Selwyn Street can claim to be one of our oldest kindergartens, dating back to 1918. Here are a couple of extracts from our Kindergarten Chronicles about the kindergarten from over the years:

“…we recall children running and skipping and sliding; listening absorbedly to the breathtaking adventures of “Little Black Sambo” or “Argus,” and occasionally sleeping peacefully on their little rest cots. Eager children around our new water-play tub, carpenters, gardeners and painters absorbed in their work; little round legs running and running down paths by the Avon; tumbling children in the long green grass of Hagley Park; and their keen delight in young chicks and railway trains. This is the life of EVERY kindergarten year; yet every year it is new.”

“At Selwyn we also had a lovely goldfish called Mable, like the ‘Bashful Goldfish’ in our story, ‘swam and swam and swam!’ But poor Mabel became sick and died. A kind mother who couldn’t bear to see the empty bowl, has lent us her Floriana, who is only two inches long, but has the fanciest of tails! A bright little miss altogether, who swims less sedately than Mabel, but who appears to enjoy life more.”