Connecting with community

Doncaster Park Kindergarten’s Nominated Supervisor and Early Childhood Teacher Renae Giannaros knows all about the importance of community. Renae grew up as part of a very close and culturally proud Greek community in Brisbane, and this informed her work from day one in early learning. Now at Doncaster Park, where a large number of Greek families are joined by a range of other culturally rich communities, Renae has a real focus on strengthening those connections.

“Doncaster is very multicultural. There’s Chinese families, Persian families, Greek, Italian, Korean, Japanese, it’s very diverse.

“I know that families who come from diverse backgrounds really do appreciate when they're being seen and heard within the service and see their culture shining through.

“At the beginning of the year we said to families that whatever cultural celebrations they have, please feel free to share with us and we invite families to come and showcase them to the children.

“We celebrated the mid-autumn festival. Our educators made mooncakes and lanterns with the children because we've got a really big Chinese group at the service and they really felt proud, which was so nice to see. We celebrated Diwali and Orthodox Easter. We dyed the eggs and made koulourakia and we spoke about what these celebrations look like.

Renae’s motivation is to foster the best learning outcomes for children, and citing Brofenbrenner’s theory that an individual’s development is influenced by a series of interconnected environmental systems, ranging from immediate surroundings like family to broad societal structures, she knows how beneficial it is for a strong sense of community to inform the teaching and learning at Doncaster Park.

Miri Yemini tells us that “fostering community connections, in ways that builds on local knowledge, experiences and understanding, assists in developing a curriculum that is relevant to the children and their families.”

And those community connections that Renae seeks are part of ECMS’ place-based approach to learning. Doncaster is a diverse multicultural area, and the characteristics of the place where children learn should be part of that learning:

“At Doncaster Park we incorporate the meanings and the experiences of place in teaching and learning - which extend beyond the walls of the kindergarten.”

Renae’s first step was to use her Greek connections:

“We’ve made it our mission to connect with the local community. One way of doing this has been through a nearby Greek aged care service. Although the children at our service don’t speak Greek, play is universal! We’ve started making connections by sending drawings, paintings and box creations to the residents, along with a letter. This has sparked lots of interest amongst the children, and discussions about community, its people and cultures.

“We're really hoping it just gives the residents a sense of belonging in a new space and we know how important it is when children and older people get together.

In 2025 our goal is to begin in-person visits with the residents and we can’t wait!”

The journey to stronger community connection has only just begun. But Renae is excited by the possibilities:

“I know the positive influence it has on families. I've seen it previously in my career. So I really want to strengthen that at Doncaster Park and help bring the community together.”