Mitchell Shire’s Wandong Kindergarten set to welcome more children post funding
Mitchell Shire’s Wandong Kindergarten set to welcome more children post funding
Aug 06, 2021
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Wandong Kindergarten, in Victoria’s Mitchell Shire, is set to welcome an additional 20 children next year after expansion works, funded by the Victorian Government’s Building Blocks Fund are completed.
The expansion includes increasing the size of the first kindergarten room, the creation of new nappy change and bathroom facilities and an upgrade to the Wandong Maternal and Child Health space including a kitchenette, toilets, storage and new entry.
Once complete, the centre will be able to accommodate almost 100 kindergarten children with upgrades to the Maternal and Child Health space enabling an extra day of kindergarten timetabling each week to support the introduction of five hours of funded three-year-old kindergarten in 2022.
The Wandong Kindergarten supports the integrated delivery of early childhood and family services through the co-location with Maternal Child Health services and connections to the Wandong Primary School precinct.
From 2022, Wandong Kindergarten will provide funded four-year-old and five hours of funded three-year-old kindergarten programs. This model will enable children to smoothly transition from three-year-old kindergarten to four-year-old kindergarten through a consistent learning environment. From there, the kindergarten’s partnership with the local primary school will take the seamless transition “one step further into primary education.”
During construction, the Maternal Child Health services will be temporarily relocated.
The $498,000 Wandong Kindergarten Expansion has been funded by the Victorian State Government through the Building Blocks fund, with Mitchell Shire Mayor Rhonda Sanderson saying the expansion will play a key role in servicing the immediate needs of the growing local community by offering local, accessible maternal and child health and early learning services.
\"Mitchell Shire’s current population of three and four-years-olds is expected to nearly double by 2030, it’s vital we work with our partners to invest in early education infrastructure now,\" she explained.
