An East Cannington early learning centre is attracting attention from interstate educators as a school readiness program developed in Western Australia expands beyond the state.
Four educators from Y Canberra recently travelled to Perth to learn about the School ReadY Program, which has been running across Y WA early learning centres since 2024.
During the visit, the Canberra team spent time at the Y WA East Cannington Early Learning Centre, as well as centres in Westminster and Yappara House, observing the program and taking part in training with Y WA Literacy Specialist Renee Chakaodza.
The program was developed by Y WA in 2022 to help children aged three to five build literacy, language, social and emotional, and numeracy skills before starting school.
East Cannington Centre Director Jyoti Pandya said the local centre was selected as one of the sites for the visit because of its work supporting children across a range of ages.
“The East Cannington site demonstrates how the program has been successful in supporting children across the ages from three to five years old,” she said.
“Educators at the centre adapt the lessons and activities as required to support early oral language development and pre-literacy skills in an age-appropriate way that the younger children in the centre engage with successfully.”
Ms Pandya said educators had seen positive changes in children taking part in the program.
“Educators have reported improvements in children’s early literacy, language, confidence, and social skills,” she said.
“Children are becoming more engaged in learning, developing stronger communication skills, and building positive relationships with peers.”
She said educators also used a language screening tool to help identify children who may need additional support before they begin school.
One family said the program helped identify speech difficulties their son was experiencing.
A mother, Sowmya said staff at the East Cannington centre raised concerns about her son Nirav’s speech development and helped guide the family towards further support.
“One thing we’re especially grateful for is that through the program, the staff noticed that our son was having some difficulties with his speech,” she said.
“We hadn’t taken fully seriously the extent of it ourselves, so having that flagged was a real turning point for us.”
Sowmya said the centre helped the family obtain a referral to a speech therapist and access group therapy sessions.
“Those sessions made a huge difference — not just for his speech, but for his confidence around other children too,” she said.
“As a family, it gave us a lot of peace of mind knowing the ELC was genuinely paying attention to his overall development and not just ticking boxes.”
Ms Pandya said some of the most common challenges children face before starting school include language difficulties, limited early literacy skills, confidence issues and emotional regulation.
She said the School ReadY Program aims to address those challenges through targeted literacy activities, vocabulary development and play-based learning experiences.
The organisation said the WA-developed initiative had attracted attention because of its focus on evidence-based early learning practices and the results achieved across Y WA’s network of centres.
This version leads with the local East Cannington angle, uses the Canberra visit as supporting context, and relies heavily on the parent’s experience to give the story genuine community interest.
