North Coast families will benefit from more than $110,000 in grants to preschools in the Ballina and Byron local government areas.
Nine preschools in the region have successfully applied for the NSW Government’s Quality Learning Environments fund. They are:
- Alstonville Community Preschool – $14,484
- Federal Community Preschool – $4,890
- Ballina Fox Street Preschool – $15,000
- Durrumbul Community Preschool – $15,000
- Lennox Head Community Preschool – $15,000
- Mullumbimby Community Preschool – $14,744
- Ocean Shore Community Preschool – $4,790
- Wilson’s Creek Community Preschool – $12,375
- Wollongbar Community Preschool – $13,834
Northern NSW parliamentary secretary Ben Franklin made the announcement today at Alstonville Community Preschool, which he described as ‘an outstanding educational facility’.
The nine schools were ‘showing an ongoing commitment to ensuring children on the North Coast have access to top quality early childhood education, which makes me extremely proud,’ Mr Franklin said.
He added the funding will go towards improving the quality of the learning environment for children and will mean parents can ‘rest assured that their children are receiving the best early childhood education’.
‘Preschools will be able to use this funding to cover items like shade cloths so children can play safely outdoors, kitchen gardens to teach children where their food comes from, or an outdoor jungle gym to encourage a child’s hand-eye coordination,’ Mr Franklin said.
Alstonville Community Preschool and Ballina Fox Street Preschool will each receive an additional grant of up to $7,000 under the NSW Government’s Community Grants Program
to help increase the number of Aboriginal children and disadvantaged children participate in early childhood education.
‘Children have so much to gain from participating in quality early education – so programs like this where we can make preschool services more affordable and accessible for families is a no-brainer for me,’ he said.
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