In the beginning of Term 3 2019 we opened our new nature playground. This has been a much anticipated and planned progression into nature play, providing us with opportunities to further embrace nature with all of its many curiosities. This new Wild, the Urban Forest, will deepen our understanding of nature based early years programming and provide our children with a place to continue to learn through their experience of it. 

We hope that the Urban Forest will further our children's connection to Wurundjeri country through play. It will provide children with further physical challenges and a sense of freedom to explore and create their own worlds, find a sense of privacy, a taste of life that is their own. Together we will guardians of the new species that arrive as we give life back to this small corner of our city using the seven Wurundjeri seasons to guide our journey. 

We would like to thank the Bendigo Community Bank in Clifton Hill on behalf of our community for their financial support with the water tanks and irrigation works. We could not have completed these works without their assistance and we are very grateful to them.

You can read the ABC News article that was written about our space here.

Our front entrance has just undergone a significant transformation.  Thanks to our very talented landscaper Scott and money from City of Yarra we had the opportunity to create another wild, native space for the kindergarten. 

This is a project to further communicate our vision about nature and community.  We are creating a space that families can use to meet, catch up and  connect, spaces such as these are extremely important in a long day program as it is difficult to sometimes make connections as we come and go at such different times.

​Wominjeka – Welcome
A long time ago, the first people to live on and care for this land were the Wurundjeri people. They are the Traditional Owners and custodians of the land on which Isabel Henderson Kindergarten is built. Together we are on a journey to learn and to share their knowledge about caring for country; protecting and replenishing this land. By connecting children to the Wurundjeri people, their teachings and stories, we hope that they too will care for the land, and waterways - taking only what they need, and cherishing it for others to share. We also pay our respects to the Wurundjeri Elders past, present and future, acknowledging the vital role they play in connection to country and culture.

The big news is that this year IHK has committed to being carbon neutral by 2018. To make a bold step towards this target, fundraising efforts will support our “little sunshine project” so that we can install a 5kW solar panel system by late 2014. We’ve completed the research and consultation phase of the project and plan to purchase a European inverter, quality panels and an Australian made racking and railing system (full technical details are available to any interested parents).

The main fundraising method we are going to use for this project is crowd funding. This is where you raise money via contributions (typically internet based) from a large number of people, using a wide net of community connections. We will launch our campaign on Pozible, setting a target of $7000 to pay for our solar panel system. Pozible is an Australian company based close-by in Collingwood that provides an internet platform for crowd sourcing campaigns. The way Pozible works is if we don’t achieve our target no money changes hands. However, if we exceed our target we get the additional funds to further develop the project.

We plan to invest any funds raised over our $7000 target into (1) obtaining professional input to integrate the project into our broader sustainability programs and kindergarten teaching and (2) purchasing more panels to further offset our carbon footprint.

Being not for profit, all money we save from our energy bills each year will be used directly in the kindergarten programs into the future.