“That ICPA Qld lobbies the Department of Education (DoE) to permit in stand-alone sessional kindergartens in rural, remote & isolated communities, where no childcare or other ECE services exist, AND where there are ample vacancies, without impacting our eligible-aged cohort, that the Great Start to Kindy Program funding comes into effect at the start of the calendar year.”
Great Start is funding provided to support the successful transition of younger children into an approved (four-year-old) kindergarten program by enrolling three-year old children in a sessional kindergarten program. This Great Start funding currently applies to Semester 2 only in the year prior to the free kindy year. This six-month funding extension for Semester 1 would only apply in a very limited number of stand-alone sessional kindergartens where no alternate childcare or other ECE services exists. This funding extension would provide an affordable alternative to families to access ECE services where no other option is available.
Case Study
Firstly, we would like to thank the DoE and acknowledge the significant funding changes which have had a major positive impact upon RRI families and communities and the viability of our ECE services. In particular, the Great Start to Kindy Program funding has had a significant impact upon our early entry cohort who form a significant part of many RRI kindergarten services.
The Meandarra community is very fortunate to have a stand-alone sessional kindergarten service that has been operating in our community for over 50 years. We are also in the unique position of being licenced to accept 2.5-year-olds into our kindergarten program when spaces are available. With no other ECE services nearby, many families like to enrol their children as early as possible, therefore, we often have children in our program for 2 years. Due to the remote nature of our community, enrolment numbers fluctuate significantly from year to year, but we are usually aware of local families with young children that may wish to access our service. It is therefore usually straightforward for us to anticipate our enrolment numbers from year to year.
There are many valuable educational outcomes from having, younger children in our kindergarten, not the least of which are smooth transitions from year to year with a significant number of children returning at the start of each year. Many of these younger children only wish to initially attend 1 or 2 days per week, due to the increasing cost of a kindergarten day, including the fuel & associated travel costs to transport children into kindergarten. Many of these families would be eligible for childcare subsidy were they to have access to a childcare service, but this cannot be accessed at our service or anywhere nearby. The most vulnerable children and families in our community who could benefit the most from an extra year at Kindy are unable to take on that cost. Great Start funded free kindy for this cohort (when vacancy exists without impacting eligible aged children’s enrolments) would support us to welcome more of these children into our program at the start of the year rather than mid-year (when Great Start to Kindy Program is currently introduced).
