SA preschools for three-year-olds revealed by Education Minister Blair Boyer
The state’s first 200 class sites for preschool for three-year-olds have been unveiled. Search your suburb or childcare centre here. But is three too young? Take the poll.
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Thousands of South Australian three-year-olds will be packing their kindy bags early next year after the state government revealed its list of their first 200 classroom sites.
Education Minister Blair Boyer said new preschool classes for more than 6000 SA youngsters would be opening at sites dominated by long-daycare childcare centres spread across cities, regions and rural South Australia.
Among the list are 45 government preschools in regional and remote communities from Leigh Creek to Warooka on Yorke Peninsula along with three government metro demonstration sites.
Mr Boyer said the announcement was a major milestone in the SA early childhood plan to provide 15 hours of three-year-old preschool focused on teacher-led, play-based learning for every South Australian child by 2032.
“The very first recommendation of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care was to reduce the rate of South Australian children entering school developmentally vulnerable from 23.8 per cent to 15 per cent within 20 years – well below the national average of 22 per cent,” Mr Boyer said.
“Three-year-old preschool is the most effective way, we as a state, can achieve that ambitious goal. These outcomes will be significant for decades to come.”
The state government roll out aimed to tackle worrying Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) figures that showed nearly one in four South Australian children started school with some form of developmental vulnerability.
Many of the preschool classrooms would be based at long day care centres after the SA government added an extra $27.7m in the recent state budget to roll out the initiative.
Mr Boyer said hundreds of services expressed interest in partnering on the three-year-old preschool plan and the funding would provide more than 2000 additional places from 2026.
Provider numbers would grow in a staged approach so the teaching workforce, infrastructure and delivery could be effectively put in place.
The standard offering for three-year-old preschool would be 15 hours per week, or up to 600 hours per year.
This would focus on helping children to build foundational skills such as confidence, curiosity, and social skills in the years before school in a bid to improve their “developmental vulnerability” before hitting primary school.
The three demonstration sites were announced in December last year – at Ocean View College Children’s Centre in Taperoo, Brentwood Drive Kindergarten in Huntfield Heights and Riverbanks College Preschool in Angle Vale.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the reform followed recommendations provided by the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care – led by former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
“We know that two years of quality preschool are better than one, particularly for those children in disadvantaged and low-socio economic areas,” he said.
Originally published as SA preschools for three-year-olds revealed by Education Minister Blair Boyer
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