By Mario Xuereb
PRIMARY students in Sunshine North are the brightest in Brimbank, a study suggests.
The report, the Australian Early Development Index released by the Smith Family last week, found children in the suburb were performing above the national average and ahead of other children in Brimbank in areas including physical health and wellbeing, language skills and general knowledge.
But the news is not as good for children in the rest of Brimbank.
The study found almost one-third of students in the city were developing properly in one or more learning areas, compared with one-fifth nationwide.
But children from Sunshine North were bucking the trend, it reported.
“It’s interesting that despite these suburbs experiencing similar levels of disadvantage, there are factors in Sunshine North that are obviously contributing to better developmental outcomes for local children,” the Smith Family’s Stephen Woodland said.
Mr Woodland said one known factor distinguishing Sunshine North children from their neighbours was a higher participation rate in pre-school.
“While it’s too early to say exactly what has contributed to these results, we do know that many of the Sunshine North children attended pre-school, which is well recognised as an important step in preparing children for their first year of school.”
