Preschool
Blue Gum Community School offers a ‘hands-on’ preschool learning environment for children that inspires wonder and adventure. A place to learn, play and belong.
Positioned within the stunning and historic home and gardens of Mount Errington, the setting inspires wonder and adventure for all members of our community. Each day is designed to invite children’s joyful exploration of the world, as they learn with others, in community.
Learning in Preschool
Each day our highly qualified team of educators prepare ‘provocations’ to stimulate children’s questions, deep thinking, collaborative problem-solving and shared understandings. The educator-to-child ratio is 1:8, well above the mandated ratios, powerfully enables us to place significant and supportive relationships at the centre of our curriculum.
Our strong belief that every child comes to us with strengths, a desire to learn and a need to be known and celebrated in their uniqueness, shapes everything we do.
Our educators allow time to listen to children, ask questions and follow their wonderings. ‘Real-life’ investigations provide the contexts for meaningful learning, into which early literacy and numeracy experiences are naturally embedded, as our educators walk alongside the children, lending them expertise at just the right time.
Click here to download a copy of our School Philosophy
Not quite ready for Kindy?
Our 5 day program is especially beneficial for children who would benefit from a rich, challenging and inspiring additional year in preschool, prior to Kindergarten.
How does it work?
Your child’s set days at the preschool are fixed for the duration of the year but you are only locked into these specific days during the school terms. Over the break periods, the weeks between each term, families have the flexibility to opt in or out of the preschool program, choosing more or fewer days, to suit your family’s particular needs.
Blue Gum is an approved provider of early childhood services, licensed as a Long Day Care Setting. We are open 8-6pm, and in vacation periods. Eligible families are able to apply for both Child Care Subsidy and for Start Strong Funding as it applies to Long Day Care settings.
Come and See…
Each month we welcome families to Blue Gum Community School, to tour our Preschool spaces and find out about our educational program and approach, specifically designed for our 3-5 year olds. This two year Preschool Program naturally leads our youngest learners into our Primary School, making the transition from Early Childhood into Primary a seamless one!
Inspired by the work of best-practice in early childhood and education globally (most especially by the thinking and provocation of the Educational Project in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy), Blue Gum offers a Preschool Program that sees all children from the perspective of their strengths and positions them as significant and influential individuals within the dynamic of the group of learners. Supporting our students to develop holistically is a cornerstone of our practice, positioning the learning of empathy, self-regulation and collaboration, right alongside emerging skills in literacy, numeracy and the sciences. The arts are also a part of our everyday throughout the school, positioned as an essential element in how we all develop as humans, grow our understandings and communicate our ideas.
Framing all our work in the notion of research, our teachers see themselves as co-researchers with young children, coming alongside them the inquire about the world and to deepen thinking with each other. It is commonplace to hear students at Blue Gum sharing their theories and ideas with each other, bringing different perspectives into focus. Great attention in given at our school to the environment in which learning occurs. Our spaces are intentionally inspiring, beautiful and calm inviting connection, wonder and peace in a world that is too often defined by chaos and unnecessary 'busy and loud' places for young children.
And in all this - Blue Gum is a play of JOY! Laughter and connection is our normal, and rich relationships are at the heart of our culture. Being small, every child and family is known at Blue Gum as we work together to live community together everyday!
Come and find out for yourself!
As enrolment in the Preschool is considered throughout the school year (dependent on when children turn 3), we offer these tours throughout the year for small groups or for individual families.
To explore coming to visit with your child, contact us directly, or fill out our free online Waiting List for your child and we'll be in touch.
The details
3 to 5 year olds
16 Preschool students a day
1 educator: 8 stduents ratio
Open 48 weeks a year
Preschool Program - 9am to 3pm
Before-School Care - 8am to 9am
After-School Care - 3pm-5:45pm (4:45pm on Wednesdays)
Optional School Holiday Programs
2, 3 and 5 day places
