Parents campaign to save Globe Wilkins preschool
The May Murray early learning centre has been saved as the campaign to rescue Globe Wilkins preschool heats up.
Inner West
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THE May Murray early learning centre has been saved as the campaign to rescue Globe Wilkins preschool heats up.
Last Tuesday Inner West Council unanimously rejected a plan to relocate the Marrickville centre to Steel Park to make way for the preschool, which is being kicked out of Wilkins Public School.
A petition with more than 950 signatures states the 50-place preschool is one of just 13 in NSW, and the only one in the inner west, to receive the industry’s top “excellence” rating.
Globe parent Ramona Hewitt said the preschool’s respect for indigenous culture and social inclusion makes it unique.
A “huge” 21 per cent of their students have a disability while 13 per cent are indigenous — the highest ratio out of the council’s early learning centres.
Councillors unanimously backed a proposal by Labor councillors Anna York and Sam Iskander to continue lobbying Education Minister Rob Stokes and the NSW Education Department to retain the preschool at its existing home.
A department spokesman said the preschool was told in 2015 that school students would get priority over classrooms when its lease expires in December 2019.
“The preschool uses the equivalent of four classrooms,” he said.
“The department continues to look at ways a preschool can operate on the school site while at the same time addressing the needs of the school.”
The school’s enrolments had jumped 54 per cent over the past decade.
Mr Stokes said: “Following representations from both Summer Hill state Labor MP Jo Haylen and Mayor Darcy Byrne, I have asked the Department of Education help the council identify options for the accommodation of council’s wonderful pre school.
“Obviously my main focus is to support public education on the school site, but I understand the importance of the preschool to the local community, and want the Department to assist in any way it can.”
Mr Stokes said he had asked the department to “assist in any way it can … to help the council identify options for the accommodation of council’s wonderful pre school”, following representations from Mayor Darcy Byrne and Summer Hill state Labor MP Jo Haylen.
The council will also help promote the Save Globe Wilkins Spring Picnic at Marrickville Park on September 9 from 10am to 2pm.