Happy Easter to all and a safe and enjoyable long weekend. Double Demerits will be in place from March 29 until April 2. With 88 people already have lost their lives this year in NSW, I urge everyone to please think twice before breaking the road rules.
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Access to education
Minister for Early Education and Aboriginal Affairs Sarah Mitchell and I announced in Dubbo last week that Aboriginal children across NSW will benefit from a new program targeting the quality enhancement of Aboriginal early childhood services. The program was developed following close consultation with the sector and aims to identify and address challenges faced by Aboriginal services across the state.
Minister Mitchell expressed that this program is delivering what the sector expects and children and families deserve. The Quality Support program is yet another way the NSW Government is ensuring all families, regardless of their background, have access to top quality early childhood education services for their children.
This is also a fantastic opportunity for Aboriginal services to come together and discuss how Aboriginal culture has been embedded to everyday practice at their service. It is absolutely vital for Aboriginal children across the state to have a strong sense of culture and heritage and this program will support that.
Aboriginal services with exemplary ratings and compliance history will be delivering sessions to showcase how Aboriginal culture has successfully been integrated to pedagogy at their services. These sessions will then be translated into a series of guides for services to keep and refer to.
The NSW Department of Education will also work directly alongside identified Aboriginal services to ensure they are meeting quality standards. Support will include visits, training, online follow-up, telephone support and additional resources to boost quality. Sessions will be held in Wellington as well as Sydney, Newcastle, Mogo, Lismore, Walgett, Griffith and Kempsey.
Community partnerships
I also have the privilege last week to present some more Community Building Partnership funding to local community groups to help improve local facilities at Dubbo’s South Dubbo Oval and the Dubbo Model Railway Club. South Dubbo Oval was presented with $15,440 for two new grandstands to be built for the viewing of junior, women’s and men’s sport with room to expand for more seating.
Whilst the Dubbo Model Railway Club accepted $10,517 which will be used to replace their kitchen including, sink, storage cupboards and benchtops. As well as replacing the floor coverings, sewer line and existing stormwater line to an external pit. Congratulations to these two deserving groups.
Until next week, Troy
