Pre-schools in Mitchell given chance to learn another language

Every pre-schooler in Mitchell will have the opportunity to learn a foreign language as the Turnbull Government announced that applications for the popular Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program are now open.

Federal Member for Mitchell, the Hon Alex Hawke MP, called on local preschools to apply for the national rollout of the play-based tablet app for devices like iPads.

“The Polyglots apps are an innovative program that has already seen around 10,000 children across the country learning new languages and better understanding other cultures,” Alex Hawke said.

Alex Hawke said trials of the program had been popular with children, parents and educators and it was exciting to see it not only expanded to being made nationally available but to also include an additional four languages.

“In addition to Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Indonesian and Arabic, preschool children will be able to learn Spanish and Italian from next year, and Modern Greek and Hindi from 2018,” Alex Hawke said.

“Seeing and hearing young children counting, following recipes and singing in a language that isn’t their native tongue, you understand how engaging this app is and why it has had such positive feedback from kids, educators and families.

“A number of preschools in the Hills district are already involved in the ELLA program and benefit from the Polyglots app and it would be great to see more preschools put their hands up to get involved and give children the opportunity to develop new language skills,” concluded Alex Hawke MP.

The Turnbull Government is committed to backing evidence-based programs, to backing programs that inspire students, that involve families in learning and that are useful for educators – ELLA ticks all of those boxes.

The Turnbull Government has committed further funding of $5.9 million to make ELLA available nationally in 2017. For more information and to apply for 2017, visit: www.ella.edu.au.