The Bureau visited Meadows Primary School in 2008 as part of its research into family school partnerships.  You can read a brief but inspiring account taken from our research about how principal Rob Greenacre faced some tough challenges when he started at the school, but made the right decisions in favour of parents being an active presence. The decisions have paid off handsomely.

Needless to say we were delighted when we came across this latest report about the Meadows Early Learning Centre, and how it is going from strength to strength. We were especially pleased to learn that the home language facilitated playgroups are providing volunteer’s pathways and parent engagement in the school and early year’s programs … AND THEN SOME !!.

Our Arabic and Samoan playgroups are examples of parents, supported initially through the MELC –Hub and encouraged to obtain their Level 3 in child care at Vic Uni. hese parents are now facilitating the playgroups… For example, one parent has completed her “Kinda Moves” assistance training and was employed in this role during 2008. This parent is currently employed by Uniting Care as our Kindergarten assistant in the 4 year old Kindergarten Blue group…

We incorporate an Arabic Family Support Worker provided by Anglicare into our playgroup sessions  and this worker has been a key resource for  the Transition to School – pilot project. ..

Each one Teach One is an English Language course supported by The Smith Family.  Volunteer tutors are trained through AMES and then  linked to parents wishing to gain additional language skills. The MELC – Community Hub provides the venue for parents to learn in the same space while their children are enjoying playgroup experiences.