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Faqs

Frequently Asked Questions

We regularly update our most commonly asked questions here. We’re always happy to help answer any questions.

Bentleigh: 624 Centre Rd, Bentleigh 3204
Caroline Springs: 23/242-244 Caroline Springs Boulevard, Caroline Springs 3023
Cranbourne North: Arbourlea Family & Community Centre, 75 Wheelers Park Drive, Cranbourne North 3977
Epping: 180-188 McDonalds Rd, Epping 3076
South Kingsville:  29B Vernon St, South Kingsville 3015
Templestowe: 109 Wood St, Templestowe 3106
Wantirna: 1/322 Mountain Hwy, Wantirna 3152
Williams Landing: HomeCo Williams Landing Shopping Centre – C18, Level 2, 100 Overton Rd, Williams Landing 3027 

 

Don’t see a studio near you? Email us hello@readingbees.com.au and let us know where you’d love to see our next studio open.

Term 1: Mon 2/2/26 – Thu 2/4/26
Term 2: Mon 20/4/26 – Sat 27/6/26
Term 3: Mon 13/7/26 – Sat 19/9/26
Term 4: Mon 5/10/26 – Sat 5/12/26;

Closed on these public holidays:
Mon 9/3/26 – Labour day
Fri 3/4/26 – Good Friday
Sat 4/4/26 – Easter Saturday
Sat 25/4/26 – Anzac day
Mon 8/6/26 – King’s birthday
Mon 2/11/26 – Tue 3/11/26 – Melbourne cup weekend

The Reading Bees’ structured literacy program is the only one of its kind in Melbourne. We offer three distinctive learning programs: PreKinder, Kinder and Primary.

We employ a systematic phonics method, aligned with the Little Learners Love Literacy®, explicit and sequential phonics program, which enables children to understand the relationship between sound and letters and decipher unfamiliar words. The results fill knowledge gaps and build skills, ensuring your child becomes a confident learner for life!

The Reading Bees learning program continues to evolve based on the needs of our most important customers—the children. Since 2013, it has appealed to a wide community and addressed children’s individual needs, whether it be building on their knowledge, providing a safe and nurturing learning environment, or offering structure so that too many choices don’t make your child anxious.

Why Reading Bees? 

  • 200+ fun and interactive Pre-Kinder, Kinder and Primary classes every week.
  • 8 conveniently located learning studios across Melbourne.
  • 50+ qualified educators and assistants.
  • Small class sizes, with two educators for classes of more than 10.
  • Over 10,000 confident learners created since 2013.

Reading Bees offers a unique service to the community that no one else provides.  You could say we slot between kinder and primary school.  We have families that travel for over an hour one way to come to Reading Bees each week.

Our vision is to help children become the best version of themselves.  We respect that children develop at their own pace and empathise with the children according to their unique needs and character.

“Children are more likely to cope with the challenges of school when they are self-reliant and confident; are willing to try new things, can listen to and follow instructions, can take care of their own belongings, can interact confidently and co-operatively with other children and adults, and are able to cope with inevitable frustrations,” – Associate Professor Kay Margetts,  Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education.

“Research has proven that ‘adjustment to school is also supported when children have basic literacy and numeracy skills and the support of sensitive adults,” – Associate Professor Kay Margetts, Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education.

At Reading Bees, we focus on phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge and basic mathematical concepts through play.  The program is developed from evidence-based research on literacy and numeracy.

Children start reading real stories once they know the first 8 ‘sounds’. The sounds and letters are introduced in an order that makes it easy for children to learn. The emphasis is on ‘decoding’ (sounding out) and a few ‘heart words’ (high-frequency words children need to know ‘by heart’ as they cannot decode them at this stage).

One of the best things about our program is our wonderful educators who make every lesson fun and engaging.

Starting school with confidence is really important. The demands, both social and academic, are high in the first year of school.

“Learning to read is not easy or natural. It is a complex process. Oral language and pre-literacy skills, including phonological awareness, support early reading and writing development. Skilled readers have good decoding skills (word recognition); understand what they read (comprehension), and read with fluency,” Maureen Pollard, Director of Little Learners Love Literacy.

“A child’s level of phonological awareness (ability to identify sounds and sound patterns in language) is an important predictor of their later reading development,” Maureen Pollard, Director of Little Learners Love Literacy.

If your child begins school with some knowledge of sounds, reading, and writing, it can significantly affect how they feel as a learner and how easily they settle into a new school routine and expectations.

Not at all!

We help children develop the skills that support their transition to school.

Our lessons do not cover everything the children will learn in Prep/Foundation.

Awareness of sounds and their links to speech and letters is an important part of learning to read. In fact, the awareness of sounds is an essential prerequisite skill for children to learn to associate sounds with letters.

It is sometimes assumed that because children are immersed in a sound-rich environment, they develop phonemic awareness naturally. The truth is that the speaker and listener are not actually attending to individual sounds; the focus is on communication – speaking and listening,” – Maureen Pollard, Literacy Consultant.

At Reading Bees, we use the Little Learners Love Literacy program for the literacy component of our lessons. The program is developed from evidence-based literacy research that emphasises the importance of explicit teaching, along with a focus on:

  1. Phonemic awareness
  2. Phonics
  3. Vocabulary
  4. Fluency
  5. Comprehension

It also includes the teaching of handwriting skills as an integral part of literacy learning.

ABSOLUTELY!
Children with speech and language delays often have difficulty with literacy skills. Children with difficulty pronouncing or understanding certain speech sounds may also have difficulty reading and writing those sounds. This can lead to trouble decoding and sounding out words.

Children with language delays may not fully understand all aspects of language, such as grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. This can lead to problems understanding text or logically expressing one’s ideas in writing.

Before children are ready to read, write, and spell, they develop phonological awareness skills. These skills help them understand how words are made up of sounds and that sounds are represented by letters. These skills are essential for reading and are often impaired in children with speech disorders, especially phonological disorders.

At Reading Bees, we help your child develop phonological awareness skills by incorporating the following elements into play-based activities.

  1. Rhyming
  2. Alliteration (same beginning sounds)
  3. Letter-sound correspondences
  4. Manipulating sounds in words
  5. Identifying sounds at the beginning, middle and end of words.

We pride ourselves on creating an ideal learning environment for every PreKinder, Kinder and Primary student. This includes keeping class sizes small so every student gets the attention they need from our qualified educators.

Definitely! We are very passionate about helping children learn to read and believe we have the tools to help them.

“Approximately one student in every 10 in our primary schools experiences some form of learning challenge within their educational setting, with three to five per cent having a Specific Learning Disorder such as Dyslexia”  – Kristin Anthian, LDA Consultant.

“These students require early identification and appropriate intervention using a systematic, explicit and cumulative approach to the instruction of reading and spelling, with high intensity and frequency. The Little Learners Love Literacy phonics program provides a comprehensive scope and sequence for the teaching of literacy in the early years. It can be equally effective in supporting students experiencing learning difficulties, with its systematic and carefully sequenced methodology,” – Kristin Anthian, LDA Consultant.

We intentionally keep our class sizes small, so every child gets personalised attention.

The maximum number of children in a PreKinder class is 10, with two educators assigned to each class.

The maximum number of children in a Kinder & Kinder Plus class is 12, with two educators.

The maximum number of children in a Primary class is 5, with one educator.

Pre-Kinder & Kinder classes….

Milo’s Birthday Surprise
Reading Bees classes are based around the storybook ‘Milo’s Birthday Surprise’. Each double-page spread provides language-rich text and illustrations supporting the focus sound.

At the beginning of the class, the children are encouraged to greet their teachers and peers.
The children settle into the group by putting their bags in the lockers, placing their workbook on the table and joining their peers for the first activity. If all goes to plan, the children say bye to their parents.

Circle time
This activity is at the beginning of the class to build awareness of the focus sound before introducing the letter. This a great opportunity for vocabulary discussion, as well as encouraging children to develop the skill of hearing and isolating the initial sounds in words.

Print awareness
Each week, the children listen to a page from the story ‘Milo’s Birthday Surprise’.

‘Milo’s Birthday Surprise’ takes children on a journey through the letters of the alphabet, highlighting the sound of each letter. Becoming aware of the link between sounds and letters is the first step in learning to read. Milo the monkey introduces his friends as he invites them to his birthday party. Entertaining illustrations allow children to search for clues about the birthday surprises that are in store for Milo.

The introduction of sounds in ‘Milo’s Birthday Surprise’ is not in alphabetical order. Every page is full of alliteration – eg. Felix the frog flips and flops with four fat fish; Kylie the koala practises karate kicks; and Cooper the caterpillar crawls on a cactus.
(Little Learners Love Literacy)

Song and Dance
Then we have a bit of a sing and dance.

Art and Craft
The art and craft activities help the development of fine motor skills: cutting with scissors, tearing paper, pasting and colouring in.

Handwriting
The link between handwriting and spelling is important. Our teaching is based on the sequence: children hear the sound, read the letter and write it. This multi-sensory process ‘grooves’ the skills in place. The correct starting position is vital for correct letter formation and minimises confusion when writing letters b and d, for example.

Chitter chatter chant and speed sounds
Children love the rhythm of chanting. This is one method we use to teach the children sound and letter association.

Super spelling
Blending sounds together is quite a difficult skill, so we start early to provide lots of practice.

Phonemic fun
To read and write successfully, children need to be able to hear and manipulate sounds in words. Each session has phonemic fun activities.

Socialising
The children have the opportunity throughout the lesson to interact with their Reading Bees friends.  We practice taking turns, co-operating, compromising and sharing with others.

Communication
We encourage listening and talking so that the children have a supportive environment for developing skills and understanding words and language to practice expressive and receptive language skills.
We nurture learning behaviours like following instructions, transitioning between activities and completing tasks.

Developing a Growth Mindset
We engage the children in activities that encourage self motivation, for example the children critique their own work, not the teacher. They stamp their own work, put a smiley face next to their best work etc. We encourage the children to use the term ‘YET’, “I can’t do this, YET.”

Numeracy
We re-group to complete the numeracy component of the class. Some topics we cover are number recognition, 2D and 3D shapes, patterns, basic addition.

Borrowing time
Children are given the opportunity to borrow decodable books to take home.
These colour-coded books are an integral part of the program as they provide a great opportunity for children to practise their developing reading skills in a real context.

These classes are designed to help children experience success in meeting challenges with reading and spelling.

“Children can usually recognise words before they can spell them.  Spelling usually lags behind reading development because spelling requires greater visual recall than reading and places higher demands on memory,”  – Maureen Pollard, Director of Little Learners Love Literacy.

At Reading Bees, we use the Little Learners Love Literacy program. The program eases the demand on the memory by giving children a menu of letter choices. This makes the children feel confident and helps them learn to identify letters and blend sounds to make words.

Small classes…

Small classes ensure educators understand each child’s needs and how they are progressing socially, emotionally, and academically. It allows for more interaction and observation of what strategies are working best for your child to learn.

About the classes…

The sequence of the classes has been designed for practical, successful learning.  Only one new sound is added at a time, and each class builds on skills already learnt.  Children’s skills grow in a pyramid, building on a solid foundation.

We also offer 1:1 sessions at some locations by appointment only.  Call us to discuss, as you are unable to book these sessions online.

The program runs for 38 weeks per year, commencing in February and running only during school terms. Although we recommend starting at the beginning of the year to maximise your child’s learning experience, students can join at any point through the term.

We run a PreKinder and Kinder holiday program during January as a week-long learning intensive.


Check the Reading Bees app or website for dates, or email hello@readingbees.com.au to register your interest.

Private lessons may be available upon request, pending educator availability.

PreKinder Program
This is for children starting school in two years.
Introduce your 3— 4-year-old to letters and sounds as they develop listening skills. Children must be three years old at the time of enrolment and toilet-trained to attend this program.
Price: $41 per 60-minute class.

Kinder Program
This class is for children continuing from our PreKinder class or starting school the following year.
Parents describe it as the best school-readiness program in Melbourne. It was exclusively designed to build confidence and give children a head start in reading, spelling, and basic math concepts before they start school.
Price: $48 per 75-minute class.

Kinder Plus Program
This is for children who attended the Reading Bees Kinder class the previous year.
Price: $48 per 75-minute class.
We are happy to discuss the opportunity for your child to attend the Kinder Plus class if they did not attend Reading Bees the previous year. Please email or call us to discuss.

Primary Program
This is for children in junior primary. It is a skills-based class for children from Prep to Grade 3. It is currently the most sought-after primary phonics-based reading program, consistently ensuring students overcome reading concerns.
Price: $51 per 45-minute class.

*IMPORTANT* Before enrolling in a primary class, children must attend a screening appointment to determine the most appropriate group level. There is a small fee to complete a screening, which covers the primary educator’s time and assessment expertise. Screening appointments can be booked in the Reading Bees app by selecting “Primary Student Screenings.”
Price: $25 per 20-minute primary student screening.

1:1 lessons
1:1 lessons are available for children from Prep to Year 6.
Please call 03 7071 4022 to discuss.

Please note this is simply an outline. Children are individuals with different abilities and circumstances.

At Reading Bees, our classes are designed for drop-off/pick-up, as you would expect at kinder or school.

For our kinder students, this is an essential element of school readiness that we aim to develop, helping your child feel confident being away from you and knowing you’ll be back to pick them up.

We understand that some children take some time to settle into new surroundings.

Please speak with us if your child needs extra support in separating from you, so our educators can work with you on the day to ensure the happiest outcome.

All Educators at Reading Bees are either qualified primary teachers, kindergarten teachers or speech pathologists.

All Educators at Reading Bees hold a current Working with Children check and current First Aid certification.

Hi,

My name is Amber. I’m the founder of Reading Bees. Reading Bees was born 8 years ago after I attended a literacy workshop. I wanted to help my daughter, who was in kinder at the time, prepare for primary school.

I probably need to mention my background; I am a qualified teacher with a Bachelor of Arts (Japanese and Behavioural Science), Bachelor of Teaching, and a Graduate Diploma in Business (Human Resource). I left classroom teaching because I didn’t like how I felt when I reflected on my day and knew I hadn’t been able to give each child the assistance they needed as an individual.

At the workshop, the presenter Maureen Pollard (Literacy Consultant and author of Little Learners Love Literacy) said, ‘If children don’t learn the foundations of reading in the first 3 years of school, they will struggle for the rest of their lives.’  On my way home, I called friends and said, “Bring your children over to my place, I’m teaching them phonics!” I wasn’t leaving anything to chance. They told their friends and in the first year I had 25 students. The following year, I convinced my husband to let me transform our master bedroom into a little classroom. By the way, he originally thought this was going to be a ‘hobby’, as we had a 4 year old and a 2 year old at the time.

By the third year, the word spread, and Yvonne joined ‘The Hive’ to help me with 70 children attending Reading Bees at my home over 2 1/2 days!  At that point, I had to decide if I would keep Reading Bees small and stay at home, or give it a shot and expand so I could offer more classes.  In turn, this meant more children had the opportunity to benefit from our program.

It didn’t take me long to decide. I signed the lease for 164 Ferguson st, Williamstown. Bianca and Siobhan joined Yvonne and I, our hive was growing. The word was spreading…..

Fast forward to today – we have 8 learning studios and over 1000 children attending each term. Di and Hope helped to open Point Cook (now Williams Landing) and Tanya worked extremely hard on creating an awesome learning studio in Wantirna.  My brain is always ticking over thinking about how we can open more learning studios.  Everytime someone asks on Facebook etc “can you open in our area?”, we honestly put a lot of thought into how we can make it happen (we, being Rach and I).  Rach is our ‘jack of all trades’, I think she has done every role available at Reading Bees! Rach keeps The Hive buzzing

I believe we are successful at Reading Bees because everyone at ‘The Hive’ genuinely cares and is passionate about how we can help each individual child that comes to Reading Bees. Our small classes enable us to attend to each child and we never leave each day wondering if we have given each child the attention they deserve. The team go above and beyond for the children, and to support each other.  We thoroughly believe in our ‘product’ and we take our responsibility as a child’s first educator very seriously.

Thank you for your interest in Reading Bees.  Please reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to talk about how we can help your child become the best version of themselves.

You can request a free trial class at any time during the term. 

Get the Reading Bees app to request a PreKinder or Kinder trial today.

After you’ve reported your child’s expected absence from class, follow this process to ensure you can book a makeup lesson.

Yes! You can make a “transfer request” through the Reading Bees app.

Yes!  Makeup classes can be booked at any studio as needed.

However, please note that classes are intended to be held at the same time and location each week.

We strongly recommend maintaining learning momentum and booking makeup lessons at the same location as your child regularly attends.

Reading Bees do not offer refunds for missed lessons. No deduction can be made for absence, as the expenses incurred to maintain the program’s efficiency are not reduced by the temporary absence of individual students.

If your child is unable to attend a class under any circumstances (ie, illness, appointment, holiday), a makeup token will be provided as long as the required 2 hours’ notice is given and established procedures are followed. Makeup tokens are valid for 60 days and can be used at any of our learning studio locations, based on class availability. Children must be currently enrolled to use a makeup token.

If Reading Bees is unable to provide a scheduled class (i.e., teacher is away, or other unforeseen circumstances), you will be offered a credit or a refund for that missed class.

Please read our full terms and conditions here: https://readingbees.com.au/terms-and-conditions/

We accept enrolments at any time of the term and year. 

Your child can start benefiting from Reading Bees at any time during the term.

We often encourage PreKinders or Kinders to try out our program for free in the final weeks of the current term and start the following term from week 1.

Because our primary program is skills-based rather than age-based (as in our PreKinder and Kinder programs), we cannot offer free primary program trials. 

Our primary program is unlike any other. 

Each primary class is created based on our community’s needs, including student screening outcomes, which frequently change. 

In short, we don’t create a primary class in the term schedule unless we have demand or have screened students who will need one of the nine possible classes in the Reading Bees Primary Program. 

Book a primary screening for your child in the Reading Bees app. 

Yes!

For example, if you enrol your child in week 6 of a 10-week term, you only pay for the four remaining weeks.

All payments are required in advance.

Definitely! We are very passionate about helping children learn to read and believe we have the tools to help them.

“Approximately one student in every 10 in our primary schools experiences some form of learning challenge within their educational setting, with three to five per cent having a Specific Learning Disorder such as Dyslexia”  – Kristin Anthian, LDA Consultant.

“These students require early identification and appropriate intervention using a systematic, explicit and cumulative approach to the instruction of reading and spelling, with high intensity and frequency. The Little Learners Love Literacy phonics program provides a comprehensive scope and sequence for the teaching of literacy in the early years. It can be equally effective in supporting students experiencing learning difficulties, with its systematic and carefully sequenced methodology,” – Kristin Anthian, LDA Consultant.

The more your child practices what they have learnt at Reading Bees, the more they will benefit from the program. This is why we strongly encourage you to purchase Milo’s storybook and flashcards to support their learning at home.

Please take pleasure in reading ‘Milo’s Birthday Surprise’ storybook with your child.  Although we only read the page relevant to the sound we are learning each week, we encourage you to read the story and discuss all the pictures for each of Milo’s friends. This helps consolidate their learning, reduces anxiety as they can anticipate what is going to happen in class, and builds excitement about who they’re going to meet next!

However, for the flashcards, please use only the cards for the sounds we have learned so far. Then each week, we encourage you to add in the new letter that your child has learnt in class so that the collection of flashcards you practise with gradually increases throughout the whole year.

If you practice three times a week for 5 -10 minutes, this will definitely improve your child’s learning.

You can practice the current week’s focus sound and bring it into your routine, anywhere. For example, noticing the food you eat, the things you wear, or the places you go by pointing out the week’s focus letter or sound on signs or on the TV, etc.

Not at all! Starting at age 3 captures the critical window when young minds are primed to absorb language, where literacy skills develop, and learning accelerates.

If your child needs to miss a class, please follow our established procedures for reporting absences. 

Per Reading Bees’ policies, all student absences must be reported more than 2 hours before your child’s class starts. This ensures you can transfer your child’s absence to a makeup lesson on an alternative date. 

All student absences must be submitted via the Reading Bees app. 

This process immediately notifies your child’s educator, opening up class space for another student to book a makeup lesson. 

Reporting absences will not be accepted via email or text.

Payment is required in advance of your child’s first lesson to secure their place.

For new enrolments, this includes payment for the classes and the required learning resources. You can do all of this from the Reading Bees app.

Yes, try for free in our PreKinder and Kinder programs.

You can request a free trial class any time during the term throughout the year. We would love to invite you to attend a trial class (seeing is believing!) where you will have the opportunity to explore our creative learning space, meet our passionate educators, and gain confidence that your child will be happy and engaged before deciding to enrol. Get the Reading Bees app to request a PreKinder or Kinder trial today. 

We do not offer refunds once you have booked and paid for the term.

You can, however, create a “Drop an enrolment request” through the Reading Bees app or email hello@readingbees.com.au if you would like to cancel your child’s enrolment before the term ends.

  • Your child’s workbook in the plastic pocket provided
  • Drink bottle (You can buy a Reading Bees drink bottle from our online shop!)
  • Reader (if borrowed)
  • You do not need to bring the storybook and flashcards each week. These are for home use

** Also please note – we do not allow food in our learning studios, due to allergies. Please help us to keep our learning studios a safe place for all children, & do not bring any food/snacks with you.

In addition to class fees, there is an annual fee of $30 per student. This fee covers all consumables and learning resources used during classes, as well as the student’s workbook, tote bag, and reader borrowing subscription.

For the Kinder program, we strongly recommend that parents purchase the ‘Milo’s Birthday Surprise’ storybook ($25 RRP) and a set of Milo’s alphabet flashcards ($25 RRP) to use at home. These can be purchased through the “Proshop” in the Reading Bees app.

Using the recommended resources ensures that students can acquire the skills necessary to read and write effectively. The focus is on teaching children to think about, talk about, and synthesise their developing knowledge of sounds and letters so they can read, write, and spell with confidence. 

Children must be three years old to enrol in a Reading Bees class. If you try to enrol a child in the PreKinder program who hasn’t turned three yet, the booking system will not show any classes.

Download the App

Start your Reading Bees journey today.

Download the App

Start your Reading Bees journey today.