Alumni Profile

What are some of the highlights and memories from your KU Experience as a parent?

I loved that KU gave the children the opportunity to learn about Australia’s Indigenous people, their culture and language. I thought this was a great initiative and wished it was something I could have been exposed to as a child.

The service where Darby attended engaged with a local Indigenous learning service, so I think they had people from there to come in and talk about history and culture. That was wonderful.

Darby would come home and he would tell us things like the names of fruit, he understood what a corroboree was, he knew the Aboriginal Flag and what it stood for.

Learning about Aboriginal culture at such a young age means he’s going to grow up and it’s going to be part of his life.

For myself, the experience growing up was different. If we were lucky, we might have gone to a school that acknowledged Aboriginal people. But most of it was negative.

The fact that KU is teaching children the history and culture of Aboriginal people when they are so young is brilliant. I am in awe that KU is doing this. My husband and I think it’s amazing.

Darby now goes to a school that acknowledges and embraces Indigenous Australian culture.

Darby’s early learning experience means that he understands and knows that Aboriginal people are Australia’s First Nation’s people. That is brilliant.

I also loved the Christmas parties held at the service. The staff always made it so special for the children and families. I looked forward to it each year.

I still use one of the Mother’s Day presents (a bookmark) that was made when my son was only a couple of years old. It is so special that I’ve re-laminated it, so I can continue to use it!

The staff at KU Union were absolutely lovely. I knew my son was in the best hands.

Is there something that your child talks about as a memory from his time at KU?

In the first little while after Darby left KU, I recall he would occasionally say, “we could go to KU” or, ‘we did that at KU’. A few years have passed, and this is less frequent.

Are you still in contact with other past KU children or past KU parents?

Yes, we are still in contact with the close friends we made at KU and the children love catching up.

There’s one child at Darby’s school, who was a couple of years’ younger than him at KU. He remembered Darby from KU and was very proud to say “I’m going to Darby’s school” when he started kindergarten.

KU is celebrating 125 years of quality early childhood education and making a social impact in 2021. What are some of the ways that you saw the KU Difference through our educational program and social impact initiatives?

For me, it is the way KU embraces multi-cultural awareness. Whether that was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture, Japanese, Korean, or other cultures, the children learnt about them.

The educators were so open to share their cultures and backgrounds and learn about the children’s cultures as well.

KU really embraces the multiculturalism and diversity that Australia wants to be.