State first for children’s centre

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State first for children’s centre

Funding boost: Leongatha Children’s Centre director Paula Holt (back left) last Thursday with Eastern Victoria Region MLC Jane Garrett, South Gippsland Shire Council mayor Cr Don Hill and children, front, from left, Alanah Hardidge, Paige Gardner and Ben Lester.

LEONGATHA Children’s Centre received $29,348 in funding as part of the State Government’s $58.1 million ‘school readiness’ funding initiative.

Eastern Victoria Region MLC Jane Garrett visited the centre last Thursday, on behalf of Victorian Minister for Education James Merlino who was absent, announcing this Australian first funding initiative available to kindergarten students on a permanent basis.

The centre also welcomed South Gippsland Shire Council mayor Cr Don Hill, Leongatha Primary School principal Dot Coghlan, Leongatha Secondary College assistant principal Brad Hutchinson and South Gippsland Shire Council coordinator of children and family services Sally Baker.

The children’s centre has a long waiting list and currently cares for 95 children. Already established as one of the region’s most comprehensive centres, the funding is more than welcome, and will provide nurturing and support for kindergarten education, preparing for the first steps into primary education.

“We are delighted with the funding announcement and to be one of the first educational centres to receive it in the state,” director of Leongatha Children’s Centre Paula Holt said.

“We plan to purchase personalised books for each child, with the intention of supporting home reading.

“Our centre also makes extensive use of professional development. With this funding, we also plan to employ speech pathologists to work with our educators, enriching our children’s language development.

“We have to accommodate the needs of culturally diverse backgrounds, and understand and accept that some children come from traumatised backgrounds with higher than normal levels of anxiety.”

According to the government, Australian studies show that about 20 percent of Victorian children start school developmentally vulnerable. Once behind, they tend to stay behind too.

Leongatha Primary School principal Dot Coghlan agrees, noting that about 20 to 30 percent of children starting primary school are not ready to read.

With such a program and more focussed intention of funding pre-primary school education, she believes society can only reap the rewards.

It’s also true that Australia lags behind other OECD countries in some educational standards.

“We’re helping children very early in their education journey, so they can start their first day at school on track,” Ms Garrett said.

“Our ‘school readiness’ funding is providing vital services that will make a big difference to the lives of local Gippsland kids.”

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Posted by on Feb 19 2019. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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