New kindergarten for Willow Grove

After many years using the town's hall as a kindergarten, Willow Grove will have a purpose build kindergarten on the same site as the Willow Grove Primary School.
The new kindergarten was announced in April 2025, and construction is set to start soon with completion and opening anticipated to be early 2027.
The kindergarten will have one room that can cater for up to 59 children part time and 33 children full time.
Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing visited the kindergarten site on Friday.
"Willow Grove is such a wonderful community and it is growing, and we know when communities grow, they need the facilities that will help people to not have to travel big distances to support their families.
"Whether it's bringing jobs into the local area or providing opportunities for kindergarten or schooling closer to home, this is an investment that will make a really positive difference and from day one, term one, next year there will be space for up to 59 kinder kids to be here right next to the primary school, and that will make it easier for parents and easier for little ones as they make that adjustment.
"We want to continue to support those smaller communities to get the facilities that they need. It's tough going for parents who often have to travel really long distances to get their kids to kinder and to school and then to get to work, and when we combine building kinders in local communities co-located with schools with initiatives like working from home, we are making a world of difference in a number of different ways and it also builds on the commitments we've got to three- and four-year-old kinder," she said.
Ms Shing could not put a dollar figure on the new kindergarten because uniform contractors were operating across a number of the Kinder on School Sites (KOSS) to avoid creating upward pressure on prices.
"This is part of a $580 million investment," Ms Shing said.
"We don't disaggregate that figure because we want to get the best possible value for money. The contractors who do these jobs do a power of really important and good work."
Willow Grove Primary School principal Tamara Halket said it would be fantastic for the community to have both a dedicated kinder space and a dedicated hall space.
"The new kinder is going to be a real positive element for the community. Theres going to be more spaces, so kids from the community can attend their local kinder and make the transition between kinder and school smooth. They are at the one site, the one place, which makes it a nice hub for the community," Ms Halket said.
"The community are also excited because they will have that one drop-off, one pick-up opportunity and there's more opportunity for places in their local kinder."
Y Kinders (Young Men's Christian Association of Ballarat) has been appointed to run the kindergarten, and will manage enrolments via its website.