Kiama Preschool teacher Lindy Verryt is this month celebrating 40 years of teaching generations of our little ones.

She says that one of the reasons she has stayed at this preschool for so long is because of the “lovely staff I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years”.

“People who come to this preschool stay,” says Lindy (known to all as Lindy Lou).

“It’s a not-for-profit community-based school and all the teachers here work for the benefit of the children. In fact, most of the kids here think we teachers actually live at the preschool!”

Two of the current staff members, Shayd Flegg, 25, and Marli Delfino, 17, are former students of Lindy’s, as are many of the parents.

Lindy has seen many changes in the school – when she started the playground was just a vast space with some tiny trees and not much else. Now the trees provide shade for the kids, there are chickens, an award-winning vegetable garden, climbing frames and a wooden boat sailing in a stone river.

“Kiama has really changed over those years, from a country town to the little metropolis that it now is.

“The other major change is that both parents are working so this school is often not the first one the children have been to. So, we don’t have to ply them off their parents at the gate as they suffer from separation anxiety.

“We used to stand at that gate and say, ‘mum and dad will be back soon’ and then we would distract them by saying, ‘look at those horses up on the hill’. Well now the horses are gone and it’s all houses instead!”

Shayd says that what has stayed the same over the years is the community aspect of this school.

“There have been so many changes in the wider aspect of education. We are very up to date with our professional development, reporting and parent interaction here, but the strong sense of community is still the same.”

Marli says that while there were no chickens when she was here as a student, “We are strong on environmental and sustainable learning, looking after and being respectful of the world.”