Doveton North Primary School’s oldest student Sarah helps Sarah, the school’s youngest student, to cut the ribbon to open the Family Resource centre aTHEoldest and youngest students of Doveton North Primary School cut the ribbon to open the school’s Family Resource Centre on Friday last week.
The centre was established to benefit not only Doveton North Primary School families, but also the broader community of Doveton and Eumemmerring in a bid to better prepare children for school life.
The resource centre is designed to help children aged to five years gain easy access to support services including health and learning programs. Doveton North Primary School principal Murray Geddes said that in recent years the school and Casey Cardinia Community Health Services staff had raised concerns over the number of children entering school unprepared.
He said that many children had not accessed preschool learning facilities before attending primary school and some had health issues that were easy to address if the services were made more accessible.
“It is to ensure kids start prep ready to learn,” Mr Geddes said.
“It’s a bit of a change in thinking of how to provide those services. But it’s not just for families of our school. It’s for any preschool kids in the Doveton and Eumemmerring areas, so kids starting at all local schools will be prepared. We’re talking about long term change here.”
The Family Resource Centre is being run out of a renovated storage shed, which has been transformed largely due to the efforts of the Rotary Club of Dandenong East and some other agencies. Casey Cardinia Health Services, the Good Beginnings program, the State Government’s Best Start initiative and the City of Casey have also been instrumental in assisting the project come alive.
