Preschool and daycare centres across the state will be able to improve their services, with more than $11 million in funding announced by the NSW Nationals in the state government.
The NSW Nationals in the state government’s Quality Learning Environments (QLE) grants provide not-for-profit community and mobile preschools and not-for-profit long day care services across the state with funding of up to $15,000 to purchase resources and activities which improve physical or educational learning environments.
NSW Nationals Member for Tweed Geoff Provest said the QLE grants were greatly welcomed in the community, especially after a tough year with drought, fire and COVID-19 for early childhood services.
The grants will fund improvements to physical spaces by enhancing the quality of the grounds and buildings of services. They can also be used to provide specialised educational programs for children to address identified educational needs.
The following services have been successful in accessing over $134,000 in funding from the QLE grants;
• Bilambil Community Pre-School and OOSH Inc
• Gumnut Community Preschool
• Pippies Early Childhood Centre
• Pottsville Community Preschool Inc
• Wallum Community Preschool and Family Centre Inc
• Tweed Heads Community Pre-School Inc
• Cooloon Childrens Centre Inc
• Possums Community Pre-School
• Kingscliff Mini School
• Goodstart Early Learning Ltd
“Early childhood education is incredibly important and these grants will help educators provide high quality learning environments for our children,” Mr Provest said.