Primary school teachers will visit kindergartens to help with the transition to school, and parents will not have to pay fees for term 4 under a $26.7 million program. Highly vulnerable children will also be given an additional five hours of kinder per week.
The package also extends the grants for cleaning and hygiene at pre-schools, which have been available throughout the lockdown.
"This is not a normal year," the Minister said. "We're going to make sure that this is a successful transition year for those kids and their families."The schools that already have that funding will also get free kinder for term four. There is an additional $3 million in fee relief for three-year-old programs that have not already been funded.
In regional Victoria, the start of school will be moved forward due to the change in restrictions and October 5 will be the first day of term four.The Minister acknowledged concerns about grade six students not being able to return to school."The priority cohorts are the little kids, because they're the hardest in terms of a home learning environment, and senior secondary and special needs [students].
Mr Merlino said his own daughter was in year seven and, while he understood it was a milestone year, the decisions were being made on the best of advice from health experts.
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