The hub of the Queensland Central Highlands and home to the Kairi and Wangan peoples, Emerald is – despite its name – a gateway to one of the largest sapphire fields in the southern hemisphere.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Emerald grew rapidly as a result of new coal mines in the Bowen Basin and is now a thriving rural service area rich in minerals and agriculture.
IEUA journalist Jessica Willis talks to Jenny Finlay, Director of Borilla Community Kindergarten, and Kay Harling, Director of Emerald Preschool and Community Kindergarten, about the joys and challenges of teaching in rural communities.
Both directors are passionate and tenacious early childhood teachers who have taught generations of families in rural communities, for 40 and 35 years respectively, and are advocates for supporting high quality rural teaching.
Finlay’s family has strong ties to the Emerald community.
“I grew up in central Queensland and my family have settled here from the 1800s so I have a very strong link to this community,” said Finlay.
“I have always been an advocate for quality early childhood education.”
“I strongly believe that children in rural communities deserve the best of teachers. You should not have to go to the city to have the same quality education – and that’s a passion of mine.”
Similarly, Harling has family connections to the community.
“I started working rurally as my husband was offered a position at a coal mine and so we moved. I always wanted to raise my family in a small town as I was raised in small towns,” Harling said.
“And I love it. It gave me a place to raise my children in a small community with great support.
“Emerald Community Kindergarten is an amazing caring community who support their staff and believe in the magic we provide for staff, students and families.
“This has been my reward.”
Diverse and inclusive services
Both centres cater for a large and complex cohort of children which means that Finlay and Harling work hard at maintaining the professional development of staff and supporting them in every way possible.
“Borilla Community Kindergarten is a large kindergarten with three operating units and 132 children,” said Finlay.
“We have a very complex enrolment cohort.
“About 20% of our children classify as having a disability and we have a high enrolment of children from Indigenous backgrounds.
“We also have a mixture socio-economically, with about 40% of our families classified as low socioeconomic.
“So we are very mixed and diverse, and we pride ourselves in being an inclusive service.
“We are also quite an innovative community.
“We were the first kindergarten in Queensland to have a Domestic Violence Leave provision – we’ve had that since 2015 – and we’ve had an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) for our staff for four years, which should be in every kindergarten but unfortunately is not.”