New Park Ridge child care joins school hub
With Boronia Heights and Park Ridge families booming faster than the Queensland average, a local school is the ideal location for a collaboration of caregivers for kids.
The announcement of a new open long day care centre within Corymbia State School in Park Ridge will be welcome news for local parents, as 100 places for children have just opened up for registration.
However, the extra bonus for local families is the school is the location for FamilyLinQ, which is Queensland’s first integrated school-based hubs initiative that aims to improve the health, education and life outcomes for children and their families within school communities.
The new long day care centre, within the newly opened Corymbia State School, will be run by one of Queensland’s oldest early education providers – the not-for-profit organisation Lady Gowrie Queensland, alongside health and community services.
CEO of Lady Gowrie Qld, Julien Smart, says the centre will provide early education services for up to 100 children, aged from birth to school age, providing much needed universal access service for all young children in the local community.
‘The early years are the most important and we are looking forward to being part of an integrated approach – everything under the one roof – for the Park Ridge community, so every child has the best start in life,’ Julien says.
‘We know the demand for spots is high, and we are keen to open as soon as we are able. Bookings and expressions of interest are open now via our website.’
Lady Gowrie’s General Manager of Child and Family Support Programs, Madeline Slater, is pleased about the new centre location in the City of Logan.
‘We are excited to be part of this new site and, given the high birth rate of 19.2 per cent for the Boronia Heights-Park Ridge area compared to a Queensland average of 10.7 per cent, we will be helping families who are in urgent need of early childhood education options,’ Madeline says.
FamilyLinQ is part of a leading initiative of the Queensland Government in partnership with The Bryan Foundation, Department of Education, and has been successfully operating at Kingston State School.
The Bryan Foundation Executive Director Matthew Cox is also excited to see the second FamilyLinQ integrated school hub roll out to what is seen as an emerging community.
‘We know this model will play a key role in school community life and will be co-designed with a community-first approach, to enable families to be the centre of school community life,’ Matthew says.
Services in each FamilyLinQ hub will include quality education and learning, early childhood support services, onsite health services, family support programs, adult education and training, and community activities and programs.
The programs delivered at the Corymbia hub could include parent education and workshops, play-based parent-child activities, ‘Get Set For Kindy’ programs, nutrition and healthy eating programs, playgroups for specific communities, and physical activity and wellbeing programs for parents and children.