Some lessons don’t happen at a desk. At UnitingCare Galston Early Learning Centre, the newest one happened in the garden, with dirt under fingernails and donated buckets swinging from small arms.
The centre recently launched its Bush Program, inviting students from Pymble Ladies’ College to spend a morning working alongside the youngest learners. Together they pulled weeds, tended garden beds, and talked through why looking after the land actually matters — not as an abstract idea, but as something to do with your hands.
The older students brought more than just help. Pymble Ladies’ College had donated gardening gloves and buckets for the occasion, and the children wasted no time putting them to use, hauling them proudly from one garden bed to the next.
What unfolded over the morning was less a lesson plan and more a string of small discoveries. Insects turned up in the soil. So did worms. Each one drew a small crowd, and with it, a burst of questions and theories about the creatures living in the garden. At one point, the talk turned to fairies — whether they existed, and whether the garden might be hiding one out of sight.
It’s exactly the kind of moment the centre hopes to keep creating. Staff see these outdoor sessions as a way to build resilience and creativity in children while fostering a genuine relationship with the natural world around them — one visit, one weed, one worm at a time. More trips to the bush area are already being planned.
Families interested in learning more or arranging a visit can contact the Centre Director, Daniela Palmer, at [email protected] or (02) 9653 1475.
