The Victorian Government's Best Start Best Life initiative
Starting in 2023, all children in Victoria who are 3 and 4 years old can access Free Kinder. This is available at both standalone (sessional) kindergartens and long day care (childcare) centres.
The roll-out of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten continues, with programs increasing to 15 hours a week across the state by 2029, providing Victorian children with 2 years of a quality kindergarten program before school.
Pre-Prep: Four-Year-Old Kindergarten in Victoria will change to 'Pre-Prep'. This means that every 4-year-old child can go to a play-based learning program for 30 hours per week by 2036.
Find out more about the Best Start, Best Life initiative.
What this means for Dunstan Reserve Child Care
To accommodate these future kindergarten programs, we are expanding the Dunstan Reserve Child Care Centre to increase from catering for 72 kindergarten places to 94 kindergarten places.
The additional 22 places for the sessional kindergarten room will include long day care and sessional kindergarten.
While we are at it, we will also upgrade the kitchen, planning room, staff room and increase staff toilets at the facility.
How can the community influence this project?
- The layout of the additional kindergarten room
- The new amenities for staff
- The layout of the adjoining children's bathrooms
- The design and layout of the outdoor play areas
- The location for the front entry of the centre
- The colour scheme and materials used in the final design
- The number of new places being made available (from the existing 72 to 94 places).
- The overall footprint of the building
Get Involved
We are keen to have your help so that we can make sure the expanded centre meets the needs of future users and staff.
Please share what you most value about the current child care centre. Tell us about the things you love and the things that work really well. Share your ideas for how the centre might look or function in the future.
We will share your feedback with the architect so that they can use this information to inform the new design.
What happens next
We will also be working closely with current and potential users of the centre, staff at Dunstan Reserve and the committee at Moreland Community Child Care Centres to ensure that we hear from all of the people who will be affected by the changes to the centre.
The feedback we collect will be shared with the architect and the project team to inform the development of the new design for the expanded centre.
