PHOTO: Quambone Public School Principal Narelle Stacey and early childhood educator Abby Sinclair.
The Quambone district is about to open their first-ever preschool.
Quambone Public School is expanding, with their new preschool program opening up this year providing convenient access for families in the area who, for generations, had been travelling far and wide.
The school will run a mix of in-house early childhood education, and online programs through distance education for a pre-kindergarten year group for two days each week on Monday and Wednesday.
To start with, three children will be in on both of those days in the same room as the kindergarten and Year One students.
For Quambone Public School principal Narelle Stacey, it is the culmination of three years of work.
“I’ve been wanting to get it going since I started as principal three years ago,” said Ms Stacey.
“It’s been a journey looking into how we could start something like this.”
“I’d been talking with colleagues and principals about it, then the grant came up.”
Eligibility for early childhood education was granted through the NSW Department of Education’s Community Safety Net (CSN) program.
“There was some criteria we had to meet to get checked off,” said Ms Stacey.
“We’re eligible because of our remoteness, you had to be over 48 kilometres from the nearest early childhood education service.”
“We’re excited to provide the option for families in Quambone.”
Narelle says that prior to the new arrangement, most families were driving into Coonamble, with one family known to be heading out to The Marra.
The preschool will be taught by experienced local early childhood educator Abby Sinclair, who brings six years of experience into the job.
“I’ve worked on and off in Coonamble as an early childhood educator,” said Ms Sinclair.
“I’m excited, the programming is all organised through distance education, it’s all about preparing the little ones for school.”
“Most of it is play-based programming and we have a lot of equipment to work with.”
Under distance education component, the three children will have an hour long lesson with an early education teacher along with seventeen other students.
“They’ll all join up on our screen at the front of the room, there will be twenty little ones from around the state,” said Ms Stacey.
To start with, grants and donations have been made to get the preschool off the ground.
“Backpack Venture came to Quambone and dropped off some backpacks for our preschoolers, and some for next year as well,” said Ms Stacey.
“We also got a grant from Dymocks for $2500 for books and resources.”
The preschool will open in line with the rest of Quambone Public School on 8 February.
“It’s creating opportunity for preschool but also upskilling community members and creating more jobs,” said Ms Stacey.
“As part of the program we will be able to continue training Abby and get her any other relevant certificates and diplomas.”