Norwest Child Care Centre sets the tone for language trials

Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke MP, has confirmed the Norwest Child Care Centre as one of forty sites across Australia selected to take part in the Abbott Government’s trial of a second language in the year before school.

Alex Hawke says “the $9.8 million Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) trial aims to help generate an interest in language studies which can be built on in later years”.

“Congratulations to Nesha O’Neil, Owner  and Managing Director of Norwest Child Care Centre for taking on this really important early learning initiative. Given there were more than 1100 applicants for the forty locations I commend them on the quality and strength of their application, said Alex Hawke.

 “Almost one-in-five Australians speak a language other than English at home; the enormous interest in this trial clearly backs our Government’s desire to promote language studies from the early years through to year 12.

Norwest Child Care Centre will use play-based apps, focussing on one of five languages (Mandarin, Japanese, Indonesian, Arabic or French) with the final language allocation to be confirmed before the trial starts next year.

The 2015 ELLA trial will run across 12 sites in NSW, nine in Victoria, eight in QLD, five in WA, three in SA, and one each in Tasmania, the NT and the ACT.

They include a mix of metropolitan, regional and remote centres across various preschool models, including government-run, standalone community-based and

long day care.

The ELLA software is still in development phase with the first series of apps rolled out in time for the trials beginning early next year.

(L-R: Nesha O'Neil, Kaedan, Adam, Alex Hawke MP, Imogen and William).