GROWING KINDERGARTENS FOR GROWING COMMUNITIES
The Andrews Labor Government is helping more families in Highton access crucial early childhood services to give their children the best start in life.
Member for South Barwon Darren Cheeseman today announced that St Luke’s Highton Kindergarten in Highton will receive $289,000 from the Labor Government’s Building Blocks Capacity Grants program to help expand and refurbish existing facilities.
Once complete, the expansion project will allow additional three- and four-year-old kindergarten places.
The project will also include creating a new and safer entry point, refurbishment of children’s bathrooms and adult toilet and kitchen, and the extension of existing playroom to accommodate more enrolments at the service. This project will also lead to the provision of a safer environment for the children, their families and staff.
The project is one of nine Building Blocks Capacity grants in the latest round of Labor Government funding, investing $14.7 million to build and expand kindergarten services to create an extra 356 places across the state.
The grants will improve access to local early childhood services by supporting new kindergartens to be built in some of the state’s fastest-growing areas, and supporting existing services to create extra infrastructure capacity for more kids to enrol in funded kindergarten.
These announcements bring the total funding the Labor Government has provided under the 2021 Building Blocks Capacity grants rounds to $52.3 million – supporting 34 projects that will create more than 1,800 kindergarten places in areas of demand.
In an Australian-first, the Government has invested almost $5 billion to deliver a full 15 hours of Three-Year-Old Kinder to children across the state over this decade, with the roll-out beginning in selected areas in 2020 and expanding in 2022 to support five hours of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten statewide.
As part of this roll-out, the government is co-investing $1.68 billion with the early childhood sector to build and expand kindergarten facilities across the state. The Labor Government is also ensuring that every new Victorian primary school set to open from 2021 will have a kindergarten on-site or next door, reducing the burden on parents by helping them ditch the ‘dreaded double drop-off’.
To find out more about the grants, visit schoolbuildings.vic.gov.au/Pages/Building-Blocks-Grants-Capacity.
Quote attributable to Member for South Barwon Darren Cheeseman
“Every child in South Barwon deserves access to the best kinder, so they can get the best start to their education journey – and that’s exactly what we’re delivering with the St Luke’s Highton Upgrade.”
Quote attributable to Minister for Early Childhood Ingrid Stitt
We want every Victorian child to have access to fantastic early years education, close to home – because we know how vital it is in setting our kids up for the rest of their lives.”
