About Us
Jolly Frog Kindergarten is a family-owned and operated early learning service, proudly led by Vivian Mkari, a qualified teacher and approved provider with a strong commitment to high-quality early childhood education.
With centres in Westmead and Northmead, we provide a safe, nurturing and high-quality learning environment where every child is respected, supported and encouraged to develop a strong sense of belonging.
At Jolly Frog Kindergarten, we place a strong emphasis on school readiness, supporting children to build the confidence, independence and foundational skills needed for a successful transition to primary school.
Our Northmead centre offers a focused preschool program for children aged 3–5 years, designed specifically to prepare children for school through a structured and supportive learning environment.
Our Westmead centre caters for children aged 0–6 years, providing a nurturing setting where children grow and develop from their earliest years through to school readiness, with continuity of care and learning.
We believe that strong partnerships with families are essential. By working collaboratively with our community and maintaining connections with local primary schools, we support each child to feel confident, capable and ready for their next stage of learning.
At Jolly Frog Kindergarten, we are committed to building confident, capable learners and strong foundations for lifelong learning.
Our Aim
Our goal at Jolly Frog is to establish a close partnership with families. Through this collaboration, our teachers develop learning programs that are responsive to children's ideas, interests, strengths, and abilities. We acknowledge the significance of play as a key avenue for children's learning.
Our aims:
- Partnering with parents and families to support the children.
- Offering information, contacts, and support for children, parents, and families.
- Creating a high-quality care and learning environment.
- Implementing a program based on the Early Years Learning Framework, ensuring engaging learning experiences that build success for life.
- Establishing a safe, secure, happy, and loving home-like environment that fosters a sense of belonging for children.
- Embracing childhood as a time for exploration, meaning-making, and discovery.
- Providing vibrant and flexible spaces responsive to each child's interests and abilities.
- Offering a rich array of resources to stimulate learning and development.
- Employing experienced educators/staff dedicated to nurturing, caring, and valuing children.
- Recognising and responding to all children's strengths, abilities, and interests, building upon them to ensure motivation and engagement in learning.
- Acknowledging and respecting children's expertise, cultural traditions, languages, and strategies used by children with additional needs in navigating their everyday lives.
Our Mission
At Jolly Frog, we deeply recognise the significance of play in early childhood development. Serving as a crucial and non-threatening tool, play is central to a child's learning and growth. Through spontaneous and meaningful play, young children explore, communicate, discover, imagine, and create, showcasing their understanding of the world. Play is a foundation of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), emphasising its role in children's social interactions, idea testing, critical thinking, and the construction of new understandings.
Guided by the EYLF, our teachers carefully design learning activities and create stimulating indoor and outdoor environments to facilitate and enhance children's play. We embrace each child's uniqueness, acknowledging that they progress at their own pace. The EYLF, a key component of the National Quality Framework established by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), aims to provide all young children in Australia with opportunities to maximize their potential and establish a foundation for future success.
The EYLF envisions play-based learning that is engaging and fosters success for life, emphasising three key principles:
- Belonging: Anchored in meaningful relationships with family, community, culture, and place.
- Becoming: Focusing on the learning and development that shapes a child's sense of identity and future adulthood.
- Being: Emphasising the importance of childhood as a unique time for play, exploration, and enjoyment.
Our teachers collaborate with parents to understand each child well, creating a tailored learning program based on their interests and abilities. Through the EYLF's five learning goals, we help children develop:
- A strong sense of their identity (have confidence in themselves and to form friendships)
- Connections with their world (learn to respect the environment and cultural diversity)
- A strong sense of wellbeing (socially, emotionally & physically)
- Confidence and involvement in their learning (explore, create, learn, experiment)
- Effective communication skills (by using literacy and numeracy to communicate)
We keep parents informed about their child's progress throughout this transformative journey.
Our Goals
1. Children Have a Strong Sense of Identity
- 1. Children to feel safe, secure, and supported.
- 2. Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
- 3. Children develop knowledgeable and confident self identities.
- 4. Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect.
3. Children are Effective Communicators
- 1. Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
- 2. Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts.
- 3. Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media.
- 4. Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work.
- 5. Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.
5. Children Have a Strong Sense of Wellbeing
- 1. Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing.
- 2. Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing.
2. Children are Connected with and Contribute to their World
- 1. Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation
- 2. Children respond to diversity with respect.
- 3. Children become aware of fairness.
- 4. Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.
4. Children are Confident and Involved Learners
- 1. Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
- 2. Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.
- 3. Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another.
- 4. Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
Our Philosophy
At Jolly Frog Kindergarten, we are committed to providing a safe, nurturing and high quality early learning environment where every child is respected, supported and develops a strong sense of belonging.
As a family-owned and operated kindergarten led by an experienced and qualified teacher, we combine professional expertise with genuine care to lay strong foundations for lifelong learning.
Our program is guided by the Early Years Learning Framework – Belonging, Being & Becoming (V2.0). Through play-based and intentional teaching, we recognise children as capable learners and support their development across the five learning outcomes. Our kindergarten program builds these foundations and supports children to make a confident transition to school.
We value families as children's first teachers and build respectful partnerships grounded in trust, collaboration and open communication. As an established service, we are proud of our welcoming community and meaningful local connections.
Our educators are dedicated professionals who engage in ongoing learning and reflective practice. Led by an experienced teacher-owner, our team maintains high expectations for children's learning and wellbeing within a supportive and collaborative environment.
We are committed to maintaining a child safe environment where children's safety, rights and wellbeing are central to all decisions and practices. Through clear policies aligned with Child Safe Standards and by empowering children's voices, we ensure every child feels safe, secure and protected.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land and are committed to embedding cultural perspectives and fostering respect, inclusion and reconciliation within our kindergarten community.
We prioritise children's physical, social, emotional and mental wellbeing through nurturing relationships, responsive teaching and consistent routines. Our natural outdoor environment, shaded by mature trees, inspires exploration, environmental awareness and respect for the world around us.
Guided by the National Quality Framework, we engage in ongoing reflection, professional learning and collaboration to ensure continuous improvement and excellence in early childhood education.