The Yellow Cottage Scone Grammar School Preschool

02/09/2026

💙 Happy Early Childhood Educators’ Day! 💙

Today, we celebrate and thank the incredible educators of The Yellow Cottage.

Every day, you bring patience, warmth, creativity and genuine care to your work. You create spaces where children feel safe, known and valued—where they are encouraged to be curious, take risks, find their voices, build friendships and believe they can do hard things.

So much of what you do happens in the small, often unseen moments: the reassuring smile, the carefully chosen words, the hand held during a difficult transition, the experience thoughtfully prepared, the observation noticed and the extra time given to a child who needs it. These moments make an extraordinary difference.

Thank you for the energy, professionalism, humour and heart you bring to our team. Thank you for supporting one another, partnering with our families and making The Yellow Cottage such a joyful and special place for children to learn and flourish.

I feel incredibly grateful and proud to work alongside such a dedicated team. The work you do matters deeply, and today we celebrate each and every one of you.

Happy Educators’ Day to our wonderful Yellow Cottage team! 💙

30/08/2026

🌿 Our Final Bush Kindy Adventure for 2026 🌿

What a spectacular day for our final Bush Kindy adventure! The sun was shining, the children were bursting with excitement and our beautiful bush setting was ready for one last day of climbing, exploring, imagining and discovering together.

This visit was made especially meaningful by the presence of Jacob Ellis from Biliirr Collective, who joined us to share his knowledge, culture and connection to Country.

Jacob welcomed us with a smoking ceremony, explaining how he used leaves gathered from trees growing in the surrounding area. The children were fascinated as they learned about the cleansing and welcoming significance of walking through the smoke.

Jacob remained with us throughout the day, playing alongside the children, making ochre and carefully painting their faces. He also shared Aboriginal dances inspired by Australian animals. We moved like emus, with Kirsty becoming the father emu; bounded like kangaroos while Brooke played the dingo; and learned about plovers, their ground nests and the way they swoop to protect them.

After lunch, the children enjoyed one final play in the bush. Recent rain had created plenty of mud and even a small “waterfall” dripping from one of the rocks—a discovery that caused great excitement!

Bush Kindy is such an important part of our program at The Yellow Cottage. It gives children the freedom to explore, take safe risks, notice the wonder of nature and develop a genuine sense of connection and belonging. We are incredibly grateful to our families for embracing these adventures and to Jacob and Biliirr Collective for making our final Bush Kindy day so culturally rich, joyful and memorable.

There may have been some very muddy bottoms heading home, but they belonged to children who had experienced a truly special day learning, playing and connecting on Country. 🌿☀️🦘

25/08/2026

📚✨ How lucky are we to live in a small town with two incredibly talented local picture-book authors!

We are so fortunate to have Chantel Volker and Jess Carrigan right here in our community. What makes it even more special is their willingness to take time out of their busy days to visit the children at The Yellow Cottage and bring their wonderful books to life.

Chantel Volker visited us with Elizabeth Misek the illustrator to share their brand-new book, Peek-a-Boo, Here Comes Two! 💕 The excitement continued when Jess Carrigan arrived with her celebrity husband, “Tom the Truck Driver”—and, of course, his impressive big truck! 🚛

What an amazing community we live in! These special visits made Book Week even more memorable, giving our children the incredible opportunity to meet local authors, hear their stories and see the characters leap from the pages into real life.

Thank you, Chantel, Elizabeth, Jess and Tom, for generously sharing your time, stories and talents with us. We are so grateful! 💛📖

25/08/2026

Preschool families, this one’s for you! 💛

Join internationally renowned neuroscientist and best-selling author Dr Mark Williams OAM for an inspiring evening exploring why our brains are wired for connection, how strong relationships protect our wellbeing, and practical ways we can build stronger connections with our children and one another.

We don’t often have the opportunity to hear from an internationally renowned expert—completely free and right here on our doorstep in the Upper Hunter. This is an evening not to be missed!

📅 Thursday 10 September 2026
📍 St Joseph’s High School, Aberdeen
⏰ Arrive at 6:15pm for a 6:30pm start

Come along for a fascinating and thought-provoking conversation about the power of connection—an important topic for every parent and caregiver.

🎟️ This event is free, but bookings are essential:
Book your free ticket today⁠

OUR SUPERPOWER IS HUMAN CONNECTION Our ability to socialise and connect has catapulted our species to phenomenal heights of innovation through...

16/08/2026

The Heart of The Yellow Cottage
The Yellow Cottage is filled with the hearts and passions of our educators. Each person brings their own unique strengths, talents, interests and ways of connecting with children—and together, these are what make our Yellow Cottage such a special place.
During Wellbeing Week this week, we are celebrating each educator with a heart that reflects who they are and what they bring to our community. Every heart makes a difference—shaping our culture, strengthening our relationships and adding richness, creativity and possibility to our learning environments.
Every heart is different, yet each one belongs here. Together, they remind us that the true heart of The Yellow Cottage is its people.
Different strengths. Unique passions. One Yellow Cottage heart.
This week we say thank you to our team- you all make a huge difference.

16/08/2026

🎼📚 Book Week is Almost Here at The Yellow Cottage! 📚🎼

We are so excited to celebrate Book Week 2026 with this year’s wonderful theme, “Symphony of Stories.” This celebration reminds us that every story has its own rhythm, every character has a unique voice, and books have the power to bring us all together.

Our much-loved TYC Book Week Parades will be held at preschool on:

📅 Friday 21 August – 2.00pm
📅 Monday 24 August – 2.00pm

We invite all of our children to come dressed as one of their favourite book characters. Whether they’re a classic storybook hero, a magical creature, a curious explorer or a much-loved picture book character, we can’t wait to see everyone’s creativity shine!

💛 Families are warmly invited to join us for either (or both!) of our parades as we celebrate together.

📖 Two Special Author Visits

We are also thrilled to welcome local author Chantel Volker and illustrator Elizabeth Misek to The Yellow Cottage. They will be visiting us during Book Week to share their beautiful new picture book, Peek-a-Boo, Here Comes Two!

Tom the Truck Driver and Jess the author will visit with his Truck on Monday 24 August at 1.30pm- in the TYC Carpark - you are more than welcome to visit if you do not attend TYC on Mondays.

This will be a wonderful opportunity for our children to meet the creative team behind a real book, hear about the writing and illustration process, and develop an even deeper love of stories and reading.
You can preorder books on the attached forms.

At The Yellow Cottage, Book Week is about so much more than dressing up. Throughout the week, we will be exploring stories through music, dramatic play, art, literacy experiences and imaginative adventures, helping children discover that every story has the power to inspire curiosity, creativity and connection.

We can’t wait to celebrate the magic of books with all of our wonderful families! 📚✨🎭🎶

Regards-
The TYC Team

09/08/2026

Bush Kindy Update 🌿

Dear Families,

Unfortunately, due to the predicted weather conditions tomorrow, we have made the decision to cancel our Bush Kindy adventure. The safety and comfort of the children always comes first, and tomorrow’s forecast just isn’t looking suitable for our time in the bush.

We were very excited to have Jacob Ellis from Biliirr Collective joining us at Bush Kindy to share his knowledge and connection to First Nations culture. The wonderful news is that we won’t miss out! Jacob will instead come to The Yellow Cottage, where he will spend time with the children sharing First Nations culture, knowledge and experiences with us.

While we are disappointed not to be heading out to Bush Kindy, we are really looking forward to welcoming Jacob into our Yellow Cottage learning environment and seeing where this special experience takes us.

Thank you for your understanding. 🌿💛

30/07/2026

Our Orange Room children have worked so hard to create a very special piece of artwork for the Scone Neighbourhood Centre Auction. 💛

The artwork is a beautiful representation of all the wonderful little people in our Orange Room, and we are so proud of what they have created together.

As many of you know, the Scone Neighbourhood Resource Centre does an incredible job supporting families and people in need throughout our local community. We’d love to show our appreciation by coming together as an Orange Room community and placing a bid on our children’s artwork at tomorrow’s auction.

Please support their auction night on Saturday night at the Scone RSL.

This is such a lovely opportunity to show our children the importance of kindness, generosity and supporting others in our community. Thank you for helping us make a difference. ❤️

25/07/2026

We are so excited to celebrate one of our amazing TYC Mums, Chantel Volker, as she launches her very first children’s book — Peek-a-Boo, Here Comes Two! 🎉

As Chantel says, “I’ve had a tonne of spare time over the last few years, so naturally I wrote a kids’ book!” (We love that kind of creativity!) 💛

Peek-a-Boo, Here Comes Two is a beautiful story about a big sister waiting for twins to arrive, exploring all the excitement, funny thoughts, little worries and big feelings that come with becoming a sibling. We have a feeling Chantel may have found inspiration very close to home! 😉

At TYC, we love celebrating the creativity, passions and talents of our families, and we are so proud to share this special achievement with our community.

🎉 BOOK LAUNCH 🎉
📅 Saturday 1st August
📍 Scone Tennis Club
⏰ 2:00pm

Join Chantel for a special afternoon celebrating the launch of Peek-a-Boo, Here Comes Two! with:

📖 Storytime
🎨 Activities
✍️ Book Signing

We can’t wait to celebrate this wonderful achievement with Chantel and her family. Congratulations Chantel — we are so excited to see your beautiful story come to life! 💛📚

16/05/2026

🌿 Wellbeing Week at The Yellow Cottage 🌿

This week, our focus shifts gently and intentionally toward what matters most — connection and reflection.

During Wellbeing Week, educators take a pause from adding stories and jottings to Individual Plans. Instead, we create space to be fully present with the children, strengthening relationships and noticing the small, meaningful moments that often matter most.

Over the coming week or so, educators will come together in Tracking Meetings to reflect on and discuss the evidence gathered for each child’s Individual Plan. These conversations help us to thoughtfully evaluate progress, celebrate growth, and plan next steps with care and intention.

At the heart of it all is connection. 💛
We believe strong relationships are the foundation of every child’s learning, wellbeing, and sense of belonging — and this week, we intentionally place those relationships first.

Thank you to our families and community for supporting this important pause for reflection and reconnection.