supports 27 children each day, with 67 children moving through our doors across the week in mixed age groupings. Like all Victorian Kindergartens, we are progressively rolling out additional hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder, building on the standard 15 hours per week available to children in the year before school.
Learning French, the Immersion Way
Thanks to the Victorian Government’s Early Childhood Language Program (ECLP) grant, St John’s employs a native French speaking Early Childhood Teacher in addition to our regular ratio staff. This educator delivers three hours of French immersion per group each week, within the state-wide ‘Learn Languages at Kindergarten’ stream, part of a $53.8 million investment that will run in Victorian kindergartens through to 2027 and now supports around 200 teachers delivering programs to roughly 7,000 children each year.
Immersion looks different to a language lesson. Rather than a set ‘French time’, the language is folded into everyday play and routine, through art, music, singing, dancing and stories, giving children ongoing exposure during the years they are best placed to absorb a second language almost without realising it. Alongside the language itself, exposure of this kind is linked to broader gains for young children, including stronger pre-reading and pre-writing skills, sharper problem-solving, and a stronger sense of cultural identity and connection.
For St John’s, offering French through a genuine immersion model rather than a set weekly lesson reflects a considered choice, one made with an eye to our families’ interests and the value of sustained, everyday exposure over a single scheduled session.
Bush Kinder at Fyansford Common
Each week in Term 3, St John’s children head out to Fyansford Common for Bush Kinder, a new program for the service in 2026. This follows on from the Bush Kinder Grant St John’s secured in 2025, which funded professional development for staff and resources to support the program, including wet weather clothing for children. Getting off site into a bush setting weekly, rather than as an occasional excursion, gives children the chance to build familiarity with the landscape: knowing the trees, the terrain and the seasonal changes well enough to take considered risks and explore with confidence. Over a full term, this builds into a real sense of ownership over the space, with children often taking the lead in showing new starters or family members around ‘their’ bush.
A Head Start into Prep
Co-location with Geelong Lutheran College means more than proximity. Over 90 per cent of our 4-year-olds go on to Prep at GLC, and that shared campus underpins a smooth transition for children and their families.
With parental consent, the kindergarten and school share information openly. Across the year, children build familiarity with the school through visits to the library, the Prep room, the music room and outdoor facilities, so by the time they start school, very little feels unfamiliar. The relationship does not end on their first day either; conversations between kindergarten and school staff can continue well into the school year.
St John’s Newtown’s obtained an Exceeding rating under the National Quality Standard in late 2024, the first LEVNT Early Childhood service to reach this level of recognition. This success speaks to the dedication and professionalism of our educators and leadership team at the site. It is also a reflection of the strong relationship we share with Geelong Lutheran College, and the quality this partnership continues to support across everything our service offers.
