Newsletter October 2007

Marisha’s editorial

“The Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs, James Merlino, is calling for nominations to Victoria’s Awards for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs.”  The deadline for nominations ends on 12/Oct/07.  We would like our parents to nominate us and let the government know that we are the first playgroup association that has accepted families who speak different languages and who are from different cultural backgrounds and in doing so, the playgroup is promoting community cohesion and harmony.  The aim of Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup Inc. is as follows:

The Multicultural Bilingual Learning Playgroup Association Inc. (known as Kimmba) (“Association”) is a playgroup association which focuses on helping pre-school age (0-6 years of age) children learn a foreign language early in their lives with the aim of building the self-esteem and confidence. The program developed by the Association will also help participant children and their families understand other cultures and thus promote community cohesion and harmony. The Association is the first playgroup association in Australia that is aimed at the acceptance of families and children who come from different nationalities and backgrounds and who speak different languages because the Association believes that a society that accepts its peoples’ colours, races, languages, and even religions, is a successful, well-functioning society and one in which we would like our children to live and grow. As migrants, we would like to see multiculturalism in Australia continue to succeed and in doing so promote the diversities of the world’s cultures without any language barriers. The Association has started playgroups in the following languages: Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish, German is just formed.

It’s finally the last term of the year! We must been so looking forward to the Christmas holiday season. Details on the End of Year Performance are in the section below.

During this term Kimmba is having a very special Christmas fundraiser: Photo Colour Calendars. More details in our ‘fund raising’ section of this edition.

We are publishing our financial statement in our newsletter from now as Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup is a non profit making organisation and we need as much support from our parents as possible. The best way for us to communicate is through the newsletter. Vickie So is our treasurer and she will be responsible for the treasurer’s section.

New languages on board for term 4

We have formed a German bilingual learning playgroup and we are looking for a German language preschool teacher to come on board. During the term break, I have placed a notice with Bilingual Options run by Dr. Susanne Opie, and in the Bayswater German Primary school newsletter and I have also spoken to Ms Corine Rivalland (currently teaching and studying PhD in Monash Uni). She has helped to print and put up posters in two Monash Uni campuses. Hopefully we would find our much wanted German language teacher soon. If anyone knows where to find a teacher for the German group please let me know so we can contact them directly.

Saturday afternoon Mandarin Session

As we have reached our maximum number of children for the Saturday afternoon Mandarin session, we will run two sessions for this term. Parents are able to choose the earlier or later sessions depending on whether their child still needs an afternoon nap or not. Therefore we are able to take more enrolments for both sessions. The first session starts from 1:45 and finishes at 3:15pm; the second one starts from 3:30 and ends at 5:00pm. We are able to take 5 more enrolments for the first session and 3 more for the later one. Remember, we are still offering the second session of the same language at a 50% discount rate to encourage the early language learning for our young children.

Register Interests for New Rostered Program, 2008

The new rostered program for 2008 is considered an extra curricular activity to the existing government kinder educational program. We are offering our unique language program once a week, not exceeding 2 and ½ hours each time, or two 2 hour sessions per week, not more than 4 hours in total. The classroom size would be even smaller than the existing playgroups, with only 4 or 8 or 12 children per class as we have to keep the child/adult ratio to 4:1; therefore, we still need a little of your help. Please register your interest for this unique language program, whether you would like to take 2 and ½ hours once per week or 2 hours twice a week before the end of this term so we can better organize ourselves for the development of the course for next year.

We will continue our existing playgroup sessions for our younger children in 2008.

End of Year Function for all of our families

This big event will be on Sunday 18th of November from 11am to 1pm at the Ajani Centre, 284 Thomsons Road, Lower Templestowe, Vic. 3107. As we are still awaiting an answer from Manningham City Council about our Community Grant application, we are not sure whether our local council would be one of our event sponsors or not. Therefore we have no option but to charge for an entry fee to cover the cost of the event. The ticket price is $25.00 per couple/family, children under 12 are free. Tickets for each additional adult is $15.00; additional couple per family (grand-parents, uncle and aunty) will be $25 each couple. Please invite as many family members and friends as you would like to participate with this first and unique young children’s language performance in Melbourne. I would strongly advise that parents purchase as many tickets as you wish ASAP as there are only so many front seats available and you don’t want to miss this fun and meaningful activity for your child/ren.

Please note that there is no flash camera and video recording allowed as young children are easily distracted and upset by the surroundings so we have organized a professional company to come and record the whole event for us and parents can order the disk directly from them. More details about how to purchase the disk will be available in next newsletter. We ask that parents sit back and enjoy your child/ren’s performance rather than rush front and back to record the performance as this would cause chaos to the stage performance because there are other children on the stage who might have difficulty concentrating and your best spot for recording might also be everyone else’s as well.

An in-Kind help list is provided below. Please put your names down for our annual event, 2007. We need assistance with designing the programs, designing the brochure, tickets, costume making (all mothers), setting up and cleaning up before and after the performance on the day.

List of duties before, during and after the performance

Fund Raising Activities for Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup Inc, 2007

A BIG thank you to all parents who participated in our first fund raising educational toy sale catalogue. We have raised about $350.00 so far!! As I was told by the educational toy sale company that toys would be here within 2-3 weeks but the information has not been correct. The order would be send at around 3 weeks of them being processed. A very big difference! My apology to everyone as toys should be here this week.

We are very honoured to announce that Ms. Leypeng Thomas is our chief fund raising committee member. Ms. Thomas is an experienced fund raising president of her daughter’s kinder fund raising committee team. Ms. Thomas knows first hand how important the fund raising activities are to assist the running of any non profit making organisation. She has brought the best idea for us about an easy, popular, and meaningful Christmas fund raising idea that is the Photo Colour Calendar for 2008. It is $15.00 per calendar. All you need to do is send a photo of your child/ren to the company and parents can order as many copies as you would like to send away for Christmas presents for family members and friends. There will be a simple order form for parents to fill in and the money will be due at the same time as you pay for your term 4 fees. Below is a small vision of what the calendar will look like but with your child/ren’s photo.

Photo Colour Calendars : feature 1 photo enlarged to A4 size, laminated and bound with wire into high quality 12 month tear-off colour calendars.

Treasurer’s report

Before next edition of our newsletter, we wish you all the best and have a wonderful experience in Term 4 with us and looking forward to seeing you all in the End of Year Performance.