Our Program and Approach
At KU West Pymble, childhood is celebrated. When they play and explore, children's imagination and curiosity is sparked – they enjoy learning, and are inspired to continue learning more.
We provide high quality early education to our local community. Nestled in a peaceful, natural bush setting, we provide a warm and welcoming space where children, families and educators feel a sense of belonging. Children are supported to engage in play to learn and to build trusting relationships, individual interests and diverse ways of living and being. Personal learning styles are valued and respected.
Our preschool supports and implements the Early Years Learning Framework – the national framework for all early childhood services in Australia. The framework places particular emphasis on play-based learning and recognises the importance of communication and language (including early literacy and numeracy) and social and emotional development.
KU West Pymble Preschool strives to provide a high quality early education service to our local community. The curriculum at our preschool is designed to promote the development of life skills and competencies for each child and encompasses various routines, interactions and experiences rich in learning potential.
We aim to create learning environments which invite curiosity and exploration. Through a combination of indoor and outdoor experiences, we encourage children to interact positively with each other and with the natural world around them.
KU West Pymble has a strong focus on sustainability and won the 2023 Better Business Partnership Sustainable Business Award for the Childcare and Early Learning Category.
We place a high value on the partnerships that we build with families and are honoured that families have, and continue to, entrust us with the education and care of their children over many years.
Our Special Interest
In addition to the high quality well-rounded programs we offer, all KU centres are also encouraged to develop an area of interest.
At KU West Pymble we have a special interest in wildlife protection and interaction. We also encourage children to reduce our carbon footprint through incorporating sustainable practices throughout the service.
We incorporate this into our program through activities such as establishing a wildlife habitat within the preschool environment and having sustained wildlife visitations within the service. Children, families and staff are encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle, for example to sort rubbish from their lunchboxes into feed for the chickens, worms in our worm farm, compost bin, preschool collage or landfill.
We feel that the children benefit from this interest because they engage in practising sustainable habits and are learning to become socially responsible and show respect for all living things in our natural environment. We have two pet chickens at our Preschool, and the children are involved in changing the water and feeding the chickens with the scraps from their lunch boxes. When the chickens lay eggs, the children take turns bringing an egg home. The children also enjoy the sight of the chickens roaming freely around our Preschool and will often walk up to pat the chicken or even give them a cuddle.
Our Quality
Our centre has been independently assessed by the Department of Education NSW under the National Quality Standards, and are proud to be rated as Exceeding the National Quality Standard.
However what matters most is what our families think...
“The warmth, guidance and care shown to our child has been wonderful. We are so much more a part of our local community.” - KU West Pymble Parent
“Our son is saving his own pocket money to donate to the school chooks’ and stick insects’ care. He has such strong roots in his local natural and built environment, thanks to KU West Pymble.” – KU West Pymble Parent
Our Environment
Each KU centre is unique. The best outcomes for children are created within relationships and interactions between children and staff, and children and their families, not within four walls. We work hard to create beautiful, interesting, homelike learning environments for children – whatever our setting.
Our playground is designed to allow children to explore nature and discover the natural environment. We want children to be able to dig in the mud, climb trees, discover and learn about insects and enjoy connecting with nature. The many activities we offer enable children to immerse themselves in the natural elements of their surroundings and feel inspired to create, imagine and play.
Our Awards
KU West Pymble lives and breathes sustainability and consistently promotes it to families and the local community. To acknowledge their exceptional work in this space, the preschool was a finalist at the prestigious 2021 HESTA Early Childhood Education and Care Awards in the ‘Advancing Pedagogy and Practice’ category. The preschool was recognised for embedding sustainability into their pedagogy and practice, contributing to their vision for a better, healthier world.
The preschool was also a finalist in the Better Business Partnership Awards in 2021.
In 2019 KU West Pymble was awarded one of the four SPROuts Awards given by the NSW Early Childhood Environmental Education Network, recognising the preschool's commitment to learning for sustainability. The preschool participated in ‘Becoming Eco Smart’ with KU, developing unique projects and undertaking adventures, including visiting local bushland, reducing waste and and noticing the environment’s need for care.
The preschool also received the 'Making the KU Difference through Sustainability' Award in 2019.
The Annual Making the KU Difference Awards were introduced a number of years ago, as a way of acknowledging KU staff who have made a significant contribution to KU. These annual awards are open to all KU staff, at any level (either individual staff or a team), who have worked above and beyond their normal duties.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU West Pymble, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.
