The new kindergarten at Phoenix P-12 Community College will open on Wednesday with a group arriving from Sebastopol Kindergarten. 

The building – only finished last week –  is on Phoenix’s Redan campus, which also houses the primary school, and Eureka Community Kindergarten Association will operate it. 

Phoenix principal Karen Snibson said the school was now ‘K to U’ instead of P-12. 

“It’s just wonderful. We’re very excited. Phoenix...will actually become a kinder to adult ed,” she said. 

“This facility is for the communities of Redan, Delacombe and Sebastopol; these are our families, and it’s actually putting them in a state-of-the-art building that they deserve to learn in.” 

Ms Snibson said it would also give their students studying kinder and childcare to do work experience across the road from the secondary school. 

As well as the building – with kid-height windows and other touches for the three and four-year-olds – the playground proved a hit. 

A class from Sebastopol Kindergarten got to try it out a day early. 

They ran from the wooden structure to the sandpit, in between some of the newly planted trees as some of the primary school students looked on with envy. 

There will be 66 places in three classes at the kinder next year. 

Ms Snibson said they were “essentially fully-enrolled”. 

Youth Affairs and Children Minister Jenny Mikakos said it was an exciting project and underlined the fact that more centres would be coming. 

“The co-location of the kinder next to the school will be an important asset for this community for many years to come,” she said. 

“We did make two election commitments in relation to the City of Ballarat and those projects have had their funding agreements signed with the council here.” 

“The advice that I’ve had from my department is that both of those projects will be starting construction in the second half of this year, so I look forward to coming back in the next few months to see those projects underway.” 

A centre at Bonshaw and an expansion of the Iris Ramsay Kindergarten were promised in 2014. 

ECKA CEO Joanne Geurts said they had been pushing for the Phoenix kinder for six years after the school sold her on the idea. 

“It’s been years of meetings and collaboration to this point where we’ve actually got the building and move in (Wednesday),” she said. 

Ms Geurts said lessening the stress of transition would “set up” children to go better at primary school.