About Us

North East Regional Preschool Association (NERPSA) is committed to the provision of quality Kindergarten services for families and young children within the local area.

From initial meetings held by the steering committee in 2002/2003, it was identified that the main difficulty facing these Kindergarten committees was human resources. As committees of management were responsible for employing Kindergarten staff, dealing with DET (who regularly require reports due to the government funding received) and ensuring Kindergartens complied with all child safety regulations, the workload on staff and volunteers was detracting from the main objective of educating children.

Our Role

NERPSA has tried to address these main areas of concern with human resources and dealing with DET requirements being our main focus. NERPSA has become the employer for all our member centres, providing continuity and a professional service for our staff and relieving the committee of a job that requires specialist knowledge and is often very demanding on a volunteer.

NERPSA has also become the licensee of each centre so that all DET reporting is now done by the one centralised body. This has proven very successful with feedback from our staff of and from our Kindergarten committees of management.


“It is as if a weight has been lifted off our shoulders”

“It is great not to have to deal with DET forms any more and to have informed people to call on and get advice from at a local level”

 

What We Do

By coming together as a group we have all been able to share information and processes with each other and have gained enormous support and assistance. With the appointment of a paid administrator our Kindergartens have been able to experience the high level of professionalism and support they deserve.

NERPSA has continued to grow and develop, becoming a professional and dedicated body with a streamlined accounting system. In 2011, a part time Education Manager was employed to further assist staff in implementing the many changes currently faced within the childhood education field, as well as offering professional support to our dedicated staff.

NERPSA has and will continue to formulate and enhance professionalism within the Kindergarten field. Ongoing support, staff and committee guidance, networking and resourcing of ideas and training are a few of the main objectives of NERPSA.

 

Our History

The North East Regional Preschool Association (NERPSA) has evolved as the result of an ongoing consultative process between Kindergartens within the area of north east Victoria, following the initial government funding for group employment models in 2002.

2002

In November 2002, representatives from nine local centres met to investigate the opportunities and issues facing all Kindergartens at that time. Representatives of six Kindergartens demonstrated an ongoing interest and continued to meet, forming a steering committee to further a common wish to participate in Group Employment.

Regular meetings were held in conjunction with the Department of Human Services project officer to develop a group employment model. The steering committee was successful in obtaining the funding for the model in October 2003.

2004

A NERPSA committee was formed with representatives from each of these Kindergartens and a representative from the Rural City of Wangaratta council and in January 2004, a part time administration assistant was appointed by NERPSA to help with the administration work load.