Springwood Community Kindergarten is celebrating 45 years since it first opened its doors.
The kindy was founded by a group of parents from the area who were kicked into action when they recognised a shortage of early learning education back then.
“Our kindy was actually founded by a group of parents in the community who were in need at the time for a good kindy program in the area and it’s been going strong for 45 years,” Emily Aishford said, President of executive parent committee at the kindy.
On the parent committee, she works with other parents to get the best outcomes for their kids.
“I’ve been involved in the kindy, my mum’s been involved with the kindy,” she said. “We’ve had incredible teachers in that time and such a good community feel and have so much say and involvement around the child’s learning.”
While there are not yet any official celebrations to mark the milestone, they hope to organise something soon.
Back when the kindy first opened, she said parents lined up overnight to get their kids enrolled.
“My parents lined up out the front overnight to try and get me enrolled, and they still missed out,” she said.
“If you didn’t get your child’s name down when they were born, you could forget about it, we were that full.”
In its 45 years of operating, the kindy has had the same teachers for the best part of 35 years.
“Since then we’ve had a changeover of teachers about 8 years who continued what they started,” she said.
Ms Aishford said they have new vacancies to fill and was keen to stress the importance of proper kindy education.
“We’ve been in touch with local schools and they’re quite concerned about the number of children starting school who aren’t ready,” she said.
“You can pinpoint the children who have attended a proper kindy program to those who haven’t.”
