At the opening of the newly refurbished Kindergarten Cottage at Kent House MLC School 's special guest, Associate Professor Alma Fleet, from the Centre for Early Childhood education at Macquarie University spoke to the assembled Kindergarten students and their parents about the importance of the learning environment for early Childhood Learning.

"Working with young children is not as straight forward as it would at first seem. Their environment is so very important. Environments are teachers nowadays within themselves. We know they affect behaviour. Here, in this building we see the round windows. They are metaphors for the circle of friends, the circle of life."

The cottage is a real cottage on the site of Kent House, but it has been architecturally converted to provide open plan, naturally lit, teaching and learning spaces. The spaces are brightly coloured with lots of area for display and include

• a bright sunlit visual arts and design area
• quiet reading areas,
• imaginative play areas,
• individual cubby lockers and tote trays
• flexible table arrangements so that the furniture can be configured to suit large and small group sessions or individual work.

"What you will see in MLC School 's Kindergarten Cottage are demonstrations of the type of teaching and learning that values the thinking that children bring to us. This is learning that is about reflecting, and what a splendid building to reflect the current thinking in Early Childhood Education," concluded Professor Fleet.