KU Chatswood Community Preschool

9 Victor Street
CHATSWOOD NSW 2067
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  • Monday to Friday 8:00am - 3:30pm
Preschoolers NSW Fee Relief – Preschool

Our Program and Approach

At our centre, 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.

Our play-based program intentionally provides opportunities and activities based upon the Early Years Learning Framework, for your child to discover and pursue their own interests and strengths. We encourage children to laugh, think, question and learn. Their sense of self and confidence grows as they make connections with each other and build warm, trusting relationships with our team.

At KU Chatswood Community Preschool, we are proud of our reputation within the local community of providing rich education and care that concentrates on individual children in a family-focused and supportive way.

Our program offers children the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of learning experiences and activities, including gardening, fine arts and collage, music, movement and drama, physical play, block building and construction, sand and water exploration, science experiments, cooking experiences, cultural celebrations, early numeracy activities such as counting and measurement, and early literacy activities such as stories, drawing and writing. These are specifically designed to incorporate choice for children and promote confidence so they see themselves as capable and active participants in their own learning.

Our high quality programs are based on current research and are planned intentionally and spontaneously in our indoor and outdoor learning environments.

We greatly value the strong relationships between our staff, children and families, and we look forward to the opportunity of including your family in the life of our Centre.


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 special interest.

At KU Chatswood Community Preschool, our special interest is literacy learning.

We encourage literacy learning in many ways and incorporate a range of modes of communication including music, movement, dance, storytelling, visual arts, technology and dramatic play. Also included are conversations, listening, reading stories and writing in small learning groups. We also incorporate technology into the environment as a learning tool.

We strive to develop children’s literacy and feel that children benefit from this special interest, because it is key to educational learning, as it encompasses the foundations for reading, writing, spelling, maths, science and communication.


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...

"KU Chatswood Community Preschool is a welcoming and well equipped facility with both indoor and outdoor spaces. The educators and staff deliver an enriching and enjoyable learning environment for children of all backgrounds and abilities. I'm pleased to have had all three of my children attend." – KU Chatswood Community Preschool parent

“My family have been fortunate to have spent almost three years at KU Chatswood Community Preschool. My daughter is 10 years old now and she still keeps in touch with a lot of friends she made at the preschool. I believe a strong partnership between parents and preschool is important to our children’s development. At KU Chatswood Community Preschool, all the educators look at each child as an individual, with their own strengths and needs, especially the director, Kathy, who spent lots of time developing a plan for my son and helped me with any issues that came about. My son has learnt many exciting skills to help in his future life, through their play based program and small group work. Our overall experience at KU Chatswood has been a pleasant experience! Thank you so much KU Chatswood Community Preschool!” – KU Chatswood Community Preschool 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.

KU Chatswood Community Preschool is a purpose built Preschool catering for 40 children located in Chatswood, on Sydney’s North Shore. We are situated in close proximity to Chatswood CBD and Chatswood train station.

Our playground is designed to allow children to explore nature, experience sustainable practices and discover the natural environment. We want children to be able to play in our mud kitchen, climb ladders on trees, grow produce, recycle, 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 learn, create, imagine and play.


Our Awards

In 2018, Kathy Hatcher, Director at KU Chatswood Community Preschool, was among 12 teachers across Australia who received the prestigious ASG National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEiTA), recognising her inspiring and innovative contribution to teaching.

The team was also recognised as a finalist at the 2018 HESTA Early Childhood Education and Care Awards in the ‘Building Inclusion’ category.

In 2019, KU Chatswood Community Preschool won a SPROuts Award given by the NSW Early Childhood Environmental Education Network, recognising the preschool's commitment to learning for sustainability. The preschool followed this win with 3rd place in 2020 and 2nd place in 2021.

Making the KU Difference Awards

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.

  • In 2012, Kathy Hatcher, Director at KU Chatswood Community Preschool, was awarded the Making the KU Difference Award for Staff.
  • In 2015, the KU Chatswood Community Preschool Team was awarded the perpetual KU Marcia Burgess Award for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to fostering inclusion and enriching the lives of vulnerable children and their families.
  • In 2017, Kate O’Brien from KU Chatswood Community Preschool was awarded the Making the KU Difference Award through Reconciliation.
  • In 2018, the KU Chatswood Community Preschool Team was awarded the Making the KU Difference Award through Innovation.

Our Reconciliation Action Plan

KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU Chatswood Community Preschool, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2017 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.


Other Features

Designed Centre
Hat and Sunscreen
Transition to School
Public Transport
Play-based Learning
Outdoor Play
Storypark
Award
Education for Sustainability

photo of Kathy Hatcher

Kathy Hatcher

Director

Kathy is a university qualified Early Childhood Teacher with over 23 years’ experience working with children and their families. She has been working at KU Chatswood Community Preschool since January 2001 and is passionate about making everyone feel welcome, creating a community hub and valuing and supporting our diverse clientele.

Kathy is married with three children and balances family and work successfully, due to the support of her educator team. The educators work collaboratively to provide a sound early education and care program and help enhance children’s developmental foundations for learning through play.

In 2018 Kathy was among 12 teachers across Australia who received the prestigious ASG National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEiTA), recognising her inspiring and innovative contribution to teaching.

Our Team

Our team of Early Childhood Educators are qualified, experienced, caring and highly motivated. All hold specialist qualifications in Early Childhood education. We believe that the positive interactions children have with our staff are the most important component of our high quality program.

The daily fees for 2024 at KU Chatswood Community Preschool are:

Fee Amount
4 year old Start Strong Fee Relief fee $8.00
3 year old Start Strong Fee Relief fee $30.50
Start Strong Equity Fee Relief fee FREE
Unfunded fee $98.00

Which fee will you pay?

The NSW Government is committed to ensuring that all children in NSW can participate in 600 hours of quality preschool education in the year before school, no matter where they live or what their circumstances are.

To ensure that affordability is not a barrier for families with young children, the NSW Government provides Start Strong funding making 600 hours, or 15 hours per week, of preschool participation in the two years before school more affordable. In KU preschools, this 15 hours per week is met by enrolling for two days per week.

Start Strong Free Preschool (3 year olds and 4 year olds)

From 2024, the NSW government has provided additional fee relief funding, based on $4,220 per eligible child. This enables NSW preschools to reduce the daily fee as much as possible, within the Start Strong funding parameters.

This funding is for children who turn 3 or 4 years of age by 31 July in the preschool year and are enrolled in a preschool program for 15 hours per week. Across KU Preschools, the ‘15 hours’ is usually met by enrolling in two x 7.5 hour days per week.

Start Strong fee relief can only be accessed at one service, either a preschool or long day care service. This ensures as many children as possible can access affordable early childhood education.

Start Strong Equity Fee Relief Fee

The NSW government provides further funding for children who meet the Start Strong Equity funding criteria. If you think you may be eligible for Equity funding, please speak with the Preschool Director further about this.

Unfunded Fee

The Unfunded Fee is charged when a family has chosen to access the Start Strong fee relief at another community preschool or long day care service.