OUR HISTORY

Weetangera Playschool began operation on 20 May 1991 under the name of Koala Preschool. The Koala Preschool for 3 - 4 year olds had begun operation a year earlier in the Aranda Preschool building, however Koala Playschool was soon unable to cater for the large number of families on their waiting list. There was insufficient space in the Aranda Preschool building to allocate Koala Playschool for all the sessions required by the community, thus in May 1991, Koala Playschool began operating one session per week at Weetangera Preschool. This soon grew to two mornings per week, at which time the sessions at Weetangera were renamed to differentiate from Koalas. Thus Weetangera Wombats Playschool was formed.

The Koala and Wombats committees continued to work very closely together for many years, including attending each other’s committee meetings. Both committees employed the same teacher who taught two sessions per week at each Preschool site until the year 2000, when it was decided to employ a separate teacher at each venue in 2001.

In October 2007, Wombats Playschool were advised by the Department of Education that the second classroom at Weetangera Pre-School would be required for increased pre-school enrolments caused by the closure of several schools and pre-schools in surrounding suburbs. Weetangera Wombats Playschool was offered the old Page Pre-School for three days a week for two years. Koalas at Aranda were similarly affected and had to split their two programs between Aranda and Page in 2008.

During 2008 and 2009, Wombats Playschool settled into the new premises at Page, with two classes across the three days. The other two days were used by Koalas Playschool. The name of the playschool was changed to Wombats Playschool during 2008 to reflect the move, and to respect that Wombats Playschool was now catering for students across Belconnen and Gungahlin.

In 2010, Koalas Playschool relocated again, meaning that Wombats Playschool now had access to the building five days a week. Due to our strong numbers, Wombats was able to extend their program by offering a third session each week.

We are delighted to currently be running playschool sessions for over 65 families.