Services for families and children

Rockingham Early Years Services 

We are dedicated to providing local families information related to the early years and children (0-12 years). The Rockingham Early Years Group has developed a poster to outline simple ways you can support your child’s development during the early years and give them the best start in life. See below for the Give Your Child the Best Start in Life poster.

The City's libraries also offer storytime, Better Beginnings and other programs that support early skills development.

Below is an outline of some of the services that you may be interested in accessing.

    Storytime at the library                                       

Free workshops

Fear-Less Triple P - Helping Children Manage Anxiety 

  • Date: Wednesday 24 August 2022
  • Time: 9am-12pm
  • Location: Golden Bay Primary School 

Everyone experiences anxiety occasionally, including children and teenagers. Anxiety is a normal response that can be helpful and typically passes quickly, however, it has the potential to cause significant distress and to interfere with a person's ability to do the things they want to and should be able to do. Learning to manage anxiety effectively is a vital life skill, but one that children are not formally taught. 

This seminar aims to provide parents with:

  • key anxiety-management skills that they can teach children
  • an understanding of how anxiety works
  • knowledge of how to help their children develop coping skills and face feared situations
  • how to manage children's anxious behaviour effectively.

Suitable for parents and caregivers of children aged up to 11 years old.

Registration is essential. Please register via email customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au or phone 9528 0333.

Coping with Stress and Separation Problems 

  • Dates: Wednesday 31 August 2022
  • Times: 1pm-3pm 
  • Location: Golden Bay Primary School 

Being a parent is busy and demanding and it is normal for parents to feel stressed. Being highly stressed can make it harder to be consistent and calm when managing children's difficult behaviour. In the first hour of this workshop we go through what is stress, what causes stress, how it affects parents, how to recognise, reduce and manage stress and when to seek help.

All children have to learn to cope with temporary separations from their parents. Learning to be apart can be difficult for parents and children, however parents need time to themselves occasionally and children benefit from spending time with other people. The second hour of this workshop provides some suggestions to help you teach your pre-schooler to mix with others and calmly separate from you. 

Suitable for parents and caregivers of children aged up to 11 years old.

Registration is essential. Please register via email customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au or phone 9528 0333.

 

Available services

Learn and play at home

Below are a number of local and state initiatives available to assist you and your children to learn and play at home during this time. Local activities for children can be found on our activities for families and children page.

Department of Education – Learn from Home Resources

The Department of Education have developed resources, activities and information to help children and young people learn while at home. Resource packs cover all age groups from kindergarten to Year 10. 

The Valuing Children Initiative – Home Schooling Support

The Valuing Children Initiative is providing daily resources and tips for families who are home schooling. These resources can be found on the Valuing Children Initiative Facebook page.

Playgroup at Home WA

To keep families connected, Playgroup WA has launched a new Facebook group called Playgroup at Home WA. Follow them to see an array of play-time activities for children aged 0 – 8 years.

Paint Rockingham REaD

Paint Rockingham REaD logoPaint Rockingham REaD is run as part of the national Paint the Town REaD Ltd campaign. The campaign is all about encouraging the whole community to read, talk, rhyme and sing with children from birth so they will be ready to learn at school.

Children whose parents read with them in their early years of life show better performance in school. Reading with children not only helps them learn reading and writing, but it also boosts their social skills, brain development, and understanding of the world around them.

The aim is to create a community culture that celebrates literacy and has a love for reading.

How can you support Paint Rockingham REaD?

  • Attend Paint Rockingham REaD events and share them among your friends.
  • Promote the message of reading, talking, rhyming and singing with children from birth to give them the best start to life.                    

How can local businesses and organisations support Paint Rockingham REaD?

  • Host a Paint Rockingham REaD book swap box – the aim is to distribute swap boxes all around the community. Local businesses, schools and organisations are invited to host a swap box to encourage everyone to read to children and to ensure every child has access to children’s books. Swap boxes are not currently in use due to COVID-19 restrictions. If you would like to be register your interest to host a swap box, please email customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au and we will advise when the program will recommence.
  • Have Widi, the Paint Rockingham REaD mascot, attend your event. Community organisations are welcome to book Widi the Penguin to promote reading, rhyming, talking and singing with children. To book Widi, please read the Safety Guidelines below and fill out the booking form. Send your completed booking form to rclcontact@rockingham.wa.gov.au.

For more information on the Paint Rockingham REaD campaign, please contact us on 9528 0333 or email customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au.

Rockingham Early Years Group

The Rockingham Early Years Group (REYG) is a network collaborating to improve outcomes for children in Rockingham. The REYG meets every six weeks. If you would like to join the meetings, please contact us on 9528 0333 or email customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au.

Me at 3 passports:

The REYG collaborated to support the development, print and distribution of the Me at 3 passport resource for Rockingham families. The booklet outlines the skills three year olds can develop and encourages children and families to work together to meet developmental milestones. The resource supports parents to prepare their children for kindergarten and school.

Fore more information on the Rockingham Early Years Network please visit the group's Facebook page.

Playgroups

A playgroup is a group of parents, caregivers and extended family who come together with their babies and young children to learn together through play. Playgroups are a great way for your kids to interact with other children in a fun and safe environment, while giving you the opportunity to interact with other parents.

There are many playgroups to check out across the City. Information on groups in your local areas can be found on the Playgroup WA website.  Playgroup WA can also support you to set up your own playgroup.

KEYS and Ngala

Kwinana Early Years Services (KEYS) is a not-for-profit charity that provides early years support and services free to Kwinana and Rockingham residents including counselling, family support, play connect and best beginnings.

Ngala is a provider of early parenting and early childhood services with a passion for supporting and guiding families and young children through the journey of parenting. Ngala offer parenting workshops and playtimes in Rockingham.

Communicare and Wanslea

Communicare aims to create community inclusion and community safety. Communicare provides the following services:

  • children's services
  • family services
  • settlement services
  • education and training services
  • employment services
  • family violence and justice services.

Wanslea promotes community, family, and individual development through partnerships and services. Families and children are the focus of the entire organisation, which has now grown to offer services in four key areas:

  • family support
  • out-of-home care
  • community capacity building
  • child care.
Child and Parent Centre - East Waikiki

The Child and Parent Centre - East Waikiki is an early childhood one-stop shop located in at East Waikiki Primary School.  The centre offers playgroups, song, movement and craft activities as well as parent information workshops.  It also provides speech pathology and child health services as well as a fortnightly immunisation clinic.

Child and Adolescent Health Services

Child Health Services are staffed by registered nurses with qualifications in child and family health. They provide a range of services in partnership with parents and carers of babies and young children up to the age of four years.

FIFO Families and Defence Community Organisation

If you are part of a FIFO family in Rockingham and would like some support, be connected to services, and be able to network with other FIFO families, please contact FIFO Families Rockingham via email on rockingham@fifofamilies.com.au.

Defence Member and Family Support offers a broad range of programs and services to help Defence families make the most of the challenges and opportunities provided by the military way of life.

Better Health Program

The free Better Health Program is a fun and interactive 10-week healthy lifestyle program for children aged 7-13 years who are above a healthy weight, and their families.

The program covers information about healthy eating and includes an hour of physical activity at every session. Sessions run twice a week, for two hours.

Children build confidence, boost self-esteem and get fit playing fun games, while parents learn new skills to ensure their children are fit and healthy, in a supportive and friendly environment.
 
Programs run every school term at the Mike Barnett Sports Complex in Rockingham and many other locations. For more information, call 1300 822 953 or text 0409 745 645.

Listening to story time Listening to story time

Strategy for Children and Young People

The Strategy for Children and Young People 2018-2023 was adopted in December 2017. The key elements of this strategy are:

  • consultation, engagement, inclusion and leadership
  • capacity building and resilience
  • infrastructure development
  • advocacy for City of Rockingham sector development.

Family centres

Family and community centres provide activities for young children, including playgroups and parenting courses. Please contact a centre in your area for more information:

Go to Top of the page