Victoria School Readiness Funding

The OTS program is for children aged 3-6 years in the care of early childhood professionals. It assists with school readiness, promotion of self-regulation skills, and focuses on developing social skills, motor skills, literacy and numeracy skills, routines, emotional wellbeing and independence. As a music therapy program, Sing&Grow music therapists focus on children’s emotional wellbeing, supporting children to understand their feelings, become aware of their peers and their needs, and develop strategies using music as the tool to teach and model these necessary skills for lifelong learning.

Each session includes instrumental play, songs, rhymes, and dancing. Sing&Grow music therapists can also incorporate themes and components from your curriculum into OTS sessions. It is recommended that where possible you book in at least 8 OTS sessions per kinder group in your service; however, this can be flexible depending on your needs. Sing&Grow music therapists must be booked for a minimum of one hour on site. Sessions can be either 30 or 60 minutes depending on the needs of your group. It is recommended that educators participate and are engaged in all Sing&Grow sessions in order to further embed children's learnings throughout the week. OTS programs are most effective when Sing&Grow music therapists and kinder educators are able to collaborate on planning session themes.

To secure your preferred term/day/time for the OTS program, we recommend you notify Sing&Grow prior to the end of the calendar year if you put this program or other Sing&Grow workshops on your SRF plan.  If your service requires a purchase order number in order to process invoices, please arrange this and inform Sing&Grow of the PO number as soon as possible prior to the program commencing. Included in all Sing&Grow services is access for all educators and families to the Sing&Grow Family Portal for the duration of the term. The portal provides access to the online Sing&Grow sessions, companion booklets to each session, free download of the Sing&Grow CD, and other resources to support educators and families to continue using music throughout the day. As part of the OTS program, educators will also receive a companion booklet that includes further information and ideas for embedding music within their teaching practices.

It is recommended that group sizes are capped at a maximum of 20 children per session where possible. Sing&Grow music therapists will be on site for a minimum of one hour. We can offer 2 x 30 minute sessions if the group is larger than 20 children.

Our professional development workshops build the capacity and confidence of early childhood professionals to use music more effectively. The Time for Tunes Workshop empowers staff to facilitate their own small music sessions, whereas the Music Tools Workshop supports them to responsively use music throughout the day to support children’s diverse needs. Contact Sing&Grow for further information on our professional development workshops and how we can tailor the workshop to your needs.

We offer the following:

1. Time for Tunes Workshops
2. Music Tools Workshops
   • General
   • Trauma-informed
   • ASD focused