Parents & Friends

Jill Danne and Michael Gamble have spent the last year helping to transform the Sensory Garden into a light filled, attractive and educational space for the children and teachers. It all started when the school received a land care grant, offering a chance to improve the garden.

They began by planning and mapping out what needed to be done for the upgrade. The job was far from simple; there was a significant amount of work - weeds and dead trees to be removed, new paths and raised veggie beds to be installed, and a variety of plants to be carefully selected and planted, amongst other things.

To assist with bringing their vision to life, Jill enlisted the help of Zoe, the Manager at Bunnings Doncaster. She has been immensely generous with her time - coming in to supervise and help our kids with planting, as well as making donations of plants, soil, gloves and watering cans. Zoe has offered to have four planting sessions with the students this year to help maintain the raised veggie beds. She is truly amazing!

Jill also helped to set up the weekly Gardening Program, which involves the lovely Kim Travis, a Year 4 teacher, and our wonderful parent volunteers coming in for half an hour every Friday lunchtime to oversee our children working in the garden - tidying, weeding, watering, or whatever needs doing. As they say, "many hands make light work”, and we are always needing more helpers. If you'd like to lend a hand, please register your interest here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4dmks3LafSybRD9KJPgtgx4ghQznzW1HxnmBCJWLOZZ0ztg/viewform

No garden experience is necessary, and it’s a great way to give back to the school and help the kids.

Over the last year, there have been countless hours of hard work with the help of volunteers and two working bees. But it has all been worth it, because the Sensory Garden is almost complete!

We could not have reached this milestone without the support of the Milgate community, for which we are extremely grateful- thank you!

Lastly, we’d like to recognise and thank Jill and Michael. You have breathed new life into the Sensory Garden, turning it into a calming retreat and a unique hands-on learning space for our students to thrive. What an amazing job you’ve both done, thank you! 

A great deal of love, hard work, and personal time from our dedicated parents and teachers has gone into creating this beautiful, educational space for all our children. Please encourage your kids to treat the garden with kindness and respect so it can be enjoyed by everyone. All this effort has been for them.