New chapter for early learning opens in Mont Albert

An upgrade of St Augustine’s Anglican Kindergarten at Mont Albert, officially opened last week, will provide local families with greater access to a well known local kindergarten.

On Friday, Member for Box Hill, Robert Clark, joined parents, staff, clergy and community members to open a new $319,000 extension.

The new art room forming the heart of the extension has been named the Kath Holgate room, in honour of Ms Kath Holgate, who has been a volunteer at the kindergarten for over 16 years.

Mr Clark said the upgrade would enable St Augustine’s to provide both a three year old program and two four-year-old programs. The centre would be able accommodate 52 children at any one time, up from 30, which will relieve enrolment pressure on other local kindergartens.

The upgrade has been funded by a $300,000 grant from the State Government, together with $16,000 from the St Augustine’s community and $3,000 from the Anglican Diocese.

“Spending more time at kinder is a key to ensuring that children have the very best start in life,” Mr Clark said.

“This upgrade is a wonderful example of what can be achieved when the state government works hand-in-hand with the local community,” Mr Clark said.

Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Wendy Lovell said record investments in early childhood infrastructure will enable many more Victorian services to follow Mont Albert’s lead in 2013.

“To ensure we can offer 15 hours of kindergarten per week, the Victorian Government has invested more than $93 million since December 2010 in state and national partnership funding to build or upgrade early years services across the state,” Ms Lovell said.

“More than 93 per cent of Victorian services are now delivering 15 hours kindergarten programs, and we are working closely with the remaining services to support them to deliver a 15 hour program as soon as possible.”

Ms Lovell said the benefits of investing in capital projects were shared across the whole community.

“So far our investments have contributed to the creation of more than 300 construction jobs across the state,” Ms Lovell said.