Council News - School Readiness Improving

Published on 13 May 2019

Since 2015, the number of Benalla children starting school ‘ready to learn’ as recorded by the 2018 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) has dramatically increased. ‘Ready to Learn’ is measured by physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills and general knowledge. In 2015 Benalla’s AEDC results were among the worst in Victoria. The turnaround to 2018 has come from groups including the Council, through the Benalla Library and Maternal Child Health services, Tomorrow Today Foundation and Benalla Health collaborating through the delivery of the Parents Early Education Partnership (PEEP). The PEEP works with families and their children from birth to five years, helping deliver fun learning activities to develop pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills.