Innovative Learning at Y Whittlesea Early Learning
Dec 8, 2025 | aliciamarcano | Diggers Rest, Education, Eucalyptus, Events, Galada, General Information, Kirrip, Mill Park Heights, News, Orchard Road, The Heights
“The Y School ReadY Program helps build foundational skills like vocabulary, phonics, and early literacy in a way that feels fun and engaging for children”
Ms Aulakh, parent of a participant of Y WA ELC.
At Y Whittlesea, we’re always innovating to bring the best to your child’s education. That’s why, in partnership with Y Western Australia, we are thrilled to integrate the Literacy component of the School ReadY Program into our curriculum from 2026.
What is The School ReadY Program?
The School ReadY Program combines play-based early learning experiences with intentional teaching of pre-academic and social emotional skills to ensure that children will have the best start to their school journey.
Delivery of this exciting and unique program will provide valuable, engaging learning opportunities for children attending 3 & 4-year-old kindergarten.
The program is focused on preparing children to be ‘school ready’ for their pre-primary year of schooling by addressing three domains. These domains have been identified through research as critical for children’s intellectual development, sociability and emotional health.
The School ReadY Program addresses the following three domains:
– Literacy & Language
– Numeracy- STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)
– Social & Emotional Wellbeing
Parents and carers will be updated as the journey of implementing the social, emotional wellbeing and numeracy domains of the program continues to progress over the coming years.
Development of The School ReadY Program in Western Australia
In 2023, in partnership with researchers from Knowledge Society and La Trobe University’s Science of Reading Lab, a pilot program was implemented at five Y Western Australia Early Learning Centres.
Children who participated in the Y WA School ReadY Program made significant gains in skills targeted by the program. It was very encouraging to note that some children were seen demonstrating their new skills at home as well as at the Early learning Centres.
This gives us great confidence that the program is effective in helping children develop the skills it is designed to teach.
Learn more about the success of the School ReadY Program at Y WA in this Newspaper article.
Pilot Implementation in Y Whittlesea
Earlier 2025, a group of educators from Orchard Road Early Learning Centre in Doreen traveled to Perth to receive training, gain tools, and gather resources to implement the School ReadY program.
A pilot program began in 2025 with a couple of groups at Orchard Road Early Learning Centre and has already shown great success. With support from our Y WA team, the program will continue to grow and be introduced across all our centres from February 2026.
Our participating centres are:
– Diggers Rest ELC
– Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten
– Galada Kindergarten
– Kirrip Kindergarten
– Millpark Heights Childcare centre
– The Heights Kindergarten
– Orchard Road Community and ELC
Here’s a sneak peek of the program in action at Orchard Road ELC- View Video
Ongoing research partners and commitment to quality
We will continue to partner with researchers in order to further build on our understanding of the ways in which The School ReadY Program contributes to children’s school readiness. The ongoing research will also support Y educators to continue to develop their own knowledge and skills.
There will be ongoing opportunities provided for parents and families to access information related to The School ReadY Program as it is implemented across all Y Whittlesea sites. Our team is looking forward to working in partnership with families in supporting your children to achieve positive, life-long outcomes.
To find out more about our School ReadY Program, download our Parents and Careers Information Pack here.