Karrinyup

Our Karrinyup centre caters to a maximum of 20 children per day, with a mixed-age class of children ranging from two years old to five and a half. Children do not need to be toilet trained, we have children in nappies, toilet training and fully trained.

The Inside Classrooms

We have two rooms with different activities and the children are free to move between them. We have a mixed age range from 2 years old until the end of the kindy year. We believe your child's age does not define what they can do, so we provide all learning in little steps, from the simplest to the most complex. Children are always able to extend on their current knowledge, without feeling defeated by being asked to do something that is beyond their abilities. Creating confident, enthusiastic learners who have the ability to work independently, with deep concentration, is one of our biggest goals.

Practical Life

Practical life activities teach children the fine motor and real-life skills that form the foundation of the Montessori Education Program. Children love these activities which help them develop their independence and concentration skills. Spooning, pouring, using tweezers, pegs, hammering, screwing, juicing and threading are just some of these fantastic activities!

Sensorial

Sensorial materials in a Montessori school are designed to engage children by activating their five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. The development and refinement of our senses are greatest during the earliest years of development.

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Literacy

Preschoolers are at an age where they are absorbing all aspects of language. There is no better time to learn to read and write. Watch our videos on the Learning at Home tab for exactly how we take little steps to big achievements, leading your preschooler to excel at reading and writing!

Our educators apply the Montessori method, combined with Accelerated Learning principles to make learning to read and write easy, exciting and fun.

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Numeracy

The Montessori materials for learning mathematics give children a concrete experience, so they gain a deep understanding of the processes involved. They always work first with concrete materials and move at their own pace toward abstraction with paper and pencil, or towards mental arithmetic. This helps them to internalise concepts at a deeper, more lasting level than if they had memorised them by rote. In our classroom the children work through a well thought out curriculum of steps from learning their numbers to complex manipulations of numbers beyond a thousand.

Painting, drawing, sewing, threading, cutting, glueing, tearing, stamping...

Art & Craft

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We find that art and craft is a fantastic way to develop children's creativity, fine motor skills, pre writing skills and concentration. We always have a large collection of art and craft activities on the shelves from which the children can choose.

Care Of Animals

Our students love caring for our chickens and guinea pigs. Our chickens live in their own garden as they are messy creatures and the children can go and watch them through the gate. They love to come out for visits and lots of cuddles.

The guinea pigs are also lovely little creatures, that are wonderful for teaching the children to be gentle and careful. ''Can I hold a guinea pig?'' is often the first thing said when coming outside!

Environmental Studies

Children have an intense curiosity for the world around them. The Montessori materials help them to make sense of their environment and improve their observation skils by giving them concrete materials, such as puzzle maps and sorting activities. There are puzzle maps of the different continents, sorting cards to classify animals in categories, such as mammals, birds, etc. There are puzzles and cards to learn different parts of plants and animals and so much more. Gardening activities also help them to learn to care for our environment.

The Outside Classroom

We believe children need plenty of time outside to develop their social skills, gross motor skills, coordination, basic sports skills, gardening, care of animals and just for all the fun that comes with being out in nature!

Our staff are trained in the UWA Kiddo program, a specialist program developed by academics at The University of Western Australia to help prepare children to be active and healthy for life.

Puzzles, construction, matching, playing...

We set up our classrooms so that the children can have the freedom to choose what they want to work on and follow their own interests. They can work independently or collaboratively around the rooms. It might just look like play, but all these activities are developing their ability to make choices, source what they need to complete an activity, concentrate, work independently and pack away once they have finished.

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Our Educators

Cassie:

Cassie is the Coordinator and Educational Leader at Smart Start Karrinyup. She is a passionate Montessori

educator with 14 years of experience in Montessori education (3-6). Over the past 14 years, Cassie has had the
wonderful opportunity to work in Montessori environments in Perth and Darwin. She is passionate about Holistic
education and views children as capable learners. Cassie is enthusiastic about preparing a child for life through
independent experiences.

Robyn:

Robyn started with us with a background in business administration, but quickly proved herself as a voracious learner, diving into her qualifications and training. She has always gone above and beyond anything expected of her, working tirelessly to plan activities for the children, develop her knowledge, creating/ sourcing resources and putting her organisational skills to work in sorting our large collection of classroom materials.

Priscilla:

Priscilla has a Diploma in Early Childhood and one specialising in Montessori education as well from the highly regard Association Montessori Internationale . She is originally from Brazil and joined Smart Start several years ago, working across our centres.

Pema:

Pema has a Civil Engineering degree and a Certificate Three in Early Childhood. She is studying towards her masters in engineering currently.

Sarah:

Sarah is a Quailfied Early Childhood Teacher who has specialised in Montessori. Sarah also has a bachelors degree in Communications and Anthropology. She obtained a high school scholarship to play the violin, has enjoyed playing with the Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, the Perth Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra. Sarah started with Smart Start as an assistant educator in 2004 and her passion for setting preschoolers up with the life long learning skills for success is what drives her passion for her work.

Opening Hours/ Fees:

The centre is open every day from 7.30am - 5.30pm.

We are approved providers and so parents can claim the Child Care Subsidy for this centre. The fee for the full day, without the childcare benefit or rebate, is $128 per day.

Location:

We are located behind the Karrinyup shopping centre, within a short walk of the Karrinyup Bus Port. Our address is 4 Davenport Street in Karrinyup.

Special Extra Activites:

Dance
Gardening
Care of Animals
Music and dance session every day
Brain Gym
Yoga
Full Montessori program provided by Montessori qualified staff

We also have the optional extra of Happy Feet dance classes as an extra cost option, once a week.