Latrobe City Council funds additional preschool assistants More than 270 preschool children across the municipality are benefiting from the additional assistants By Latrobe City Council - 26th March 2002 - Back to News More than 270 preschool children across the municipality are benefiting from the additional assistants that have been placed in Council’s preschools for the first two terms of 2002.
Latrobe City Mayor, Councillor Brendan Jenkins, said that funding for these assistants had come from savings in other areas.
"The additional assistants have been placed in preschool groups where there are children with additional needs who are unable to source funding from elsewhere. However, all the children within the group receive the benefit of the additional assistants as they work with the whole group not just with those children with identified needs," Cr Jenkins explained.
"Thirteen children have qualified for the Commonwealth Education Project funding through the Department of Human Services for children with significant additional needs, but to access this funding each child must fit extremely strict guidelines," Cr Jenkins said.
"The newly-appointed additional assistants being funded by Council enhance Latrobe City’s preschool group size of no more than twenty-seven children. Most preschools in other municipalities strictly adhere to the maximum numbers permitted by the State, and cater for group sizes of up to thirty," Cr Jenkins said.
Another program being introduced into Latrobe’s preschools is the Playing And Learning to Socialise (PALS) program.
"The PALS program will begin in term two, in some centres. The program, which runs for a ten week period, is taken by additional trained staff during preschool sessions and aims to help children learn social skills," Cr Jenkins explained.
"This is an exciting initiative which will allow children to learn about greeting others, listening, sharing, taking turns, dealing with feelings of fear, sadness and anger as well as solving problems," Cr Jenkins said.
"Whereas many children learn these skills without difficulty, there are a number of children who require support from teachers and parents to do so, and Latrobe City is pleased to be able to offer access to this program in its preschool centres," Cr Jenkins said.
Cr Jenkins said that at the end of each session parents will receive tip sheets on how to follow-up the sessions at home.
"With both the introduction of the additional assistants and the new PALS program, children across Latrobe City are receiving the benefits of a well-resourced and efficiently-run preschool program," Cr Jenkins concluded.
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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