ABOUT US
Our Founder
Kate Cugnetto has a lifelong passion for early childhood education. Over the course of her ten-year teaching career, she has developed expertise in teaching the early years, developing curriculum programs and assessment, as well as leading and coordinating whole school numeracy. Kate's strongest passion was teaching prep. It was in the prep classroom that she discovered how vital it is to build strong foundations so little learners can grow and succeed in learning. With two young children of her own, the seeds for Learning Buds were planted in 2011 when her daughter attended a second language preschool. Kate realised then that there were insufficient programs available in English to strengthen and explicitly teach early literacy and numeracy skills, in a structured and engaging environment. She also saw that there was a need to educate and support parents on ways to best prepare their child for school. This is what inspired the concept of Learning Buds. With both Kate's professional and personal experience as an early years primary teacher and as a parent, she understands the unique needs of young learners.
Philosophy
Children are born ready to learn and explore. From birth to three years of age, a child experiences the greatest amount of human growth and development. Research shows that the experiences we provide our child with during the first five years will shape their future learning and success. Undeniably, all children learn at different rates. The biggest surprise is that the small things can make a world of difference.
At Learning Buds, our goal is to support and enhance each child's learning journey, giving children the best start to learning.
Learning Buds offers a fun, supportive and engaging learning environment for children aged between 2½ to 5 years of age. It balances structure and creative freedom to strengthen each child's desire to learn and discover. The programs offered are specifically designed to develop and improve each child's early literacy, early numeracy and oral language skills.
Why Learning Buds?
The transition between kindergarten and school is truly significant. At kindergarten, learning is play based, with a strong focus on developing children's interpersonal skills, fine motor and gross motor skills. The programs offered at each kindergarten varies significantly. School is very different. Children are placed in an environment where structured learning, explicit teaching, benchmarking and ongoing assessments prevail. They are expected to read, write and learn basic numeracy skills by the end of the year. No wonder the transition between kindergarten and school often evokes uncertainty and anxiety in both children and parents alike. Learning Buds aims to alleviate these concerns, and help better prepare children and parents alike for the schooling years ahead.