Encounters with place: Valla Beach
I have been teaching at the preschool since 2005 and during that time it has always had a strong sense of wanting to be ‘in with’ the community.
Way back in 2005, we would take the children on regular walks, visiting the local café, watching the trains go by, posting letters in the local red post box, meeting residents working or relaxing in their gardens, watching building construction happening, exploring the parks, and bird watching in the local nature reserve. This engagement with our community opened up many ways for the children to connect with and be active citizens.
Over time we saw the many benefits of being out and about – for the children and for our community. The local Community Association invited the children to help deliver the Valla Views to several streets. The children happily accepted the offer to be ‘posties’.
Community initiatives
Since those early days there have been several community initiatives that the children have taken up: the cafe, pharmacy and community market use our Boomerang Bags sewn at the preschool.
The children regularly collect the ground coffee from the café for our compost bins and gardens (and now many community members share this task because they see the benefits of re-using this resource) and the children sell ‘worm wee’ to the community and use the profits to purchase chicken food for their beloved chicken family.
We have noticed how children weave together everything that happens in their lives – within their family, within preschool, within the community. We can see that going beyond the fenceline of the preschool offers so much richness for everyone.
‘Place-based education’ is a term used by Sobel (2004) to describe the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts across the entire curriculum. At Valla Community Preschool, walks are an important part of curriculum. When children are ‘in with’ their community, they extend their earth-knowledge and love of place.
Sobel believes that this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps children develop stronger ties to their community, enhances their appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens.
The team at Valla Preschool felt that children’s (and their own) idea of place should be nourished and should be meaningful. However, there was one place that they had never explored as a preschool – the beach.
In 2015, we took the step of starting regular beach preschool days and have never looked back! It was such a success, beach preschool is now a regular part of the curriculum. Families drop their children at the beach to start their preschool day.
We have had many opportunities of connecting with our community through Gaagal Guul (meaning ‘Beach School’ in the Gumbaynggirr language). A dear friend from the UNKYA Land Council, Aunty Belinda Donovan, would spend time with us there regularly, and she supported us to rename this part of our program.
The children added a line to their daily Acknowledgement: “We promise to look after the gaagal”.
Attention to nature
Gaagal Guul creates opportunities for friendship, connection and a growing ecological identity. We know that children’s ecological identity is nurtured when we instil an attitude of attention to what exists in the natural world in their neighbourhood.
We have also had local Gumbaynggirr member, Bernard Kelly-Edwards (BKE), who is our Artist in Residence, join us, including for fishing off the bridge, and we have had Landcare join us to look at erosion and consider ways we can help look after the gaagal.
Regular Gaagal Guul provides a wonderful opportunity for children, families and educators to connect to the beautiful Gumbaynggirr land as well as each other. The team also notice how much more connected the group are to each other when in nature. We see them follow interests together, create play and games of pretend, share ideas and plans, and help each other to notice things.
The walk back to preschool connects us even more to our community. One of the regular tasks that children do on their return walk is to collect rubbish that they see along their walk.
They have special tools and a rubbish bag (re-purposed from an old chicken grain bag). We have created signs for the community about rubbish, and even have council authorisation to create stencils for the kerb and gutter drains, with messages to their community about protecting waterways.
Regular encounters build children’s heart connection with Valla Beach. We know that unless we have a relationship with the land, it is hard to protect it.
Establishing a relationship with the beach has offered an opportunity for being, appreciating, and meaningfully learning about history and culture. It offers opportunities for discovering and wanting to learn more about coastal bush tucker, shore birds, ocean animals, and sustainability issues.
Reference
Sobel David, 2004, Place Based Education, Orion, www.davidsobelauthor.com/place-based-education