By Damian Cowell
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The new ECMS service at Topirum Primary School Kindergarten has hit the ground running in
2025. Beginning operation on the first day of the kinder year, Topirum, in line with the Victorian
Government’s Best Start, Best Life initiatives, has set about meeting the challenge of a
growing and diverse community in the City of Casey.
Area Manager Kristie Macarthur has seen how fast the service has already grown:
“We started with two groups of 22 and then interest quickly grew and we ended up increasing
to four groups of 22 then four groups of 33. Currently we're at capacity with 132 families at
Topirum and still some yet to start.”
Kristie, a City of Casey local, is only too aware of the community’s spread of languages and
cultures, and describes how this informed ECMS’ approach to recruiting the Topirum teaching
team.
“In line with our ECMS place-based model we wanted to be attuned and aware of the diverse
families in the area. We did research on the languages that were spoken primarily in homes
from the families coming to our service. We did some recruiting around that so we could
extend that home presence into the service and hopefully ease the transition into kindergarten.
“We know for three-year-olds and some fours this is their first time engaging in early learning,
so it can be really scary. We also know culturally diverse communities sometimes have big
families in their homes. The child is not only leaving the home nest, they're leaving their village.
Having an educator speak their home language was important for us to make them feel safe
but also for that connection piece for them.”
Located next to Topirum Primary School, Kristie and the team sought more than geographical
closeness.
“We’ve developed a great relationship with Marc De Ley, the Principal at Topirum Primary
School. It’s important to work closely, because it underpins everything we do. Our journey with
the children doesn't end once they move on to primary school. We want to make sure that
we've built them with all those foundational skills for life, but to also be able to thrive in school.
“We also flip our thinking to: ‘is the school ready for the children?’ and we can really taper that
with the relationships we hold between kinder and school. The teachers now have first-hand
access to the children well and truly before they enter into Prep in 2026.
“We can help that transition especially for children that need extra support - maybe some
separation anxiety or additional needs - we're already on the front foot and proactively
supporting that child's journey.”
Strong relationships with the City of Casey have also been important. Mayor of the City of
Casey Cr Stefan Koomen said the municipality is one of the fastest growing Local Government
areas in Victoria.
“The City of Casey is experiencing significant population growth particularly in Clyde and Clyde
North where Topirum is located,” Cr Koomen said.
“It is anticipated that these areas will comprise of 67 per cent of future expansion and
predominantly feature young families."
By working in collaboration, Kristie and the team were able to utilise the City of Casey’s broad understanding
of the local context, to support service delivery and foster a supportive environment that
facilitates connections to community and essential services and ultimately leads to high quality
early years services where children and families are actively engaged.
Even within this rapidly expanding area, Kristie acknowledges that each suburb is uniquely
different and requires adaptation:
“That's why our place-based model is the core of our work. It really centres us in how we tailor
our support and individualise that to the needs of each family and community and also the
learning journey of children.”
