Exeter Child Care Centre has issued a plea to the Education Department to work with them to ensure changes to the school starting age does not impact its facility.
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The centre’s Peter Kearney is concerned Exeter may face closure if the state government pushes ahead with changes to the starting age.
Under the proposal, the government will allow children who are aged three-and-a-half to participate in a voluntary school-based pre-school Kindergarten.
Mr Kearney said the centre was not disputing all children should have access to quality care but said he hoped the state government would be willing to work flexibly with centres like theirs.
“The kids are already here, let us teach them,” he said.
“The Exeter Day Care Centre is an almost perfect example of a child care centre that provides wrap-around care in partnership with its local school, the parents and the community.”
An Education Department spokeswoman said the sector had been extensively consulted with the sector since the initial announcement of the changes two years ago.
The consultation has included three phases, including an online survey for early childhood educators, site visits to 52 services, the establishment of an advisory group, and the commissioning of the KPMG report.
The spokeswoman said that was only part of how much consultation had been done in the sector on the starting age changes.
Exeter Day Care Centre was set up more than 20 years ago and is a community-run centre based across the road from Exeter Primary School and next door to Exeter High School.
The centre is ideally placed to ensure it delivers on its existing pre-school programs to make the transition to schools easier.
Mr Kearney said he wasn’t sure if the centre would have to close but it was a possibility under the proposal.
“The ECCC has made it clear we meet all the requirements to deliver the Minister’s policy. We have met with the KPMG consultants who were pretty impressed with the set-up at Exeter.”
He said he was concerned the centre wouldn’t see the results of the KPMG report, which is to be presented to the Education Department secretary when complete.
Without access to the report, he said the centre wouldn’t be able to have any input to what was said in it.
The state government’s proposal does stipulate a long day care centre can seek registration to deliver pre-school Kindergarten services and would be able to seek funding for their Kindergarten programs.
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