BOWRAVILLE Community Preschool is one of around fifty eligible early childhood education services in NSW that will receive grant funding to provide Aboriginal children and families with additional support to participate in 600 hours of quality early childhood education in the two years prior to school.

Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell said, “Participation in early childhood education is fundamental to ensure children have the best possible start to their educational journeys.

“This is about making sure that Aboriginal children and their families are supported and have easy access to quality early learning.”

Katie Heather, the Transition Coordinator from Bowraville Central School told News Of The Area, “We applaud Minister Sarah Mitchell for ensuring that we can offer every child of Bowraville and beyond the opportunity to access high quality education in the early years by introducing Start Strong Free Preschool for 2022 and ensuring that all children can access 600 hours of early education in the two years before school.

“With continued support from Community Grants and Quality Learning Environment Grants, we are ensuring the opportunities and environments that we offer at Bowraville Community Preschool are responsive to the needs of our children and community.

“Our passionate team of educators are focused on fostering meaningful relationships with children and families which ensures that we can support all children to develop to the greatest potential.

“With over 100 children on the preschool waiting list (of all ages), we are continually thinking about new ways we can continue to support our community and their needs.

“We are really excited to be able to support successful transitions for children in our community to improve access and participation in our preschool program.

“This is part of our commitment to Closing The Gap – we know that at times participation of Indigenous children is sporadic.

“This community grant will help us with additional resources to support our local community and ensure that attendance increases, and every child has the opportunity to enjoy the best start in life.

“Having a bus service is vital for improving access to all children in our community and ongoing funds ensure that we maintain high safety levels and support the staffing requirements when operating the service.”

Transportation initiatives have been vital for children’s school attendance and have also provided for Aboriginal children to get back out on Country and engage with the greater community to embed meaningful opportunities to connect with culture and family traditions.

“Being able to visit beaches that hold special significance to the community and learn family traditions such as the ‘pipi dance’, allow children to grow strong and proud in their cultural identity and all children and educators love to share in this experience,” added Katie.

“We have even been fortunate to have Clayton Donovan visit preschool to cook us a Pipi and Mullet dish after one of our beach visits.”

By doing numerous additional things in the community, Bowraville Community Preschool‘s goal is for children to leave preschool with their backpacks full of social and emotional resilience and all the skills and knowledge to help them to become successful learners, but most of all, to leave with a love of learning.

“Whilst I have recently transitioned to a new role as Transition Coordinator for Bowraville Central School, our preschool’s new Director Melody Mackay will continue to advocate for all children to reach their full potential,” said Katie.

 

By Andrea FERRARI