A BID to secure a new Wycheproof preschool was knocked back by the Department of Education and Training late last week, leaving parents “disheartened” and uncertain of future service provision.
Wycheproof Preschool Advisory Group (WPAG) president Tessa Coles told The Guardian they were informally notified of the decision on Wednesday afternoon, and were waiting on an official response to identify the exact reason they were unsuccessful.
“We were told it was something to do with the strength of our application, so whether that is strength in terms of numbers or something else we’re not sure,” Ms Coles said.
It was a campaign the advisory group, and the wider Wycheproof community, had rallied behind, with a group of mums recently baring all in a bold bid to attract attention.
A photo of Wycheproof women, standing stark naked in a barley crop, went viral on social media as part of the #ruralkidsmatter campaign.
Ms Coles said while the photo was fun and lighthearted, it showed how serious rural parents are about making sure their kids don’t miss out on the basic services.
“This is our last ditch effort at getting through to the Department of Education and Training,” she said prior to the application’s refusal.
WPAG had sought funding for a new building to support childcare, three and four-year-old kinder and the maternal child health officer.
The preferred option was to co-locate the services to the local school, allowing for the pooling of funding and resources to secure the best outcomes possible for local children.
“The situation is dire — our current building requires significant and costly renovations to meet the need of our early years cohort,” Ms Coles said.
“This is compounded by the fact we are part of the roll out of subsidised three-year-old kinder next year — we simply do not have the facilities to adequately accommodate for the educator to child ratios stipulated by the Department of Education and Training, making it increasingly harder to find and retain staff.
“If our centre remains deteriorating, outdated and twice as hard to supervise children in, we will eventually run out of staff entirely.”
Ms Coles said the parents behind WPAG had been disappointed by the rejection, but the group would now look at other options to secure an upgrade.
“We had our AGM last night, everyone was quite flat, we have been going very hard for this and this is not the outcome we were looking for,” Ms Coles said.
“We haven’t got funding from where we thought we were going to, so we’re going to take a look at some other venues.
“The same grant pool will be running again next year, but it will also roll out to another seven council areas. We were part of the smallest roll out and we missed out.”
A teacher at Wycheproof P-12 College, Ms Coles said a co-located facility was “commonsense”.
“I know first-hand there are so many resources we could be sharing. Interactive light boards, our kinder teachers have been asking for some all year, and the school has loads,” she said.
“It’s commonsense to be at the school grounds and pooling any resources and funding we can get, so more community groups and education groups are using it.”
“The whole Wycheproof community is on board with this,” she said.
“The #ruralkidsmatter actually initiated through the school, but the parent group have been jumping on board, and yeah, it is very disheartening,
“I suppose it sounds really bad, but in the small towns it is hope for the best, expect the worst.
“We were told by generations gone by when we said we were trying to get a new facility, ‘Good luck, we tried to do the same thing 10 years ago’.”
Ms Coles said a decade on from the first attempt, the lack of progress was frustrating.
“Everyone is behind us and it just gets more and more frustrating…how come people aren’t recognising our need for a new kindergarten?” she said.
“Neighbouring towns like Charlton and Sea Lake have had their applications granted, and we are so happy for them, but it is a bit like salt in the wound, we had to try so hard and we were unsuccessful.
“I think we’re feeling very much left out.”
But, while disheartened and disappointed, Ms Coles said the community was far from giving up.
“We will be continuing our campaign, this definitely won’t stop us,”she said.
“We will start doing some fundraising things to spread awareness.
“This is not just Wycheproof, this whole #ruralkidsmatter campaign, it might have been started by Wyche’ people, but this is about the getting the government to look at rural areas, because they do actually forget we exist.
“That’s the avenue we will be heading down next.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Education and Training said the department was working with childcare services to roll out three-year-old kinder.
“Three-year-old kindergarten is the largest reform the early childhood sector has ever experienced, and rolling it out will take time,” the spokesperson said.
“Regional and rural communities have been put first in line for the reform, with children in Buloke being among the first in the state to be offered a funded place in a three-year-old kindergarten program in 2020.”
The spokesperson said the department was “working closely” with services, providers and local government to prepare for the roll-out, including Buloke Shire Council.
“The Victorian Government is providing Buloke Shire Council with almost $1.2 million for the Charlton and District Kindergarten and almost $1.2 million for Sea Lake Kindergarten,” the spokesperson said.
“This part of the Victorian Government’s $1.68 billion commitment to early childhood infrastructure to deliver this reform, and is the first of many opportunities for service providers and local governments to apply for capital grants to support them to expand their kindergarten programs.”
The Premier’s office did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.
