Kindergarten teacher Rachel Gellert enjoys the newly-built Acacia room with four-year-old kindergarten students Rory and Bethany. Picture: CONTRIBUTED
Horsham's Green Park Kindergarten has opened the doors of its new playroom to provide for an increased demand for kindergarten services.
The kindergarten, one of Horsham and District Kindergarten Association's seven centres, received almost $200,000 in state and local government funding for the upgrade.
The money came after a Horsham Rural City Council capacity assessment report, released in 2010, determined it was the only kindergarten within the rural city that could be extended.
Association early years manager Shirleen Greening said Green Park Kindergarten's new Acacia room would accommodate 27 four-year-old children and 40 three-year-old children this year.
She said a further 45 four-year-old children would use the kindergarten's Casuarina room.
Ms Greening said while the number of three-year-old students had remained steady from last year, about 25 more children had enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten across the association's Horsham, Natimuk and Laharum centres.
"There was a demand for an increased number of kindergarten spaces so the new room allows for more children at the centre," she said.
"With a move to universal access where all children must have 15 hours of kindergarten in the year before school, there were some three-year-old students who were displaced so we have picked up some of those.
"There is also an increase in the number of staff at the kindergarten so they are all working together harmoniously.
"Our three and four-year-old programs provide children with the opportunity to develop socially, intellectually, physically, imaginatively and creatively."
Ms Greening said the kindergarten would raise money to build a new outdoor playground, which was not funded by the government grants.
"We are seeking community engagement and community assistance to build a playground for the Acacia room," she said.
"The children will use the existing playground until we can build the new one.
"Sessions include a range of educational activities in both the indoor and outdoor play spaces and small and large group activities."