KU West Pymble Preschool

30 Lofberg Road
WEST PYMBLE NSW 2073
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  • Monday to Friday 8:00am - 3:30pm
Preschoolers NSW Fee Relief – Preschool

Our Program and Approach

At KU West Pymble, 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.

We provide high quality early education to our local community. Nestled in a peaceful, natural bush setting, we provide a warm and welcoming space where children, families and educators feel a sense of belonging. Children are supported to engage in play to learn and to build trusting relationships, individual interests and diverse ways of living and being. Personal learning styles are valued and respected.

Our preschool supports and implements the Early Years Learning Framework – the national framework for all early childhood services in Australia. The framework places particular emphasis on play-based learning and recognises the importance of communication and language (including early literacy and numeracy) and social and emotional development.

KU West Pymble Preschool strives to provide a high quality early education service to our local community. The curriculum at our preschool is designed to promote the development of life skills and competencies for each child and encompasses various routines, interactions and experiences rich in learning potential.

We aim to create learning environments which invite curiosity and exploration. Through a combination of indoor and outdoor experiences, we encourage children to interact positively with each other and with the natural world around them.

KU West Pymble has a strong focus on sustainability and won the 2023 Better Business Partnership Sustainable Business Award for the Childcare and Early Learning Category.

We place a high value on the partnerships that we build with families and are honoured that families have, and continue to, entrust us with the education and care of their children over many years.


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 interest.

At KU West Pymble we have a special interest in wildlife protection and interaction. We also encourage children to reduce our carbon footprint through incorporating sustainable practices throughout the service.

We incorporate this into our program through activities such as establishing a wildlife habitat within the preschool environment and having sustained wildlife visitations within the service. Children, families and staff are encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle, for example to sort rubbish from their lunchboxes into feed for the chickens, worms in our worm farm, compost bin, preschool collage or landfill.

We feel that the children benefit from this interest because they engage in practising sustainable habits and are learning to become socially responsible and show respect for all living things in our natural environment. We have two pet chickens at our Preschool, and the children are involved in changing the water and feeding the chickens with the scraps from their lunch boxes. When the chickens lay eggs, the children take turns bringing an egg home. The children also enjoy the sight of the chickens roaming freely around our Preschool and will often walk up to pat the chicken or even give them a cuddle.


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...

“The warmth, guidance and care shown to our child has been wonderful. We are so much more a part of our local community.” - KU West Pymble Parent

“Our son is saving his own pocket money to donate to the school chooks’ and stick insects’ care. He has such strong roots in his local natural and built environment, thanks to KU West Pymble.” – KU West Pymble 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.

Our playground is designed to allow children to explore nature and discover the natural environment. We want children to be able to dig in the mud, climb trees, 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 create, imagine and play.


Our Awards

KU West Pymble lives and breathes sustainability and consistently promotes it to families and the local community. To acknowledge their exceptional work in this space, the preschool was a finalist at the prestigious 2021 HESTA Early Childhood Education and Care Awards in the ‘Advancing Pedagogy and Practice’ category. The preschool was recognised for embedding sustainability into their pedagogy and practice, contributing to their vision for a better, healthier world.

The preschool was also a finalist in the Better Business Partnership Awards in 2021.

In 2019 KU West Pymble was awarded one of the four SPROuts Awards given by the NSW Early Childhood Environmental Education Network, recognising the preschool's commitment to learning for sustainability. The preschool participated in ‘Becoming Eco Smart’ with KU, developing unique projects and undertaking adventures, including visiting local bushland, reducing waste and and noticing the environment’s need for care.

The preschool also received the 'Making the KU Difference through Sustainability' Award in 2019.

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.


Our Reconciliation Action Plan

KU was proud to launch its inaugural Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2016. At KU West Pymble, we began our journey to develop our centre’s RAP in 2018 and we are proud to launch it now. Please view it here.


Other Features

Hat and Sunscreen
Transition to School
Play-based Learning
Parking
Outdoor Play
Award
Storypark
Education for Sustainability
University Qualified Educators
Experienced Staff

photo of Katrina Hendry

Katrina Hendry

Director

Katrina is a university qualified early childhood teacher with over 30 years’ experience working with children.

Katrina’s passion for early years’ education has led her to seek out varied and rewarding roles in working with children. These include teacher training and Early Years Government policy development for the Ministry of Education in West Africa; teaching in International schools in Madrid, Spain; an advisory role at North Sydney Council for children’s services; and considerable years as a Director and teacher in early childhood education and care services.

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 West Pymble Preschool are:

Fee Amount
4 year old Start Strong Fee Relief fee $9.00
3 year old Start Strong Fee Relief fee $36.00
Start Strong Equity Fee Relief fee FREE
Unfunded fee $101.50

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 Fee Relief Fee (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.