Kendall Community Preschool and Its Community

Kendall Community Preschool is embedded in a small community village, committed to new ways of thinking and being. The township of Kendall forms the interactive, community learning environment that allows children and adults to build knowledge together. As we continue to build our connections within the community, the preschool offers many opportunities to link with community in a reciprocal manner.

Opportunities for children to engage in community celebrations, important days and events is a high priority. Children need to be seen and valued as community members participating in ANZAC Day ceremonies, NAIDOC week, the Camden Haven Show, 100 Years of Rail to Kendall, Rumba (recycling exhibition).

Several community projects highlight our connection and commitment to building a learning hub that supports the needs and interests of children, providing an avenue for authentic agency & creativity for the young members of the community.

We invite artists, tradesmen, musicians, gardeners, storytellers and other community members with information, skills, ideas and stories to share, to become involved in the process of building knowledge with children in a community of learners.

Kendall Preschool aims to show the community the importance of children while also encouraging the children to be part of the community around them. For the reciprocal nature of this to develop, the preschool chooses to involve itself in community events as well as supporting the children to arrange their own offerings to the community.

Since 2012, the preschool opens to the community annually at the fund and community-raising Spring Fete. The Fete reminds the community that items bought from the garage sale still have life; that the wonderful art of the preschoolers is to be enjoyed in the Gallery in the Garden; and that sharing garden plants enriches the community’s outdoor environments. The Camden Haven Open Gardens in 2010 saw many, many community members and garden lovers visit and enjoy the extensive outdoor learning environment at preschool.

To encourage the development and share the joy of children’s art making, Kendall Preschool has committed, since 2015, to being one of the sponsors of the Youth Art & Creativity Gallery at the Camden Haven Show. And with preschoolers exploring their mosaic skills for signs at preschool, they also connected with and contributed to the Kendall Public School’s Values Garden mosaics in 2015.

In 2014, the Kendall community celebrated 100 years of the train coming to Kendall and the preschool provided children’s activities so that everyone could enjoy the festivities!

Participating, along with the community, in the Anzac Day marches has developed a close connection with the Kendall RSL Sub-branch. Since 2014 preschoolers have felt welcome to march and we even decorate the cenotaph and give rosemary pins to members of the community at the event.

The preschool’s Roadside Herb and Bushfood Community Garden opened in 2013 and provides the community with seasonal herbs and vegetables and is a meeting place for preschool families and community members.

The preschool Marketplace is a ‘shop’ where preschool community members buy, swap and sell their, and the preschool’s, veggie patch harvests! Established in 2017, there continues to be healthy fruit, vegetables & herbs available for families to add to their healthy meals at home.

It was in 2012 at the Slice of Haven event that the preschool Cookbook was available for sale at a stall where the preschoolers sold herb seedlings & cuttings to the wider community too!

The annual Big Veggie Crunch, supported for us by Kew Corner Store, ensures that the community is encouraged to feed its children well so that they enjoy healthy lives.

Tree Day celebrations have seen many families in the community coming together for gardening experiences and ‘tree appreciation’ in the bush, atop North Brother and within the preschool.

Small community-run preschools often need funds to keep fees as low as possible and the whole community has enjoyed golf days, Barefoot Bowling, trivia nights, bush dances and even coming together for Bunnings BBQs.

In 2010 the preschoolers were concerned about the impact rubbish was having on the local beach environments and worked alongside members of council to design and install ‘Sea Litter Signs’ at North Haven Beach, proving that younger members of the community can have a positive voice for environmental change. Highlighting sustainability is an important aim and the preschool’s involvement in the ‘Kendall: The Good Life’ event invited the whole community to look at sustainability in a new light.

Recently, some of the preschool students were studying the art & life of Andy Warhol. They each created their own incredible masterpieces and worked with the Kendall Community Centre to arrange their own art exhibition – the first of its kind, opened by Leslie Williams! It was August 2018 when the artworks were then lovingly displayed by local businesses in the community and the children saw themselves as true artists!

Also in 2018 an interest in yoga saw the organising of a Family Yoga Session at the Kendall Community Hall, where the preschoolers shared their fitness secrets with the wider community.

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