Tilly and Billy’s new home. Very funny to watch them jump all over and in their home at Wallendbeen Public School.
Emma Sheridan has three kids under four years of age and lives in the local community of Wallendbeen.
Her first child is nearing the age where she and her husband Andrew can send the child to kindergarten.
This week the oldest of their children started in Cootamundra at a preschool, but all three kids could currently be in a preschool or childcare environment. Unfortunately, they may run out of time for kindergarten in Wallendbeen with plans afoot to potentially close the school.
Wallendbeen Public School only has a handful of students.
The decrease in students culminated in a Department of Education spokesperson attending the town to discuss the school’s future.
A survey was recently circulating on the Wallendbeen Public School Facebook page with the following questions: Would your child enjoy the support of a smaller school like Wallendbeen Public?
Would you consider enrolling your child/children at Wallendbeen Public School?
We’re looking to start a bus service to our school. Would this help your decision to enrol in WPS?
If Wallendbeen were to offer a mobile preschool, would you be interested in learning more?
Are you happy to be contacted to learn more about WPS and discuss whether it’s right for you? If so please leave your best contact details.
The survey closed on Friday 31st January 2025, however, contacting the school if you have missed the date when class returns would be a good way to get your point across.
Emma said, “We have kids under four, why don’t we explore the options of implementing a pre school at the school?”
It could be a possibility with the State Government calling on primary schools last year to state if they wanted a pre school or not. Murrumburrah Public School was unsuccessful, however, Boorowa Central School was approved.
Emma said, “Locals have been supportive of it but we need to work out how to make it happen.”
“You can’t tell me that the school is sitting there and you have a shortage of preschools in the region.
To have it sit there and in a perfect location to have a preschool and you have all those kids, and if they actually went there it would make a massive difference. If they started to go there, the school would pick up. It’s a really good environment.”
“I think if you could get a pre school going there, it’s in the perfect location, it’s got all the facilities. Turn one room into a preschool and away you go.”
“I understand that they have to have different toilet facilities for the different groups, but it might be a case of putting some mobile toilets there or something.
Anything could be done. You could run a fence and fence off one building.”
“The community needs to get involved and the school needs more students if we are to keep the school.”
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
We offer weekly print editions at $3 a copy and we also offer digital subscriptions across 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120.
We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
Contact us today to find out how we can promote your business or organisation across our huge network by emailing ads@thetimes.net.au or by calling 0413 763 216.
If you have a news tip, lead or scoop for us please make contact as we love celebrating our communities. You can contribute articles via our South West Slopes Times website.
