Every Victorian child attending a funded kindergarten program in the Northcote 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 Northcote, Kat Theophanous MP, has announced 28 early childhood services offering funded kinder in 2021 across Northcote will share in $323,781 of early childhood School Readiness Funding.

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.

Amongst the local services to receive this funding are Thornbury Kindergarten, Clyde Street Kindergarten, Annie Dennis Children’s Centre, Batman Park Kindergarten, Westgarth Kindergarten and Yappera Children’s Centre.

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.

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.

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.

Quote attributable to Member for Northcote

“Every child deserves the best start to their education. For the first time our kinders will have ready access the expertise that many children need – such as speech therapists, language and literacy professionals and child psychologists.”

“This needs-based funding will build the capabilities of our early learning centres and improve outcomes for children right across Northcote.”