ELLA to speak to youngsters

LOCAL preschoolers will get the chance to learn a language other than English using apps as part of the federal government’s play-based Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program.

Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson said preschool services that expressed an interest in trialling the language apps last year could formally apply to participate in ELLA in 2016.

“Boorai Centre, Torquay Kindergarten and Birregurra Pre-School applied to take part in 2015 and are therefore eligible for funding in 2016,” Ms Henderson said.

“These three pre-schools have until March 4 to lodge an application to be part of the next round of the ELLA program in Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, French or Arabic languages.

“It’s a great opportunity to get young children interested in experiencing and learning a language other than English and I hope any local services that put their hand up to take part in last year’s program do so again this year.”

“Those pre-schools that initially expressed an interest, but were not included in the trial, will have the chance to be considered for participation in 2016.

“They just need to have tablet devices and the government will provide the rest.”

A copy of the ELLA guidelines are available at bit.ly/1nLee8y.