Helping macedon kids get the most out of kinder

Every Victorian child attending a funded kindergarten program in the Macedon electorate will get the most out of their learning and development with the final stage of the $160 million Australian-first School Readiness Funding rolling out.

Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas, has announced 22 early childhood services offering funded kinder in 2021 in Macedon will share in $280,000 of early childhood School Readiness Funding.

This includes:

• Macedon Early Learning Centre

• Willowbank Early Learning Centre

• Gisborne Montessori School

• Goodstart Early Learning Woodend

• Goodstart Early Learning New Gisborne

• Goodstart Early Learning Riddells Creek

• Goodstart Early Learning Kyneton

• Daylesford Community Child Care

• Daylesford Preschool

• Hepburn Kindergarten

• Woodend Early Learning & Kinder

• The Learning Sanctuary Gisborne

• Macedon Ranges Montessori Preschool

• Macedon Kindergarten

• Riddells Creek Kindergarten

• Woodend Kindergarten

• Trentham Kindergarten

• Manna Gum Family and Children’s Centre

• Lady Brooks Kindergarten

• Lancefield Kindergarten

• Swinburne Avenue Children’s Centre

• Romsey Kindergarten The total funding allocated to each service is dependent on the number of children enrolled who face educational disadvantage.

This is the first time the funding will be made available to all funded kindergartens in Victoria, with the program now a permanent feature of Victoria’s early childhood education system.

About 1,700 kindergartens in 47 local government areas will automatically receive this funding for the first time in 2021. Services delivering funded kindergarten programs for three-year-old children in 2021 will also receive this funding.

Services that are receiving School Readiness Funding for the first time are located across Victoria, from the Alpine Shire, Greater Geelong, Port Phillip to Yarra Ranges in 2021.

Australian research shows that one in five Victorian children start school developmentally vulnerable and once behind, they tend to stay behind. This needs-based funding aims to reduce the impact of educational disadvantage on children’s learning and development and improve outcomes in communication, wellbeing, and access and participation.

School readiness funding will allow Victorian kindergarten providers to tap into the expertise of speech and occupational therapists, language and literacy professionals and child psychologists, who can then boost the capability of both parents and teachers.

Victoria’s success as the Education State starts in the early years – so that’s why the Victorian Government has also invested $5 billion over a decade to deliver 15 hours of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten to all children.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Early Childhood Ingrid Stitt
"We are providing funding to kinders across the state to ensure they have the supports they need so every Victorian child gets the most out of early childhood education."

Quote attributable to Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas MP
"This needs-based funding will improve outcomes in communication, social and emotional wellbeing, access and participation for children across the Macedon electorate."

"We’re ensuring that we’re helping our youngest residents early – so that they get the most out of their time at kinder and they can start at school with confidence."