The start of school is a key moment in the life of every child – and every parent.

It’s fitting that we recognise such a milestone with a feature in the local paper, just as we have done for decades.

At the same time as these children are stepping into their schooling lives, hundreds more across the region have begun their Year 12 studies – the final year of their schooling.

What happens between those moments are thousands of lessons, thousands of memories, thousands of good times and, probably, quite a few bad times as well.

That is the essence of life and it is the essence of education.

It is also the essence of opportunity, and that’s where the children in our feature perhaps have an edge over kindergarten students in other regional centres across the country.

Few cities are as well resourced as Bathurst when it comes to quality and choice of education. Few regional centres could claim education as their biggest industry, but that’s the case in Bathurst and the city is all the richer for it.

The region offers more than 20 primary school options for parents of school-aged children along with two public high schools, two Catholic high schools and two independent high schools.

And this year, for the first time, the new Skillset Senior College has a Year 12 cohort completing their studies at a high school designed to embrace, rather than shun, difference.

Then there is the Bathurst TAFE campus and also Charles Sturt University for tertiary studies meaning today’s kindy kids could complete their entire education without ever leaving Bathurst. And some will.

All these educational facilities not only provide plenty of learning options but also employ plenty of staff whose wages help keep the local economy turning.

They also make Bathurst an attractive option for young families looking to make a new start – particularly those trying to leave the rat race of Sydney – and education is a relatively recession-proof industry on which to build a local economy.

This is the incredible world into which our hundreds of kindy kids are taking their first tentative steps right now.

No wonder they are smiling.