Residents in Melbourne’s growing western suburbs now have access to more kindergarten places, with a new Tarneit kindergarten, co-located with Barayip Primary School, recently opening its doors for the first time.
Helping local families have better access to great play-based learning close to home, Barayip Primary School Kindergarten has 4 rooms and can offer kinder to up to 132 children at a time. Being located on a school site will also help some families before and after school with drop-off and pick-up. It will also help some children make a smoother transition into primary school.
Meeting the demand
The kindergarten is one of 20 opening at government schools in 2025, providing up to 2,575 new kinder places for children in Victoria.
These new and upgraded kindergartens are helping to meet the demand across Victoria, where more than 70,000 children are starting Three-Year-Old Kindergarten this year, with around 80,000 children joining Four-Year-Old Kindergarten.
In addition, this year a further 45 new or expanded kindergartens are opening at council, non-government school and other sector sites, supported by Victorian Government funding through Building Blocks Partnerships and Capacity Building grants.
These projects will collectively create more than 4,000 new kindergarten places.
Creating new connections
Barayip Primary School Kindergarten Educational Leader Poonam Walia said she hoped the new kindergarten would help bring the community together.
‘School teachers, school children, kinder children, educators and the families, they can come to the one place and connect with each other,’ she said.
‘Connecting with the school is a good platform for the families to understand what kinder looks like… and what happens at school.’
Watching the seeds grow
Poonam said the new kindergarten was very exciting, not just for the educators but also the children and families.
‘The building infrastructure is really great, and I think it’s just like planting a seed and watching, seeing how the seed grows.
She said the children will ‘love the outdoor space’.
‘The sandpit, swing, waterplay, the natural environment... they can sit around and talk to each other, so I think they’re going to explore a lot outside.
‘They’re going to share their beautiful smiles and they’re going to start building connections with the other peers as well, and they’re going to expand their community.’
Find out more
For more information, visit Kinders at schools.
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