Thursday, 18 April 2024

Ministers statements: early childhood education

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:01): I rise to update the house in relation to the Allan Labor government’s continued investment for regional Victorians through our Best Start, Best Life reforms. Since 2021 the Labor government has delivered 39 kindergartens on school sites, creating 79 rooms and an extra 2607 licensed places. Just yesterday I was very pleased to join one of the local members for the region, Ms Symes, at the kindergarten on a school site at Kyabram, at the P–12 there. Thank you very much to Robyn and her amazing teachers and educators from Shine, who introduced us to the service. They were very pleased to let us know they had also just received notification that they are exceeding on all measures, which is an absolutely amazing achievement and a testament to those who are working at Shine as a whole and certainly in this service in particular.

Across regional Victoria we are upgrading kindergartens across the board. Just last week the Premier and I were in Macedon with the member for Macedon. It was a pleasure to yesterday be here as well in the two-room facility, which also has outdoor learning areas and a play space, which is delivering modern facilities for local children who are connected to the school community. This facility in particular has beautiful big windows and big wide fences, and the capacity for the children to engage with the school community from the kindergarten through to those who were in the Kyabram P–12 will be of enormous benefit for those families who transition from early years education through to school education and obviously beyond. The educators and school staff really emphasise that connection from the kindergarten to the school for our littlest learners so that they can effectively make those transitions. This on-the-ground report of how successful they anticipate that this will be in this new kindergarten is evidence that we are hearing right across the board in relation to our kinders on school sites, and we were really pleased to discuss with them, Ms Symes and I, the benefits that Best Start, Best Life reforms are delivering. Indeed just across – (Time expired)