Albury preschools in line for upgrades adding an additional 150 places

The New South Wales Government will provide more than $2 million in funding to boost the capacity and services available at two Albury preschools.

Albury Preschool has been given $1.8 million to construct an additional two classrooms, also able to offer allied health, maternal and therapy services all under the one roof.

Currently the service is experiencing huge demand, with a waiting list of over 300. Director Jo Barton welcomed the funding, which she said will allow the service to double in size, offering another 150 places across the week. 

“We’re still getting daily phone calls from people that are moving to the area that can’t find either preschool or long daycare positions.” she told local news source Border Mail. 

Once the works are complete she hopes that the preschool will be in a position to offer wrap-around support, including allied health services, maternal health and therapies.

The works are due to be completed for the start of the 2025 school year. 

Elsewhere in the community, Lavington’s Ross Circuit Preschool was given more than $300,000 from the state government for an extra classroom and long-awaited refurbishments of its 45-year-old building.

Director Cathy Northam said “We don’t need huge numbers, we just need a better facility with a slight increase in numbers to provide what we already do in a more friendly and contemporary environment.” 

Ross Circuit offers maternal child health, playgroup and preschool.

“You don’t keep a preschool running by parents and volunteers for 45 years unless it’s needed,” Ms Northam said candidly.

“We can take 60 children a day, but this will allow us to have 75.”

Albury Council will provide $50,000 for the design element of the Albury Preschool project and Ms Barton was hopeful a further $450,000 would be allocated by the council in the next two years.

“It’s certainly exciting and knowing that the state government has backed it as well certainly makes it very favorable for council to continue to look at what we can do to help out,” Albury Mayor Kylie King added.

To access the local coverage of this story as prepared by Border Mail, please see here.