INDIVIDUALITY, LEARNING, FUN
SURREY HILLS PRE-SCHOOL CENTRE
INDIVIDUALITY, LEARNING, FUN
NEWS
SHPSC Open Day 2025
Are you considering sending your child to Surrey Hills Pre-school Centre?
We invite you to come and explore our pre-school at this year's Open Day.
📅 Date: Saturday May 17th, 2025
⏰ Time: 10am -12pm
📍 Location: Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre
Find out what you can expect on Open Day here.
SHPSC Easter Disco 2025
All current SHPSC families are invited to come and celebrate Easter and the end of term 1! More information to come.
📅 Date: Thursday April 3rd, 2025
⏰ Time: 5- 6:30pm
📍 Location: South Surrey Park/ Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre
Upcoming AGM & Parent Information Night
We are excited to invite you to our 2025 Parent Information Night and Annual General Meeting (AGM).
📅 Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2024
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre
This meeting is an important opportunity for our community to come together, share information, and participate in shaping our kindergarten’s future.
The AGM will be preceded by a parent information session for our 3-year-old and 4-year-old groups, providing valuable insights from our teachers.
As a community-run organisation, in accordance with our regulations, Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre is governed by its members - each family who have a child enrolled for 2025.
While attendance to the AGM and Parent Info Session is not mandatory, we encourage at least one parent from each family to participate, as this helps ensure the smooth running of our kindergarten and supports the community spirit that makes us special.
Read more about this event here.
Working Bees in 2024 - Thank you to all volunteers
This weekend saw another working bee take place at our kinder.
The small group of volunteers managed to fill a skip bin and spread a huge pile of mulch to enhance the playground by making it more safe for our children.
Thank you to all families that volunteered their time to help keep our outdoor kinder space a safe and beautiful place to be throughout 2024.
Online Information Night - Prospective Families for 2025
We recently held an Information night for all families considering enrolment at our Pre-School for 2025 and would like to thank all those who attended.
Did you miss the information Night?
If you would like to find out from our teachers about readiness for kinder and how best to prepare your child, you can watch a recording of the night here:
Kinder Readiness Info Night - Surrey Hills Preschool
Feel free to share the link with interested friends and family.
SURREY HILLS PRE-SCHOOL EXCEEDS THE NATIONAL STANDARD
We are thrilled to announce that Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre has been rated as Exceeding the National Quality Standards in all 7 Quality Areas under the National Quality Framework.
The National Quality Standard (NQS) sets a national benchmark for the quality of children’s education and care services across Australia. Services are then assessed against the NQS by the State or Territory regulatory authority and receive a rating for each of the seven quality areas of the NQS, as well as an overall rating.
An overall rating of Exceeding NQS is given to services that go above and beyond the requirements of the NQS in at least four of the seven quality areas. We achieved this in all 7 areas. Read more here.
Facilities and gardens
Facilities and gardens
The word “kindergarten” means “Children’s garden”. At Surrey Hills Pre-school Centre (SHPC) we have a Children’s garden to be proud of. Our indoor space takes full advantage with expansive windows views of this natural environment.
The children enjoy a wide variety of play spaces, lots of natural shade, new climbing equipment and a large wooden boat for lots of imaginative play. The children are always busy in the sandpit, digging patch or on the bike track.
SHPC is nestled amongst South Surrey Park, with trees surrounding and a creek meandering close by. We often have Kookaburras laughing while we play and ducks visiting our playground.
Programs
Facilities and gardens
The program is planned around the individual needs of each child and the group as a whole. All children are encouraged to develop to their full potential.
The program provides open ended individual and group activities that encourage the children’s physical, social, intellectual, language and emotional development.
- 3/4 year old Preschool
- 4/5 year old Kindergarten
- Music Program
- Bush Kinder
- Art
- Wellbeing
- Indigenous Perspectives
- Sustainability
- After Hours Care Program (4/5 y.o groups only)
Enrolment
Enrolment
Kindergarten enrolments are managed by the Central Registration Scheme.
Registrations for kinder can be completed via www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/kindergarten
For more information on tours, enrolment, timetables & fees, click here.
our educators
SUE GOOLD
FIONA CLEMENS
FIONA CLEMENS
Early Childhood Teacher
4/5 year old Program – Blue Group
Sue is firstly one of the teachers of the four year old blue group, as well as the nominated supervisor and educational leader at Surrey Hills Preschool.
Sue began her career in early childhood in 1990 after completing a bachelor of early childhood education at Melbourne University. Sue has worked in many different centre’s around Melbourne and country Victoria and has enjoyed every step of the way.
Sue first joined Surrey Hills Preschool in 2019 for a six month position, and returned in 2022.
Sue has taught both three and four year old groups over the years and is extremely passionate about Early education and making a difference in both children and families lives.
It is really important to Sue to ensure that families and children feel safe and secure at preschool, and she prides herself on having a great rapport with families working individually with them throughout the year.
Sue is also the mum to four amazing children and understands the challenges of parenting and education as well as what comes with children with additional needs from both a teacher and parent perspective.
You can see from Sue's picture that she's not afraid of anything!!
FIONA CLEMENS
FIONA CLEMENS
FIONA CLEMENS
Early Childhood Teacher
4/5 year old Program- Red Group
Fiona joined Surrey Hills Preschool in 2023. Fiona has taught Secondary Maths and Science and has completed a Bachelor of Science/Education and a Master of Education exploring enquiry based learning. While raising her own 4 children she realised her passion was in early years education so she returned to study a Grad Dip in Early Childhood Education. Fiona fell in love with the centre while her youngest son was attending in 2021-2022. She feels honoured to play a part in the children’s early years education.
BIANCA SOUTH
FIONA CLEMENS
CAITLIN GOOLD
Early Childhood Teacher
3/4 year old Program - Yellow Group
Bianca South is the teacher for the 3-year-old Yellow Group. Born into a family full of teachers, Bianca has been teaching most of her life in lots of different roles but relatively recently in a Kindergarten setting, and only very recently at Surrey Hills Preschool.
Having completed a Masters of Teaching (Early Childhood and Primary), Bianca embarked on a career change from the Corporate world (IT and business consulting) to working with younger, smaller and more interesting (!) people and is loving every minute of it.
Bianca's passion for developing others extends to her teaching and she relishes the chance to be an important part of ‘my’ children’s lives and helping them explore, grow and develop. Bianca enjoys forming warm and positive relationships with the children and their families and is constantly amazed by their wonder, creativity, resilience and imagination. Bianca focus' on placing the children’s strengths, challenges, interests and needs at the centre of planning and through inquiry learning seeing where the amazing learning journeys take us.
Bianca is a Mum to 3 older children, 2 crazy cats and 2 horses, has had lifelong involvement in the sport of gymnastics and loves to travel and explore whenever she gets the chance.
CAITLIN GOOLD
KIRRALEA LYNEHAM
CAITLIN GOOLD
Early Childhood Co-educator
4/5 year old Program- Red Group
In 2023, Caitlin began working at SHPC with Green Group as an additional support educator and found her passion for working with children.
Caitlin is currently studying certificate III in early childhood education and care as a traineeship and is very excited to start her career in early childhood education at Surrey Hills Preschool with the wonderful team and community that have embraced her as she learns new skills every day.
As the eldest of four children , Caitlin has always had a very nurturing personality, something that she fully embraces when working with children and building that trust and connection with them. An animal lover who has many pets (including some strange ones over the years) including three cats and a dog, but has also owned birds, rabbits, Guinea pigs, a scorpion, many stick insects and a tarantula so no animal is too weird for Caitlin! Caitlin knows a lot of random facts about animals which she loves to tell the children. Avery creative person who lovse spending time doing arts and crafts especially with the children & sharing and comparing our creations. Caitlin is proud to be a member of the Surrey Hills Preschool team and looks forward to making your children’s preschool years a wonderful experience.
HAZEL VU
KIRRALEA LYNEHAM
KIRRALEA LYNEHAM
Early Childhood Co-educator
3/4 year old Program - Yellow Group
Hazel joined Surrey Hills Preschool as a co-educator in Yellow Group at the start of 2024. She has over 18 years’ experience working with children in kinder and occasional care settings.
Hazel originally came from Shanghai, China. She loves sharing her culture with children and strongly believes that cultural diversity helps in the learning process. She is a dedicated co-educator with a passion for creating a safe, nurturing and inclusive learning environment at kinder.
Hazel also believes that children learn through creative play and that learning should be fun. She feels privileged to be an early childhood educator to prepare children for a lifetime of learning both in school and beyond.
KIRRALEA LYNEHAM
KIRRALEA LYNEHAM
KIRRALEA LYNEHAM
Early Childhood Teacher
3/4 year-old Program - Green Group
Kirralea joined Surrey Hills Preschool in 2023 as the Green group 3yr old Kinder teacher. With a Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood, Kirralea brings 30 years’ experience teaching in various early childhood settings and has also enjoyed over the last decade teaching & delivering training in adult learning environments to help inspire, shape and mentor the next generation of early childhood educators.
Kirralea is inspired by children, their curiosity and creativity. Her philosophy is guided by a strengths based & holistic approach to build children’s confidence with the curriculum led by the children’s voices and interests. She is a strong advocate for children’s rights and places great value and interest in children’s social and emotional wellbeing to ensure they feel safe & secure and most importantly, a sense of belonging to maximize opportunities for them to reach their full potential. Kirralea believes the family is the expert of their child and embraces a collaborative partnership with families to ensure positive outcomes for their child.
Kirralea is a mum of 3 children (who have all left the nest) but is kept busy with her two dogs Toto & Gibbs. Kirralea is a sports enthusiast, loves travelling and is always up for some karaoke fun!
MILLA FIXTER
SHERMALI PERERA
SHERMALI PERERA
Early Childhood Co-Educator3/4 year-old Program - Green Group
Milla is an early childhood educator currently working at Surrey Hills Preschool. Originally from Leongatha, a small town in regional Victoria, Milla moved to Melbourne to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood and Primary Education. She is currently halfway through her studies, with two years remaining.Milla discovered her passion for working with children at a young age, having spent her teenage years coaching basketball in her hometown. This experience sparked her interest in education and led her to start her degree. After completing her placement at Surrey Hills Preschool in 2024, Milla has been inspired by the preschool's engaging programs and the welcoming community it fosters.When she’s not at work, Milla enjoys being social and spending quality time with her friends. Whether it's catching up over coffee, going on weekend adventures, or simply enjoying each other's company, Milla values the connections and fun moments she shares with those closest to her. She’s excited to continue developing her skills as an educator and is particularly passionate about creating learning environments that promote both individual growth and a strong sense of community.
SHERMALI PERERA
SHERMALI PERERA
SHERMALI PERERA
Early Childhood Co-Educator 4/5 year-old Program - Blue Group
Shermali joined Surrey Hills Preschool as a co-educator at the start of 2025 and couldn’t be more excited to begin this new chapter! She completed a Bachelor of Early Years and Primary Education in 2019, and was eager to jump into the field. She is an enthusiastic educator who has experience working with children ranging from toddlers to primary-school age. She has provided her skills in a variety of fun and dynamic environments, from before and after school care to long day cares and sessional kindergartens. She is dedicated to fostering connections and being part of a team that creates a supportive and joyful learning environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF country
Our kindergarten sits on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people and we wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners. We would also like to pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging.
We celebrate diversity and inclusivity
Commitment to diversity and inclusivity
Commitment to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children
Commitment to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children
We celebrate diversity and value the lived experience of people of every ethnicity, faith, age, disability, culture, language, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation. We welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse and non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people at our services. We pledge to provide inclusive and non-discriminatory services.
Commitment to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children
Commitment to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children
Commitment to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children
Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre is committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children.
We are committed to:
- actively supporting and facilitating participation and inclusion of Aboriginal children, young people and their families within our service
- the safety, participation and empowerment of Aboriginal children
- providing an educatio
Surrey Hills Pre-School Centre is committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children.
We are committed to:
- actively supporting and facilitating participation and inclusion of Aboriginal children, young people and their families within our service
- the safety, participation and empowerment of Aboriginal children
- providing an educational program that strengthens Aboriginal children’s culture and identity
- actively supporting and encouraging Aboriginal children to express their culture and enjoy their cultural rights
- supporting Aboriginal children and their families to identify as Aboriginal without fear of retribution or questioning
- supporting Aboriginal children to maintain connection to their kinship ties, land and country
- supporting Aboriginal children to be taught their cultural heritage by Elders
- facilitating regular training and education on Aboriginal cultural and cultural safety
- establishing policies, procedures, systems and processes to create a culturally safe and inclusive environment and meet the needs of Aboriginal children, young people and their families.