General News
26 November, 2025
College names child care centre director
WEDDERBURN College Early Learning Centre is on track to open in early February.
The college last week announced Damien Sparkes had been appointed the centre’s first director.
College principal Danny Forrest said” “It was great to have the new centre director Damien Sparks on deck to meet with prospective parents over the last couple of days in the school meeting room.
“We look forward to establishing a strong relationship with Damien and the ELC team in the future.”
Mr Forrest said enrolments are currently open for families and “we’ve started reaching out to families who have received enrolment offers over the past few weeks, beginning with our four-year-old and three-year-old kindergarten families”.
The centre will be contacting families with children under the age of three over the next month as part of their enrolment process.
Mr Forrest said the fee structure for the centre had been designed to remain affordable, transparent, and supportive of families’ needs. The child care subsidy and free kindergarten funding are also available through the centre as well as the additional child care subsidy for families with more than one child attending.
Mr Sparkes was previously assistant director Early Learning Victoria Nyernilang Lar, Eaglehawk, one of the first tranche of new State Government child care centres to open this year.
Damien said he was passionate about high quality early education and children’s access to care in regional areas.
“As a child, all my early education and schooling came from small regional kindergartens and Schools. This has embedded a deep passion for quality early education in my professional career and believe it’s important for all children to access high quality early education in their formative years,” he said.
“I’m excited to continue my journey with Early Learning Victoria as a centre director and lead such a high quality and accessible early education service for the children in the Wedderburn and surrounding community.”
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