Morgan Street Public and Menindee Central School will benefit from an historic investment in regional public preschools as the state government aims to boost access to early childhood education.
Of the 100 new public preschools promised by the state government within the next three years, 49 will be in regional and rural communities.
The record $769 million spend will see new public preschools built and co-located at public primary school sites, expanding services that should improve access for families in regional parts of NSW.
By co-locating public preschools with existing schools, the state government hopes it will ensure children are ready for kindergarten, help busy families with cost-of-living pressures, and avoid the double drop-off, making the transition to school as seamless as possible.
“We are committed to universal access to preschool, and this announcement is an important step towards that,” NSW Premier, Chris Minns, said.
“Investment in quality early childhood education has lifelong benefits for our young kids and is key to getting parents back into the workforce. No matter where you live in NSW you should have access to this essential infrastructure and service, our government is getting on with the job of ensuring that.”
Minister for Education and Early Learning, Prue Car, said the commitment to build public preschools across the state was being done because the state government understood the value of public education, and believed quality in education started in the early years.
“Postcodes should not act as a barrier to accessing the best start in life and every child should have access to high quality resources from a young age, including having access to preschool. This investment is the biggest spend on public preschools in NSW history, and I am proud that close to half these new preschools will be in the regions,” she said.
Morgan Street Public School Principal, Scott Sanford, told the Barrier Truth it would be a wonderful opportunity to have a preschool on-site.
“We all know the benefits of a quality program in the early years, building upon that, and also providing more services and supporting the services that are currently in town,” he said.
“To have that on-site to support with the transition of kids that would be transitioning to our school is amazing, but also to support the broader Broken Hill community to provide another access point to early childhood education in town, supporting parents, and taking a bit of pressure off other early childhood providers that are currently in town, that’s probably the bigger picture.
“Broken Hill, we are a long way from a lot of the things, but our kids deserve just as much access to everything as everyone else and if this can help that, then we are lucky to be in that picture.”
