Castlecrag

Catherine Pilko Kindergarten Teacher and Senior Teacher at Castlecrag

Class 2 parents enjoying Spring Festival preparations Wet Felting Parent Craft workshop with talented felter Yuki Tomashima. (See her work on Instagram @yuki_australia)

Community building at Castlecrag

At the end of Term 3, as we welcomed the Spring here at our Castlecrag campus, it felt that we were not only able to celebrate the life forces and regeneration of nature but we were also able to celebrate the life forces and regeneration of our community after a long period of restraint and uncertainty following COVID restrictions.

On the last day of term, the day of the Spring Festival, Castlecrag parents arrived early to help with preparations and garland making. While Classes 1 and 2 along with a number of enthusiastic parents excitedly prepared to join the rest of the school at Middle Cove for a wonderful whole school festival celebration, the Kindergarten children and parents prepared for their festival to be held at Castlecrag.

At this festival the Kindergarten children joyfully shared their Spring circle for the parents. This was followed by a beautiful community picnic where the children had made delicious rainbow fruit sticks and lemonade to share with parents.

Festivals, along with the sharing of class circles and plays, always provide a wonderful opportunity for our parents and children to come together to, not only share the fruits of the children’s work, but to also share the life-affirming and positive experience of being part of our school community.

Building community through parents working together to support the education of children has always been an important part of life here at Castlecrag. Each class has committed Class Parent representatives who help weave the social fabric of the parent community. They also liaise with the teacher who will suggest ways in which the parents can volunteer their time to support the class. In addition to helping prepare for festivals and plays, the parents may support a variety of other class activities such as bushwalking, gardening, seasonal crafts and reading.

Apart from directly helping in the activities of particular classes, there are a number of other important community building activities that happen each week at Castlecrag.

Each Wednesday a dedicated Parent Craft group meets in the Hall Kitchen. This group of parents create beautiful hand-made crafts to sell at the school fair. The children love to use their tokens to purchase some of these items in the Children’s Grotto, while other more elaborate handcrafted items can be purchased at the parent craft stall.

Each Thursday morning a group of parents come together in the Hall Kitchen to share in ‘Kitchen Conversations’ over a cup of herb tea from the Castlecrag gardens. Catherine Pilko facilitates these conversations which are focussed around selected topics that support parenting and family life.

Regular parent teacher nights and parent education sessions provide further opportunities for parents to come together with other parents from their child’s class or from the wider Castlecrag community.

Another vitally important community building activity that happens each weekday morning at Castlecrag are our Playgroups hosted by our experienced playgroup leaders and educators. These provide a wonderful opportunity to bring together a fledgling community of parents and children many of whom will join our Kindergartens in the years ahead.

We welcome a wonderful variety of parents to our Castlecrag campus each week. Nurturing and supporting the many layers of our community is an important part of our daily life here at Castlecrag. 

Below. Families connect at the Kindergarten Spring Festival Bottom. Parent Ed session on Understanding Children’s Drawings with Catherine Pilko